No, You’re not Hallucinating: These Roaches are Wearing Backpacks

In the latest update on man-made horrors beyond our comprehension, researchers are equipping cockroaches with tiny backpacks. But these roaches aren’t preparing for their first day of school. Instead, scientists are training them for battle. As seen in this shocking Instagram video from 60 minutes, researchers pluck roaches from cardboard containers, affix backpacks to their thoraxes, and send them off on reconnaissance missions.

This dystopian science fiction project is the brainchild of SWARM Biotactics, a German start-up that aims to transform the most creepy-crawly of creatures into the soldiers of tomorrow. It’s futuristic, absurd, even shocking, but the videos can’t be denied. Cockroaches might just become the first line of defense in the wars of the future. Let’s learn more about the information in this Instagram video, how realistic this start-up’s plans are, and what makes roaches the right grunts for the job.

Ready for Battle

Just imagine: the year is 2045, the Great War of the Atlantic is raging, and you and your fellow soldiers are stuck under fire in one of the many eastern seaboard trenches. You are passing the time talking about the different types of trickster drones you’ve seen on the battlefield so far. There are robotic bumblebees, AI-powered Polar Bears, and even humanoid figures calling for help from no man’s land that trigger landmines if you get too close to them. While you and your fellow soldiers are dodging tracer rounds and debating the validity of “birds aren’t real,” you notice a bug in the mud.

You’ve seen cockroaches before, especially deep in the trenches. The battlefield shrapnel dodging and ear-blistering rounds keep you distracted just enough so that you don’t realize this cockroach looks a little different than the rest. It almost looks like it is wearing a backpack. You marvel at this strange-looking bug for a moment before getting back to the battle. Little did you know that looking at that cockroach spelled your own doom. Seconds later, a mortar lands right on your head and sends you to Valhalla, thanks to the reconnaissance data sent back to the enemy’s side by a recon roach.

That fever dream scenario of 21st-century combat is more or less what SWARM Biotactics is aiming for with their recon roach. As seen in this Instagram video, the biotech company aims to affix backpacks to roaches and send them across enemy lines to discover where the soldiers and ordinance are. It may seem far-fetched, but this German company is already testing out this almost too-futuristic-to-believe concept.

Fact or Fiction

As the CEO of SWARM Biotactics explained to 60 Minutes, the backpacks are very real. Scientists at the company attach electrodes to the roaches’ antennae. They claim this doesn’t hurt the bugs, but it does stimulate their natural ability to navigate. Those electrodes are located in a little backpack that also features a battery and microchips. The backpacks weigh around 15 grams and sit on the roaches’ backs.

It may seem like a ridiculous sci-fi concept, but SWARM Biotactic‘s roach recon prototype has already earned the interest of the German military. Indeed, the Bundeswehr, the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Germany, is already working with the one-year-old startup to bring these roach recon units to a battlefield near you.

In reality, a publicity spot on 60 Minutes and a slick AI-generated video fall short of being a true product. Wilhelm demonstrated a roach backpack prototype for reporters, but it still lacks any true reconnaissance capabilities. At most, it can steer roaches around like little cars. Going forward, however, SWARM Biotactics plans to add cameras, microphones, and other surveillance gathering tools to its roach backpacks.

Insect Survivors

Cockroaches may be a scourge to apartment buildings everywhere, but that’s only because they are so resilient. They can survive practically anything, be it a fire, a fall from a great height, or even a nuclear blast. Plus, they reproduce quickly, can fit in tight spaces, and refuse to give up even when it’s quitting time. Roaches are practically indestructible: they can regenerate limbs and can withstand several hundred times their body weight in force.

You can see why SWARM Biotactics chose roaches for their guinea pigs. As the company’s CEO, Stefan Wilhelm, explained to 60 Minutes in this Instagram video, “They are super resilient, and as you can see, they can crawl through tiny spaces, can go up the wall, into pipes, and underground in rubble.”

While not a reality just yet, advanced SWARM Biotactics’ recon roaches will likely lead to other cyborg bugs in the future.