The Proper Name For Roach Rearing

[kmsgameboy]

Everyone calls me the Bug Man. I even had a special vanity plate made for my car. I'm not sure what people have a hardest time with...the fact that I have "pet" cockroaches or the fact that I'm arachnophobic. People can't seem to wrap their head around either.

 

[vfox]

Everyone calls me the Bug Man. I even had a special vanity plate made for my car. I'm not sure what people have a hardest time with...the fact that I have "pet" cockroaches or the fact that I'm arachnophobic. People can't seem to wrap their head around either.

I was arachnophobic until I started keeping scorpions. Now I've had everything from giant cave spiders to black widows.

 

[wodesorel]

I was arachnophobic until I started keeping scorpions. Now I've had everything from giant cave spiders to black widows.

Hermit crabs were my gateway drug into the creepy crawly, as I'm arachnophobic as well. Now I have 17 emperor scorpions (3 adults, the rest are babies), and I really want to get my first T. Still terrified of spiders in the wild, but getting better! Having related critters around really seems to make ya realize you're crazy for being afraid, but that doesn't mean the fear just goes away overnight. (What do they call it professionally? Immersion therapy?)

Anyway, my husband likes to call me Roach Girl around strangers. :lol: The pet store people still know me as "that hermit crab girl", but I've been doing that for three years versus (nearly) three months of having multiple roaches so it'll take time to change. Between the scorps, the roaches, the fids, and the hermits, (and a love for all things snail) I just refer to myself as an Invert Person. Get the weirdest looks from people no matter who it is.

Best convo yet was with a girl I went to high school with that I ran into at a pet shop. My husband is beaming, telling her "She's raising cockroaches now." (He's actually proud of this fact!) And this girl looks at me and asks, completely serious, "You mean like, breeding them in cages, right?" I nearly bust out in laughter, and I so wanted to deadpan "No, in our kitchen", but I didn't think that would go over well.

LOVE that "blatticulturist" fits so well. That'll be my new go-to word. Guaranteed half the people I tell won't bother asking what it means!

 

[blatta70]

Well, perhaps we should all collaborate together and establish an "Institute of Blatticulture", a Blattodean zoo if you will, displaying as many of the world's roaches as possible so the general public can better appreciate the 5000+ species that aren't household nuisances. I am employed by a pest management company and we sponsor an insect zoo that travels to various children museums and schools. Believe it or not, the Hissers and other large cockroaches are statistically still the favorites, immediately followed by the giant millipedes. Don't get me wrong, the kids do have a liking for the lubber grasshoppers, mantids, hercules beetles, and vinegaroons as well. But, none of those are quite as satisfying to handle than a full grown G. oblongonata.......especially for children around the age of 10.

 

[kmsgameboy]

I was arachnophobic until I started keeping scorpions. Now I've had everything from giant cave spiders to black widows.

I do keep some scorpions. They aren't "spidery" enough to bother me. I thought of trying to graduate to a "whip spider" and see how I do with that but I've heard they can be a little tricky to raise.

 

[bluefire]

my brother insists that im a different species.

 

[pierre72]

I LOVE this thread!!

blatticulturist it is for me also!! I just chalk it up to us bug people being weird! lol.. the rest of the world is "normal" .... And I am darn proud of being a bug person!

So am I Cindy. I rescue German Roaches and keep them in a tank and it makes me feel good that I'm protecting those everyone else wants to kill dead. We shouldn't be ashamed of being different, especially when it concerns life. If people are really your friends, then they should except you no matter what you do.

 

[pierre72]

I'm pretty much known as the crazy roach lady at this point. Whenever someone introduces me it always goes something like, "Katie, this is so and so, so and so, this is Katie, SHE BREEDS COCKROACHES!"

I've had several related titles given: Roach; Roach Man; Cockroach; Cockroach Man; etc. And I enjoy being associated with them since I love them so much. As I mentioned to Cindy above, we shouldn't be ashamed of telling people what we do, especially since it concerns protecting helpless life. Real friends and loved ones should accept you the way you are.