KANSAS STATE Cockroaches, flies find home in university's new insect zoo

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) -- Bug lovers can now visit a collection of household pests and more exotic creatures at Kansas State University's new insect zoo.
The collection of more than 1,000 living insects is housed at the visitors center at the school's Horticulture Gardens and cared for by a full-time keeper.
The zoo, which was dedicated Oct. 18, includes a replica of a home kitchen.
Visitors are encouraged to peer through Plexiglas panels that enclose cockroach-filled cabinet drawers and flies on the drain board.
"We want to deliver valuable and environmentally sensitive information to the public, and tell them, 'Don't just call the exterminator and start spraying,'" says department of entomology chairman Sonny Ramaswamy, who has attracted attention at university open houses with his popular cockroach racing demonstrations.
"There are ways to use simple cleanliness techniques to take care of these things."
Cockroaches also flourish at the new zoo, including several exotic species that are featured in a walk-through display simulating an underground environment of a tropical rain forest.
The zoo consolidates a succession of live insect exhibits that have been scattered about the campus ever since the school first opened in 1863, Ramaswamy says.
A separate butterfly conservatory opened at the university in 2000, sharing space with exhibits of desert and tropical plants in a greenhouse built in 1907.