THEY may be able to survive a nuclear blast, they pre-date the dinosaurs and have flourished for 500 million years, but cockroaches suffer some of the same frailties as humans.

According to this week’s edition of New Scientist, cockroaches that survive into old age become decidedly doddery.

The magazine reports that “their joints seize up, causing them to slow down, and the insects have trouble walking up hills”.

In the first detailed study on insect ageing, researcher Angela Ridgel and her colleagues at the Case Western Reserve University in Ohio noticed that when cockroaches reach old age they spend about 40 per cent less time moving around. The research team found that when they put the insects on a mini treadmill adults that had reached the ripe old age of 60 weeks, old for a cockroach, took about half as many steps per second as individuals of only a week old.

New Scientist reports that “many of the old-timers develop a stumbling gait as their front foot catches on their second leg. The constant tripping happens because their joints are not as flexible, and by 65 weeks old, over 80 per cent of the insects were tripping over themselves”.

Ms Ridgel said the tripping up happened every couple of steps and definitely slowed them down.