La Cucaracha

my apartment is on the first floor of the building ... consequently i have to deal with the occasional roach from time to time ... don't get me wrong it's not like my apartment is infested ... but every now and then i'll find one ... and more often than not he's already dead ... now why is it that whenever you find a dead roach he is always on his back ... always ... why is that ... every single dead roach i've ever seen is always lying on his back ... is there a scientific reason ... or just a coincidence ... well i couldn't rest until i knew the answer so i turned to google ... and here it is ...

actually it turns out there are a number of possible reasons why this might happen ...

1) Cockroaches are not used to living on a polished marble or vinyl floor. They are more used to a ruguous living plane including leaves and sticks and other vegetable debris. Thus when a cockroach finds itself on its back (by some mistake in its orienteering) it may have trouble righting itself if there is not debris around to grab hold of with its legs.

2) Often we come across dead cockroaches in buildings that have died of insecticide. Most of these insecticides are organophosphate nerve poisons. The nerve poison often inhibits cholinesterase, an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine (ACh), a neurotransmitter. With extra ACh in the nervous system, the cockroach has muscular spasms which often result in the cockroach flipping on its back. Without muscular coordination the cockroach cannot right itself and eventually dies in its upside down-position.

3) Probably because after they die the muscles in their legs contract due to rigor mortis, pulling their legs towards the body and flipping them onto their backs.

there were also a couple of funny answers ... thought i'd share some of those too ...

1) So they can say goodbye to that great fireball in the sky.

2) You have never seen one die? When he is dead, all the other cockroaches go to the cockroach circus tent and buy a bunch of helium filled baloons! They sing and dance and have a ceremony to help the dead roach enter the next phase of its journey! They then tie the baloons to the cockroaches legs hoping the balloons will carry him off to the great beyond! The ones that you see lying on their backs come from poor cockroach families that couldnt afford enough balloons and managed only to flip the dead cockroach over! They are then embarrased so they untie the baloons and hide them!

now click here to listen to la cucaracha ...