快猫短视频

Sticky fly traps? So twentieth century, darling. 快猫短视频s have identified a cheap, durable and eco-friendly chemical that, when painted onto walls, baby bottles and crops, gets rid of pests by making their feet 鈥渟weat鈥�.

Insects normally have no trouble strolling up walls and across slippery surfaces. Tiny pads on their feet secrete a ketchup-like glue 鈥� part oil, part water 鈥� that holds them in place.

Now, Jan-Henning Dirks and colleagues at the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge say they have found a way to turn this glue into a slippery lubricant.

Dirks鈥� team painted glass rods with a range of chemicals and compared how these affected the ability of cockroaches to climb up the rods to a piece of apple. They also measured the frictional force between the roach鈥檚 feet and the surface of the rod.

Greasy insect

They found that roaches effortlessly shimmied up rods coated in PTFE, a non-stick coating commonly found on cooking pans. But when the rods were covered in , the creatures lost their grip. In fact, the resin reduced the friction between the insects鈥� feet and the glass rods by around 60 per cent. 鈥淭he cockroaches simply slid off the rod,鈥� Dirks says.

Using , the scientists discovered that polyimide resin sucks up the water contained in the insect鈥檚 glue 鈥� leaving behind a slippery layer of oil with no adhesive properties.

鈥淚n the future, this could prove to be a powerful tool to prevent pests from scuttling around on many hard-to-reach surfaces,鈥� says Dirks. Because the water absorbed by the resin evaporates quickly, the resin never needs to be replaced. 鈥淎s a result, it鈥檚 far cheaper and more eco-friendly than conventional pest-controlling methods.鈥�

Whether the technology will control flies, earwigs and geckoes, which use a slightly different form of 鈥済lue鈥�, remains to be seen, says Dirks. Any possible side-effects of the resin on wildlife will also need to be investigated.