BUG BUST

Insect Breeder Caught With 100,000 Illegal Cockroaches

It was the country’s largest seizure of exotic invertebrates.

Australian authorities confiscated 100,000 illegal cockroaches from a commercial breeder, officials announced Friday. The value of the Madagascar hissing cockroaches and dubia cockroaches, which were seized live in May, was $142,000, according to the Associated Press. Both are illegal to import, keep, breed, or sell in Australia, which has strict animal regulations in order to prevent costly infestations. “We take our job protecting Australia’s unique biodiversity and breaches of national environment law very seriously,” a spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water said. “We’re seeing illegal breeding and trading of exotic cockroaches and we’re putting pet businesses and pet owners on notice.” Potential uses of those exotic cockroaches, which are about one inch longer than Australia’s common cockroach, include reptile food. Alternatives are crickets and wood roaches. Charges have not been filed against the breeder in Bathurst, New South Wales. All the cockroaches will be euthanized. This was the largest seizure of exotic invertebrates in Australian history.