A new boom in trading pillbugs has led to poaching and illegal sales online.
When you think of the most desirable pet to own, it's unlikely that a small bug the size of a fingernail would spring to mind. However, there is a whole community of people willing to spend hundreds of dollars on these little creepie-crawlies.
A feature in the New York Times exposed the desire for exotic isopods, otherwise known as pillbugs, wood lice, or roly-polies.
A mere 21 of 41,000 documented species of isopods are allowed to be kept or sold as pets, and all of them require a license, but this is not stopping collectors.
Owner of Holy-Poly Isopods, David Vargas, described the quest of collecting isopods to the New York Times. "I always compare it to Pokémon," he said. "You've got to catch them all."
Online sales of these bugs have skyrocketed. Along with huge expos selling insects, eBay, Facebook, and Instagram have all become hotspots to buy variations of isopods.
However, the unregulated nature of these sales has led to some people poaching them or importing them into the country illegally.
Since a lot of these insect species are not extensively studied, it is unclear whether they are endangered, leading to concern that the trend of collecting isopods could be having a negative impact on populations in the wild.
By taking these insects out of their own habitats, bug collectors could risk introducing invasive species into the country and wrecking ecosystems. The demand for these isopods could harm other insect populations, pollinators, and the planet's food systems.
Elsewhere, internet platforms like eBay and Meta have come under fire for allowing the sale of dead bats as decorations, despite them being at risk of extinction.
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Save $1,000 this year 💸 Sebastian Echeverri of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation told the New York Times, "A lot of the invertebrate pet trade is unfortunately expanding very quickly and doing so without any oversight or regulation."
He continued, "On every level where it could be a problem, it has become a problem."
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