Cockroaches (and other arthropods) as pets

It feels nice to be sorrounded by living creatures. We have a few plants in our home, mainly orchids, bromeliads and ferns. They certainly look cool, and make me feel more at home, but plants just don’t “do” much. I water them, spray them with water and all the care is done. So I thought I should get a pet, an animal I could interact with, and I could watch actually doing something.

I’ve always loved arthropods, especially cockroaches. So why not keep them? Well that’s how it started with me.  

Ok, now you might think I have some mental problems. To bring something home, that most people desperately trying to get rid of? I know it sounds crazy, but just hear me out.

Domino roach (Therea petriveriana)

At first, not all cockroaches are evil menaces. In fact, less than 1% of around 5000 described species are associated with human settlements and could be considered as pests. Second, if we could just forget about those creepy creatures running around in our kitchen and take a moment to consider all the other cockroach species we might show some appreciation for these animals. In fact cockroaches are beneficial for us. For example they help “clean up” forests by eating decaying wood, leaf and other plant-matter, their faeces fertilizes the soil and they also serve as food-source for many other animals such as birds and reptiles.

“OK, cockroaches are beneficial to humankind, but I still don’t understand, why I should keep them in my home” - you might argue.

Green banana roach (Panchlora nivea)

Well, most cockroaches just look awesome. Domino roaches (Therea petriveriana) are beautifully patterned, green banana roaches (Panchlora nivea) are vividly green and madagscar hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) are impressively big, just to name a few common examples. 

Madagascar hissers - among other cool species - show a great variety of interesting behaviours. Males fight with each other for territory and mates and they signal each other with loud hissing sounds. Females give birth to live young, and the babies stay in close proximity to their mother after birth. Now don’t tell me these cockroaches aren’t just impressive.

Madagascar hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa)

And if we’d like to consider some practical issues, I can say, that

• most arthropod species are relatively cheap to buy,
• they usually don’t require a lot of space,
• their setups tend to be inexpensive,
• food costs almost nothing for these animals (especially when you keep herbivorous ones)
• most species are pretty easy to care for
• and they might be suitable even for children.

So, if you’d like to have a pet that is awesome and doesn’t cost much, you should definitely choose

• an insect (cockroach, stick insect, mantid etc.), 
• or other arthropod (millipide, isopod, arachnid etc.).  

If I have convinced you, that insects are fascinating creatures, and might be excellent pets, stick around. In the subsequent weeks I’ll post interesting and fun stuff related to arthropods.

If you still think insects aren’t the most awesome creatures on our planet, you should stick around too, you might change your mind. :)