New study conducted at Queen Mary, University of London, suggested that just like human beings the cockroaches share their local knowledge of the best food sources and follow 'suggestions' from others.

Mathieu Lihoreau from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, who carried out the study, said, "Better understanding of how they seek out our food would allow us to develop better pest control measures..."

This research is the first to show that groups of cockroaches can search food in a group, rather than independently, depending upon their individual experience.

In the trial, hungry cockroaches were released into a region where they could choose between one of two piles of food.

Lihoreau also noted that rather than selecting randomly and splitting into two groups as would be expected if they were acting independently, the majority of the cockroaches fed solely on one piece of food until it was all gone.

By following individual insects, it also came forth that the more of cockroaches there were on one piece of food, the longer each one would stay to feed. Through simple snowball effect then, most of the cockroaches accumulate on one source, said a Queen Mary's release.

"These observations coupled with simulations of a mathematical model indicate that cockroaches communicate through close contact when they are already on the food source," Lihoreau explained.

The results of the study were published in Springer journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology. (With Inputs from Agencies)