LAST week we reported how Surprise! takeaway in Plumstead received a slap on the wrist from food hygiene chiefs after cockroaches were found in the freezer.

Here we bring you 10 ugly facts about the creepy-crawlies:

1. You will probably eat one today 

There are eight insect parts in an average chocolate bar? Cockroach contamination can occur when food is being grown. The only way to stop it would be to use a lot more pesticide, which is worse than a small contribution to your daily protein intake!

2. You can remote control a cockroach

Gluing a receiver onto the back of a cockroach, with electrodes inserted into the animal’s antennae, makes it possible to remotely control where they walk. It’s so accurate scientists are able to make the creatures follow a preset curved path.

3. Cockroaches don’t like mornings.

Scientists have discovered that when a cockroach wakes up they are unable to form new memories until after a few hours.

4. 'Techies' love cockroaches

Many robots have been based upon the inner workings of cockroaches. Tech-geeks invented ‘a velociroach’, the second-fastest robot with legs, ever. It uses six legs to zoom across the room at nearly 10 kilometers per hour (6 mph) - nearly twice as fast as an actual cockroach.

5. Coackroaches are now farmed for medicine

Cockroaches are now farmed in China as their value has increased tenfold in the last four years. Powdered cockroach is used in traditional remedies but cosmetic companies also use them as a source of protein.

6. A new 'super' cockroach has been born

The cold New York winters usually keep roach numbers at a manageable level. But the Big Apple is now suffering at the hand of a new Asian breed which can survive whatever the weather. Populations are soaring!

7. Cockroach fighting is bigger than One Direction....in China

Cockroach racing and cockroach fighting is growing rapidly in both the US and China. The New York Times carried a report in 1886 of a group of Chinese people traveling around major cities and staging roach fights, bringing in thousands of dollars in bets. Considering those are 1886 dollars, that’s not bad.

8. Russia knows how to deal with roaches

Russia’s capital city Moscow has seen roach numbers plummet in the last few years. Entomologists called for some species to be classed as endangered and for a colony to be set up at a zoo. People blamed everything from cell tower radiation to genetically modified food, but a much more plausible explanation is simply that the city’s building standards are improving.

9. Scientists once found dinosaur poo inside a cockroach.

Nuff said 

10. Yank dies in cockroach-eating contest

A Florida man died shortly after a pet shop held a roach-eating competition with a python as a prize. He suffocated after choking on bits of cockroach which became lodged in his throat

**List courtesy of listverse.com