Post #3576885

2026-06-05 04:18 UTC

@Lilysea@aus.social It seems bizarre to me that people would break the law (and, as you say, risk the ecological damage) for the sake of cockroaches, especially if they're not even planning to keep them. I feel like someone's mum yelling "you don't need to buy cockroaches! We have cockroaches at home!"

Replies (1)

@Lilysea@aus.social 2026-06-05 04:57

@DMakarios@theres.life Apparently people choose to illegally buy hissing cockroaches to feed pet snakes/pet lizards as it is a little bit cheaper than other insect food sources - which is so stupid, because the cost to the Australian agriculture industry if they got out would be in millions of dollars or even billions of dollars. Bathurst snake catcher Stefanie Lesser said she had seen the illegal invertebrates being sold online as reptile food. "People do have them because they are big, they're sort of like the size of your palm of your hand," she said. "They probably are cost-effective, rather than feeding each lizard three or four woodies, which are quite small, you could only give them one." https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-05/dubia-cockroaches-seized-from-alleged-bathurst-breeder/106762346

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