Pest Control Company Wants To Pay You To Release 100 Cockroaches Into Your Home

Photo 134025293 © Gan Chaonan | Dreamstime.com

Have a house that’s too clean and wished it were more lived-in? You might want to consider living with 100 tiny roommates—and get paid US$2,000 for it.

These housemates? A hundred American cockroaches. Don’t get too attached, though, as they’ll likely be gone or dead by the end of their stay.

The Pest Informer, a pest control company in Raleigh, North Carolina, is planning to pay homeowners US$2,000 to release that many critters into their abodes to test the effectiveness of a pest control treatment. 

“As technology advances, we’re always looking for the newest and greatest ways to get rid of pests (cockroaches specifically),” the firm describes in its notice.

The study will last for about a month, and those who don’t mind sharing their homes with these winged strangers for this duration can learn more about the program here. Participants must be homeowners or have had written consent from the homeowner to partake in the test, as well as reside in the continental United States.

During this experiment, the pest exterminator will try out about 10 DIY techniques using safe and easily accessible materials and ingredients.

Thus far, The Pest Informer has received thousands of applications, the company tells NBC News. Friendly neighbors do exist!

Should the treatment be ineffective, the company says it will use traditional options in the homes at no cost.

$2,000, or $20 per roach, might seem like a generous sum—considering that $20 is arguably worth more than these buggers’ lives—but this begs the question: would that be enough to cover trauma?

Last month, the New York Times reported that some female cockroaches have evolved to reject the fat-and-sugar meals secreted by male roaches during the courting process, having learned to be repelled by the sweet-tasting poisons found in pesticides. It’s unclear if the formulas tested by the pest control company will be designed to be less sweet in response to this biological observation.

[via Boing Boing and NBC News, cover photo 134025293 © Gan Chaonan | Dreamstime.com]