- Would you be able to suppress your disgust of roaches enough to breed them by the thousands?
Thousands upon thousands of giant cockroaches skitter around a house. They’re breeding out of control, their numbers increasing day by day.
This isn’t some nightmarish pest infestation scenario, though. It was one dubious character’s illegal moneymaking scheme.
Australian police recently pulled the biggest exotic insect seizure in the country’s history. They confiscated an absolutely mindblowing number of enormous cockroaches from a single bug breeder.
The cops took away more than 100,000 verminous insects, which have a total estimated worth of nearly $150,000. Under Australia’s strict biosecurity laws, individuals may not breed or keep the foreign roaches without special permits.
According to the cops, the biblical swarm of unwelcome insects will be euthanized. Pardon me for not mourning this loss.
Disgusting Operation
The cockroaches were confiscated from a property in Bathurst, a southeastern Australian city some 100 miles inland from Sydney. The police didn’t release details of who was breeding the bugs and where they kept them.
What we do know is that this was a private cockroach breeder running a commercial operation to sell the insects. And it seems to have been quite successful, too.
Although it’s impossible to say exactly how many horrible bugs the cops seized, the number is well above 100,000. These weren’t small roaches that slip into the cracks of your walls, either.
Most of the cockroach hauls consisted of dubia and Madagascar hissing cockroaches. The former are South American roaches, roughly the size of an American cockroach or a palmetto bug.
The latter, however, are among the biggest roaches in the world, growing to be up to 3 inches long. A healthy Madagascar cockroach can easily be the size of your palm.
Now imagine thousands and thousands of those crawling around.
Food for Lizards
But why would anyone willingly keep such a horrible swarm? Well, as I mentioned, it was a commercial operation. The roaches were up for sale.
Now, some people do keep cockroaches, particularly the Madagascar roaches, as pets. If you’d like to know more about that (for some reason), read our list of 6 of the Weirdest Pets You Can Legally Own.
These bugs weren’t meant to become pets, though. Instead, they were intended to feed other pets.
According to Australian authorities, the cockroach farm was supplying the bugs as feed for other exotic pets, such as lizards. It’s not the first of its kind in Australia, either, although it was the biggest in the country’s history.
Stefanie Lesser, a snake catcher from Bathurst (yes, that’s a common profession in Australia), said she’d seen live Madagascar and dubia cockroaches being sold online as pet food.
“They probably are cost-effective. Rather than feeding each lizard three or four [Australian wood cockroaches], which are quite small, you could only give them one,” Lesser told the BBC.
No Foreign Roaches Allowed
It seems there is a business case for farming cockroaches in Australia, but you’re better off not doing it. Or at least you shouldn’t grow foreign roaches.
Australia famously has some of the most distinctive indigenous flora and fauna in the world. To protect the island continent’s unique ecosystem, Australia has in place some of the strictest biosecurity measures around.
Among other things, those laws absolutely prohibit anyone from having anything to do with non-Australian cockroaches, which could spread disease and harm local animals and plants.
“If you are found to possess, breed, or trade exotic cockroaches, such as dubia cockroaches and Madagascar hissing cockroaches, they will be seized and you could face penalties under federal law,” a spokesperson from the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment, and Water.
The seized cockroaches will then be exterminated to protect Australia’s nature. That’s what will happen to this swarm as well.
According to the environmental department, cases of people breeding exotic roaches are on the rise.
“We’re seeing illegal breeding and trading of exotic cockroaches and we’re putting pet businesses and pet owners on notice,” the spokesperson said.
Although the big bugs might save reptile owners some money, the authorities recommend they stick to local insects, like crickets or the aforementioned wood roaches.
Want to learn more about cockroach farming? You’re making some dubious life choices, but check out our story about China’s enormous roach farms.