Cockroaches for Sale? This Pet Store Goes Viral for Turning Pests Into Profit
The owner once sold 1,000 cockroaches for P9,000.
by Zoe Andin
Published on Oct 13, 2026
(SPOT.ph) When you think of pet stores, you might picture dogs, cats, and fish. Maybe even the occasional bird or snake—but have you considered insects?
Marsha’s Pet Shop in Pasay, owned by Marsha Magaling Nipay, is selling, among other things, cockroaches. Yes, the brown creepy crawlers we loathe to see in our homes are actually quite the hot item for students, researchers, and exotic animal lovers. In fact, these pests have even earned her thousands of pesos. Talk about one man's trash being another man's treasure.
SPOT.ph spoke with Nipay to learn more about how the bugs bring in the bucks.
Marsha's Pet Shop sells more than just your usual pets
How does one even begin a business selling cockroaches and other insects as "pets"?
Well, Nipay’s husband is a longtime animal lover who used to catch kiti-kiti—also known as mosquito larvae—to feed their pets. The couple eventually opened a pet shop in Taguig, which they operated from 1998 to 2021, before expanding to Pasay City in 2016.
Like any regular pet shop, Marsha's Pet sells hamsters, birds, fish, and pet supplies like carriers and cage accessories. They also sell mice, rats, and superworms as food for other animals and supply them to other pet stores in the area.
But somewhere along the way, their inventory started getting a little more unusual.
According to Nipay, their pet shop started stocking imported cockroaches like the Dubia roach in 2014. It wasn't until 2023 that she started selling local roaches because—get this—she was actually afraid of catching and breeding them. Besides cockroaches, Marsha’s Pet also sells crickets, kiti-kiti, and other unusual bugs.
“Kaya ko naisipan ibenta kase mula 2008 puro mga imposible na ang order sa akin,” she told SPOT.ph. When asked what these impossible orders were, Nipay joked that they were fruit bats for a manananggal.
Mice and rats are among her best sellers, but crickets and Dubia roaches have their moments in the spotlight every now and then.
In the now-viral video on Facebook, which has racked up over seven million views and 76,000 reactions, Nipay shows a container of 155 live cockroaches. She said that the orders are placed by schools and students for thesis and research purposes.
“Hindi po 'yan para may mai-content. May buyer talaga. Naka 1,000 pcs ako sa isang buyer last month. P9,000 bayad,” Nipay clarified in the comments of her post.
In another video, she shared that she pays P4 per roach and sells it for P9. Where does she get all these roaches, you ask? From people she pays to catch them. We're not joking—her staff members actually get paid to catch cockroaches. See for yourself in the video above.
Who's buying cockroaches?
Nipay shared that her clientele varies by product. Hobbyists purchase imported insects like the Dubia roach as feeders for exotic pets like lizards and snakes. Meanwhile, students are her biggest buyers for American (periplaneta americana) and German (blattella germanica) cockroaches.
“Halos lagi din may order. Ngayon ang order ay 700 pieces mahigit,” she said.
Despite their reputation as household pests, cockroaches like the American cockroaches in Nipay’s video are common test subjects for agricultural and zoological research thanks to how inexpensive they are. According to another post by Nipay, recent buyers include a group of students who want to study whether cockroach parts can be beneficial for growing and tending to cacao.
In the wild, cockroaches serve a pretty important role in the ecosystem as detritivores. Cockroaches consume decaying organic matter, which then turns into nutrients for the soil. Spiders, reptiles, and amphibians also eat these roaches.
Since going viral, Nipay has appealed to viewers not to send scam orders or hate messages to her page, saying these have made it harder to keep track of genuine customers.
Also read: Have You Seen These Squirrels Around Metro Manila? DENR Says That’s a Problem
Zoe thinks a lot but forgets just as much. Writing helps her deal with both problems. When she isn't writing, she spends time baking sweets, wandering around, or staring up at the moon.