Keeping our homes free of cockroaches is a priority for just about everybody. So it is hard to imagine anybody willingly living with cockroaches, let alone one hundred thousand of them. However, one Chinese woman, Yuan Meixia, lives with at least this many cockroaches, and she loves it. She is with the roaches during all their life stages, and she treats them like their her own children. You may be wondering why anybody would be willing to live with hundreds of thousands of cockroaches. Well, for Yuan Meixia, keeping cockroaches earns her a hefty profit from pharmaceutical companies. These companies use roaches as an ingredient in some medications.
Meixia, is a 37-year-old pharmacy employee located in the Fujian province. Meixia’s home is situated next to a heavily forested region where roaches are common. This makes finding her beloved roaches a rather easy task. Sadly, Meixia is eventually forced to let go of her pet roaches. The roaches are eventually dried and sold to a factory located in the Anhui province. Despite only having the roaches for a short time, she claims to care for all of them like they were her own children. Meixia certainly puts a lot of time into caring for the roaches in her home, as she regularly keeps her walls covered in water during the warmer seasons so the roaches do not become too hot. During the colder season she keeps a gaslight stove operating all day in order to keep the roaches warm. Her home is also customized to be roach-friendly.
Meixia keeps more palmetto bugs than any other type of cockroach. Palmetto bugs are winged cockroaches that are common in America. In fact, sometimes palmetto bugs are referred to as American cockroaches in the United States. Here in the US, many people confuse palmetto bugs with beetles or other types of insects. Palmetto bugs thrive in damp conditions and they are attracted to sweets and starch. Palmetto bugs and other roaches have long been used as medical remedies. According to Researchers at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Palmetto bugs can benefit liver functioning. These types of roaches are used for treating liver-related ailments, and more.
Would you live with hundreds of thousand of insects if you were paid a hefty profit for doing so? Is there any amount of money that could get you to adopt and raise roaches, or any other types of insects?
