Night Time in the City From a Bugs POV | A Real Bug's Life | National Geographic

When the night shift begins, it's time for those hustlers and stalkers to come out and play. Gotta find a safe place to sleep. Good thing he always carries a silk sleeping bag. Just find a place to sling it up, and he's snug as a bug in a—

Oh, come on, man. Not him again! Praying mantises usually only hunt during the day. But under streetlight, they can keep killing through the night. Just stay hidden behind that silk screen, and he should avoid any nightmares. Good thing, too.

When jumping spiders sleep, like us, they have bursts of brain activity. So, if spiders can dream, what on earth do they dream about? For a cockroach, the quiet of night is a much safer time to surface and dine out on our leftovers. Cockroaches may seem disgusting, but they're only here because of all the food we waste.

[Man] Oi! And, you gotta admire their survival skills. Even in the pitch dark, they can detect tiny movements, using hairs on tail-mounted sensors. So they can react ten times faster than we can. And being crushed to a quarter of their height? No big deal.

But some enemies are wise to their game. Staying completely still can fake out a cockroach's motion detectors. Mantises let their victims come to them. And eat their prey head first. Decapitated. But not done yet. Cockroaches don't need a mouth to breathe. And they have backup brains in their bodies. So, this guy could keep crawling around for a week.