Giant Cave Cockroaches, Blaberus giganteus, San Bernardino Natural History Museum

The giant cave cockroach (Blaberus giganteus) lives in tropical areas of Panama, the West Indies, and Northern South America. It's an arboreal cockroach that feeds largely on decaying plant matter, but is ultimately an omnivore and a scavenger that can live in many other habitats as well, such as caves; they will eat dead animals such as young bats that fall into the bat guano and die, or even the bat guano itself. Despite their scavenging habits and ability to fit into really thin cracks due to their lack of depth, they are not house pests.

Giant cave cockroaches make good lab test subjects and hence pets, due to their relatively docile nature, great size of up to 10 cm long, and their long 20 month life span. They can be easily fed vegetables, fruits, and grain cereals, among many other food sources. 30-40 adults and large nymphs can finish off a cup of cooked hamburger in less than an hour! If you don't give them protein they'll attack and eat their molting or aged cage mates! Chewed or brown wing tips are an early warning that protein is lacking in their diet. Let this be a lesson to many humans who have weird picky diets where they only gorge on carbohydrates all day...

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