Can a cockroach live up to a week without its head?

Survival of a Headless CockroachA cockroach could live a relatively long time without its head, some sources citing a week, others as long as a month. In the cockroach, the nervous system and organs are not centralized. They eventually die of dehydration or starvation. Depending on the species, the survival period can be a lot more or a lot less.

*There are two effects to a surviving headless cockroach. One is that the body may move short distances and spread disease by contamination. The second is that the egg sac of a female cockroach would not immediately die, and could reach maturation.

One Prominent Species

The Death's Head cockroach can live for one week without its head. This species of cockroach has six brains throughout its body, therefore, it can still fully function after its head is removed. However, without a mouth, it can not gain the food and water it needs for a long and healthy life, and will eventually dehydrate and starve to death.

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How A Human Uses Its Head

(1) A human breathes through the mouth or nose and the breathing rhythm is controlled in the brain. Cutting off the head would interfere with breathing (although that could be maintained with a respirator).

(2) Cutting off the head would lead to blood loss and a drop in blood pressure, which would result in death due to lack of oxygen and nutrition to the body tissues.

(3) Cutting off the head would prevent eating and cause death by starvation or dehydration.

The above reasons do not apply to cockroaches and many insects in general.

Differences in the Cockroach

(1) Cockroaches breath through spiracles which are in each body segment and the blood does not have to carry oxygen to the tissues. The spiracles deliver air to each cell of the body through a set of tubes called tracheae. The brain does not control the breathing through the spiracles.

(2) The cockroach does not have blood pressure the way a mammal does and so cutting off the head does not lead to uncontrolled bleeding.

(3) The cockroach is a poikilotherm or cold-blooded animal. They need much less food and a one-day meal would be enough to last them a whole month as long as they were not extremely active. Without a head the cockroach would just sit around without doing very much.

With a low metabolism and cool temperature, the cockroach could last about a month without a need for its head, as long as they did not get infected with a mold, bacterium or virus, which could kill them prematurely.
A cockroache can live up to 10 days without its head. In fact it doesn't die of suffication but of dehydration.

a cockroach can live up to a week without it's head because it's brain is in its body.