Got Cockroaches? Houston Museum to Pay for Creepy Critters

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Forget about collecting cans for cash. Now a Houston museum will pay a quarter each for live cockroaches to fill out their newest exhibit, a display of bugs who help clean up their environments. The roaches will join their fellow insect neatniks in the display; termites and dung beetles.

"Cockroaches are decomposers," said museum staffer Laurie Pierrel to reporters. "If we didn’t have cockroaches, there’d be so much more trash around. They are very clean, like a cat – they clean themselves all day."

The museum is looking specifically for American cockroaches; the kind found hiding under millions of sinks all over this country. Called Periplaneta Americana, they originate from Africa and prefer moist, warm habitats, but seem to have taken easily to their American digs. It shouldn’t be too difficult for the museum to reach their quota – 1,000 of the icky bugs.

The American cockroach can grow to over two inches long, and produce up to 90 egg sacs (containing 14-16 eggs each) over a lifetime. Cockroaches eat just about anything, including each other. Disease experts do not share the museum’s sunny view on the pests, and feel that cockroaches are responsible for carrying disease to humans, as well as aggravating asthma in sensitive people.

Museum entomology curator Nancy Greig argued, "Cockroaches are fastidious creatures," and told reporters that they only become problematic to humans by entering homes through potentially contaminated sewer lines.

The Houston Chronicle Wednesday listed instructions for folks who want to bring their unwanted houseguests to the museum for the cash payout. After 1,000 roaches have been collected, donators will be given free passes to the exhibit to be held at the Cockrell Butterfly Center, opening May 25th.

And if they receive more than 1,000 of the maligned insects? Not to worry, especially if you don’t live in the Houston area. Excess cockroach émigrés will be exiled to "local park lands."

Greig remains undeterred by the massive press generated by the museum’s unusual request. "This wasn’t devised as a joke…someone decided to tell the press and all hell has broken loose," she told the Houston Chronicle.

"We really do need cockroaches," she adds. "Catching them is a great activity for the kids."