Lara Beatty of Calgary, Canada writes: A friend and I were discussing cockroaches the other day, and she claims that a cockroach can live for about 6 years without its head. Is this a true fact?
Lara, Not true, but your friend is correct that a cockroach could live a long time, perhaps a month, without its head. The only reason we need our head for basic survival is: (1) We breath through our mouth or nose and the breathing rhythm is controlled in our brain. Cutting off our head would interphere with breathing although that could be maintained with a respirator. (2) Cutting off our head could lead to blood loss and a drop in blood pressure which would result in death due to lack of blood transport of oxygen and nutrition to our tissues. (3) Cutting off our head would prevent us from eating and we would die of starvation pretty quickly. All of these reasons for dying are not present in cockroaches and many insects in general: (1) Cockroaches breath through spiracles which are in each body segment and the blood does not carry oxygen to the tissues. The spiracles deliver air to each cell of the body through a set of tubes called tracheae. The brain does not control the breathing
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