According to a new study Cockroaches were found to have a bite that contains force 50 times stronger than their own body weight.
Relative to a humans bite a cockroach can potentially bite five times stronger than the force of a human jaw. Cockroaches will only activate their extra muscular strength when chewing through tough materials that require repetitive forceful biting; like with wood.
Instead of having a mouth full of teeth to grind food or catch prey, cockroaches have a pair of horizontally aligned blade like jaws. Besides being used to shred food, cockroaches use their strong jaws to dig, transport, defend, and feed their offspring.
As previously mentioned cockroaches will only activate extra jaw strength when biting through hard material for a sustained period of time, this is because cockroaches use extra muscle fibers that requires time to reach maximum force.
The study itself included 300 bites made by specimen cockroaches exhibiting a wide array of jaw opening angles.
The lead author of the study, and Cambridge University Zoology professor, Tom Weihmann had the following to state regarding the cockroach jaw strength study; “extraordinarily ordinary insects with regard to their mouthparts and biting abilities.”
If you have cockroaches nipping at your heels at your home or business make sure to contact a pest control expert. If located in Southern California contact the commercial and general pest control experts at Innovative Pest Solutions!