Australia seizes 100,000 illegal exotic cockroaches in Bathurst raid
More than 100,000 live exotic cockroaches were pulled from a Bathurst breeder, a haul worth up to $200,000. Authorities said the insects fed the reptile trade and posed biosecurity risks.
More than 100,000 live exotic cockroaches were seized from a commercial breeder in Bathurst, with authorities saying the haul may have been worth up to $200,000 and was likely destined for the reptile-feeding trade.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water said the seizure was Australia’s largest involving illegal exotic invertebrates. The insects included dubia cockroaches and Madagascar hissing cockroaches, species that the department says cannot be legally imported, possessed, traded or bred in Australia.
The scale of the seizure has sharpened attention on the black-market side of the exotic pet economy, where feeder insects move quickly and cheaply through online sales and private breeding networks. Bathurst snake catcher Stefanie Lesser said she had seen the illegal invertebrates being sold online as reptile food, and said buyers were drawn to them because they were cost-effective. Authorities said that same trade creates a pathway for banned species to circulate widely before regulators can intervene.
Officials warned the risk is not just legal, but ecological. DCCEEW said the cockroaches can spread disease and harm native wildlife and agriculture if they escape or are released. The department’s live import list makes clear that permits cannot be issued for dubia cockroaches or Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and reptile keepers who have relied on them as feeders were urged to switch to legal alternatives such as crickets and wood roaches.
The NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development was handling the euthanasia and disposal of the seized insects, underscoring how a single biosecurity breach can quickly turn into a large-scale containment exercise. The Bathurst seizure also landed amid a wider enforcement push. Since April 2025, authorities have seized a record 27 postal consignments containing live ants and other invertebrates in New South Wales, and in February 2026 a Sydney man received an eight-year jail sentence for attempting to export Australian reptiles.
Together, the cases point to a tougher line on wildlife trafficking, where the lure of quick profit, whether from pet trade demand, feeder insects or overseas collectors, is increasingly being treated as organised-crime-level offending.
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