Unusual Pets: the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach

Sometimes, people adopt the most unusual pets. One of the more popular, but still unusual, pets is the Madagascar hissing cockroach. This cockroach can grow up to three inches long and over an inch wide! But this isn’t an ordinary cockroach. The Madagascar hissing cockroach is clean, odourless, docile and completely harmless. They do not bite, and in fact are commonly mistaken for beetles. Besides being an unusual pet, the Madagascar hissing cockroach makes a quite unusual sound, too. Its hissing noise is aroused during mating rituals and in aggressive fights with other males, though sometimes it will hiss for no obvious reason. Female cockroaches tend to be attracted to the tone and strength of the male’s hissing. The hissing is created by forcing air through a pair of breathing pores, which are found in the abdomen, which stands in contrast to insects like the cricket which create noise by rubbing their legs together.