Hundreds of cockroaches found in a new residential area in Etten-Leur were probably meant to be fed to reptiles and may have been dumped by their owner, entomologist Dennis Oonincx from Wageningen University told Monday evening’s Nieuwsuur current affairs show.
Hundreds of the insects have been found on streets and in gardens in the southern town since Saturday evening.
Despite earlier claims that they are a native species, Oonincx says the creatures are the Argentine Blaptica dubia which cannot stand the cold and cannot adapt to conditions in the Netherlands
The town council has brought in a specialist company to help catch the insects. Police are making door-to-door inquiries to try to find out the origin of the plague.
