Cockroach bite beats body weight 50 times

MIAMI, Nov 12, (AFP): The mighty cockroach packs a powerful bite, thanks to jaws that can grind five times stronger than a human, or with 50 times more force than the bug’s body weight, researchers said Wednesday.

The creatures don’t always chomp so ferociously.

Only if they need to chew through tough materials like wood will they activate certain slow twitch muscle fibers in their jaw in order to launch a force boost that is necessary for a repetitive, heavy-duty task, said the study in the journal PLOS ONE.