Sugar traps force cockroaches to adapt new sex 'gifts'

PARIS: Humans using sugar in cockroach traps has inadvertently led to female roaches being turned off by the sugary "gifts" males use to entice them into mating.

But don't celebrate the demise of cockroaches just yet – some males have adapted new ways to continue wooing females, including by shortening the length of foreplay, a study said on Wednesday.

The small but stubborn German cockroach is the most common species of the insect, lurking in kitchens and bathrooms across the world.

Glucose, a form of sugar, has long been used to bait these cockroaches into deadly traps.