Riverside, Calif. - Come pet our cockroaches! That's the message UC Riverside is using to attract students and parents to an upcoming recruitment fair that will feature a cockroach petting zoo. The zoo will include several species of roach, including ones that emit a foul, ammonia-like scent and the famous, palm-sized Madagascar hissing cockroach.

The event targets local high school students interested in careers as science teachers or engineers, said Steve Gomez, co-director of The Copernicus Project.

"Everybody gets grossed out at first," Gomez said. "But then they find out what uses they have in agriculture, like pest elimination."

Gomez said he held the giant Madagascar hissing roach and it nearly covered his palm.

"I'm not a big cockroach fan," he said. "I held it for about five seconds and I gladly gave it back."
go

Roaches are dirty, filthy creatures....just looking at one makes me ill...Weird experiment...I'd rather disect a frog...

booo.... its so not popular pets

Thats cool,when I used to work pest controll and when we were taking the test for our license the instructor had a couple of those Madagascar hissing roaches and they relly do hiss.they would eat out of your hand.the only ones I dont like are the american roach some people call them water bugs and the worst one is the German Roach which carry decease. The hissing roash is pretty darn clean and neet to have for pets.

Hmmmm, I think I will stick with me cat

I would love to see someone make lolroach images....