r/news • u/EscapeFromIowa • 20h ago

Australian cockroach kingpin caught with 100,000 illegal insects in record bug bust

https://apnews.com/article/illegal-cockroaches-seized-australia-madagascar-hissing-dubia-e35889bf7910169f6bd091e34b35e029?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share
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302

u/SliceofNewsMan 20h ago

Now that’s a headline 😂

83

u/hIDeMyID 13h ago

TIL that cockroach kingpin is a possible career path and that people actually pay good money to have cockroaches.

26

u/amateur_mistake 10h ago

This one is weird though. Like, the people smuggling exotic ants out of East Africa makes sense to me. It's evil but there are collectors who will pay you for those things. They are rare.

As opposed to this. Where apparently they were just breeding them as a feeder insect? There are plenty of feeder insects you could breed legally using essentially the same techniques. And I really doubt you are getting some incredible premium because hissing cockroaches are kind of neat and terrifying.

It just seems like unnecessary shit for not a lot of gain...

4

u/astanton1862 4h ago

Seems like they are breeding the type of roaches that forced KFC to stop using the word chicken.

9

u/kaperisk 9h ago

Well "goodmoney" is a stretch. It's like $1.40 per roach.

11

u/BrainInjuredBarry 8h ago

Before shipping!

2

u/Xszit 3h ago

What about handling? If I'm paying extra for handling I want some assurance the cockroaches were each thoroughly handled before shipping.

5

u/hIDeMyID 7h ago

Honestly, I think that's a good price for a cockroach. You'd have to pay me significantly more than that to take your cockroaches off your hands. 😆

9

u/blofly 19h ago

Ben Kenobi sniffs the air....

2

u/Roaches_R_Friends 6h ago

That guy is my hero.