{"id":25043,"date":"2026-06-05T00:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/25043\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T00:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:17:08","slug":"100000-exotic-cockroaches-seized-from-alleged-bathurst-breeder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/25043\/","title":{"rendered":"100,000 exotic cockroaches seized from alleged Bathurst breeder"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 100,000 live exotic cockroaches have allegedly been seized from a commercial breeder at Bathurst, in Central West NSW.<\/p>\n

The haul included dubia cockroaches and Madagascar hissing cockroaches.<\/p>\n

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) said it was the largest seizure of illegal exotic invertebrates in Australia, with an estimated value of up to $200,000.<\/p>\n

“We’re seeing illegal breeding and trading of exotic cockroaches and we’re putting pet businesses and pet owners on notice,” a DCCEEW spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“If you are found to possess, breed or trade exotic cockroaches such as dubia cockroaches and Madagascar hissing cockroaches, they will be seized and you could face penalties under federal law.<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/p>\n

Authorities warn that exotic cockroaches can spread disease and harm native wildlife and agriculture. (Supplied: DCCEEW)<\/p>\n

“Reptile owners who have been using dubia roaches as feeders are encouraged to seek legal alternatives such as crickets and wood roaches.”<\/p>\n

The DCCEEW said the exotic cockroaches had the potential to spread disease and harm native wildlife and agriculture.<\/p>\n

The NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) is managing the euthanasia and disposal of the seized cockroaches.<\/p>\n

\"Smiling<\/p>\n

Stefanie Lesser says people buy the illegal cockroaches as they are cost-effective. (Supplied: Stefanie Lesser)<\/p>\n

Bathurst snake catcher Stefanie Lesser said she had seen the illegal invertebrates being sold online as reptile food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“People do have them because they are big, they’re sort of like the size of your palm of your hand,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They probably are cost-effective, rather than feeding each lizard three or four woodies, which are quite small, you could only give them one.”<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/p>\n

Morr than 100,000 exotic cockroaches were seized from an alleged commercial breeder in Bathurst. (Supplied: DCCEEW)<\/p>\n

But Ms Lesser said the potential impact the exotic roaches could have on the environment was devastating.<\/p>\n

“If they got out and they had a disease on them, potentially it could wipe out all the crickets \u2026 that we’ve got in Australia,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[The crickets are] something that the birds rely on, but if they’ve also got a disease [via contact with the cockroaches], they could spread the disease and so say lizards, birds, and anything else that might eat bugs, they could then fall victim to whatever disease they might have.<\/p>\n

“So it could potentially wipe out a whole lot of native animals, and that’s why having exotics and illegal pets is illegal.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 100,000 live exotic cockroaches have allegedly been seized from a commercial breeder at Bathurst, in Central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,19074,23171,23170,23173,23172,12476],"class_list":["post-25043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bathurst","tag-dubia-cockroach","tag-exotic-cockroaches","tag-invertebraes","tag-madagascar-hissing-cockroach","tag-seizure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}