A CONTRACEPTIVE pill for cockroaches that also kills the insects within days could soon go on sale in the US. Developed by Heather Wren and her colleagues at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, the "pill" is a mixture of xanthinea chemical found in coffee and potatoesand oxypurinol, an active compound in gout treatments.
When the insects consume the chemicals, they can no longer store nitrogen. Females then cannot make the egg cases in which their young develop. And insects of both sexes die within days without nitrogen.
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.