Harry Does Some Cockroach Sitting

Have you ever done any babysitting? I did some recently for a friendly cockroach family here at the Insectarium. It’s a lot tougher than I thought it would be!

Of course, babysitting cockroaches is extra difficult, because there are usually so many kids. Did you know that some cockroaches have more than 100 offspring at a time? That’s a lot of kids! Some cockroaches have more than 300 babies in a lifetime. Whew!

The cockroach family I babysat had 12 kids and they were all boys. Their names were Marky, Ricky, Danny, Terry, Mikey, Davey, Timmy, Tommy, Joey, Robby, Johnny and Brian. We had a blast, but those little guys really wore me out.

The great thing about babysitting for 12 boys is that we had enough kids to play just about any sport. Two teams of six for basketball, football, soccer, baseball—even kickball and dodgeball.

I really liked those kids. But now I know why my teachers in grade school were always so tired. I’m exhausted!