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The Beauty Of Cockroaches : Short Wave Cockroaches - do they get a bad rap? Producer Thomas Lu teams up with self-proclaimed lesbian cockroach defender Perry Beasley-Hall to convince producer/guest host Rebecca Ramirez that indeed they are under-rated. These critters could number up to 10,000 species, but only about 30 are pesky to humans and some are beautiful! And complicated! And maybe even clean.

What insect do you think gets a bad rap? Write us at ShortWave@NPR.org. You can follow Thomas on Twitter @ThomasUyLu and Rebecca @RebeccalRamirez.

Short Wave

Cockroaches are cool!

Cockroaches are cool!

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A blue stripe cockroach (Pseudophyllodromia sp.) on a leaf. Science Photo Library hide caption

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Science Photo Library

A blue stripe cockroach (Pseudophyllodromia sp.) on a leaf.

Science Photo Library

Cockroaches - do they get a bad rap? Producer Thomas Lu teams up with self-proclaimed lesbian cockroach defender Perry Beasley-Hall to convince producer/guest host Rebecca Ramirez that indeed they are under-rated. These critters could number up to 10,000 species, but only about 30 are pesky to humans and some are beautiful! And complicated! And maybe even clean.

What insect do you think gets a bad rap? Write us at shortwave@npr.org. You can follow Thomas on Twitter @ThomasUyLu and Rebecca @RebeccalRamirez.

This episode was produced by Berly McCoy with help from Rebecca Ramirez and Thomas Lu. Berly also checked the facts, and it was edited by Gisele Grayson. The audio engineer for this episode was Josh Newell.