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Mmmm, lovely cockroaches. Indestructible, nuclear bomb surviving lovely cockroaches.
Most people consider them at best a bit grim, at worst a massive pest. But not Tian Tinglei,
who gave up his job in Liaocheng city to return to the country and live among the creepy crawlies.
He's actually become a bit of a fan of them, farming nearly one square mile of bugs. Apparently,
he's become rather fond of their oily, shiny skin. Mmmmm.
A long-time a lover of creepy crawlies, the 32-year-old got the idea for the cockroach
farm after a friend who worked in a pharmacy told him about the use of cockroaches as a
cheap source of protein and medication.
But why oh why would you do it? Well, they sell for $16 a kilo, which doesn't sound like
a lot, but means Tian is bringing in a fortune from his crop. Roaches shells and oil are
used in Chinese medicine to treat everything from heart disease to hepatitis and burns.
Unsurprisingly, however, many people aren't so keen in smearing themselves in roach roil,
so it's not usually marketed as being well, what it is.
Still, Tian seems pretty proud of his little buggy empire, and fair enough. Maybe when
the world ends and he and his cockroaches are all that are left, he'll be the one laughing.