Some studies of cockroaches highlight their physical and intellectual strengths by making explicit connections between cockroaches and humans illuminated in multiple ways in the movie Bug. According to Marion W. Copeland, “as in humans, female cockroaches have stronger immune responses than males and the very young and very old have weaker responses than mature adults” (131).
As early as 1912, studies at Summer Teacher’s College in St. Louis showed that cockroaches could learn to “overcome their innate aversion to light” (135). They were also found capable of running a maze, even without their heads, a feat few animals could grasp (135).
The monstrous nature of cockroaches is shown in a variety of scenes before Parmiter decides to breed a new even more dangerous species that takes those intellectual strengths to extremes. His friend Mark’s (Alan Fudge) wife Sylvia (Patty McCormack) is killed by a roach attack, for example, and a roach also climbs in another woman’s ear (Jamie Smith Jackson) and destroys her.
Although we do not see her killed on screen, Parmiter’s wife Carrie’s (Joanna Miles) death is gruesome. But as Mark explains, these new roaches live very short lives and cannot reproduce, at least without intervention, so the danger associated with them should be finite.
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