More than one million cockroaches have escaped from a Chinese farm and fled into nearby corn fields.
The bugs broke free on Aug. 20 from a nursery in western China where they were being raised for use in traditional Chinese medicine, according to the Modern Express.
According to the Express, the facility’s owner Wang Pengsheng returned to his farm to find that an “unknown perpetrator” had destroyed the plastic greenhouse he used to raise the crunchy critters.
Authorities in the area started a “large scale disinfection” on Aug. 22 and urged residents to stay calm, according to Shanghaiist.
Pengsheng started his roach farm by buying 225 lbs. of Periplaneta americana cochroach eggs which he used to hatch over 1,500,000 roaches that were being fed “fruit and biscuits” everyday.
Pengsheng was expecting to make around $160 for every 2 lbs of cockroaches he sold, but now the farmer is facing huge losses because of the great roach escape.
Although cockroaches are thought of as pests in much of the world, they are valued in China where extracts from the bugs are used in medicines to treat cancer, reduce inflammation and improve overall autoimmune system health, according to Discovery News.