A farmer incurred heavy losses after more than a million cockroaches he bred-and-fed fled to the neighboring corn fields after somebody tampered with the greenhouse storage facility in Dafeng, an eastern province of Jiangsu.
More than one million cockroaches escaped a farm in China where they were fed-and-bred for use in traditional medicine. They were valued more than hundreds of thousands of Yuan, according to the farm owner, who initially started off with 102 kilograms of Periplaneta americana eggs. Wang Pengsheng purchased the eggs for 100,000 Yuan ($16,000).
The cockroaches were kept in a greenhouse facility in Pengsheng's farm in Dafeng, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, before an unidentified person tampered with the facility resulting in all the cockroaches escaping into the neighboring corn fields, reported the AFP.
Cockroaches are considered to be of great use in traditional Chinese medicine, which uses both plants and animals. Experts use these medicinal extracts to improve immunity and reduce inflammation and which are also believed to cure diseases like cancer. Animals that are used for medicinal purposes include several endangered species such as rhinoceros, Chinese alligator, Asian elephants, sun bear, musk deer and many others. But with most of these animals on the endangered list, many of these animal extracts have been banned for use in medicines including bones of tigers.
According to the report, the cockroaches were fed "fruits and biscuits" every day before they fled the facility. Pengsheng was likely to make up to 1,000 Yuan profit with the sale of every kilogram of cockroaches.
Disease control authorities have sent out five investigators to wipe out the insects from the nearby farms.
