Does anyone here feel offended by the thought of squishing a roach? I'll take that as a no... So, why not "create" a roach that will 1)injest explosive "stuff", 2)seek enemy guns (just the equiptment), and 3) detonate?

Some scientists have already been able to Remote-control roaches, and a whole swarm of them would be an efficient was of getting into "Well guarded" compounds...
-- jong-scx, Mar 27 2003

This has been tried with other more intelligent animals such as dogs, with not very good results.

How will you specify the target to the roach? Genetically engineer them so the characteristic smells of explosives (as used by chemical sniffers, etc.) act like pheromones? Or spray the targets with roach-attractant chemicals? Or just leave food out?

Also, the thought has just occurred that for this to be effective, you might need really big roaches. Ew.
-- pottedstu, Mar 27 2003


[stu] or just a whole lot of them going boom at the same time. Also, roach nervouse systems are much simpler than dogs' so the idea was to control their direction rather than setting up a rally-point.
-- jong-scx, Mar 27 2003


Great for freaking out Egypt, if followed up with frogs and fiery hail.

There was an article, (or perhaps it was a PBS thing, I don't remember), about bug-sized robots that could go in and be 'the fly on the wall,' unnoticed. Perhaps it was a show about UAV's. I assume that research is being done somewhere at some top secret location.
-- RayfordSteele, Mar 27 2003


[Steele] the show was on NOVA, and the episode was called "Spies in the sky"
-- jong-scx, Mar 27 2003


I'm WAY too afraid of roaches to get close enough to squish them. I break into a sweat, start hyperventilating, squeal like a schoolgirl and have to get my girlfriend to do it. I'm worried a roach might get on me somehow, and if that happened, well, I'd just have to jump out a window or something.

I'm *very* opposed to this idea.
-- snarfyguy, Mar 27 2003


We used to play with roaches at school on parents evenings, they used to scare the living hell out of the parents, imagine what effect a 'roach armoured division' would have! Plus they are hard to kill, they can take a large explosion (from a reasonable distance) and can be hard to squish unless your technique is good.
-- Stoofmeister, Mar 27 2003


How about making a rouch that when stepped on expoded on contact. It may not hurt the person, but it will at least ruin their new shoes. Muahahaha!!!!
-- Spider7, Apr 29 2004



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