Then there's the robotic roach - a fusion of live cockroach and mini-computer, surgically attached to its back. By sending messages to the computer, the cockroach can be directed to places that are hard for to humans to access, such as collapsed buildings or broken sewers, where they collect data.
"When I first saw them, my hair stood up," says the lead researcher on a project at Texas A&M University, Hong Liang. "But I went on to keep some in my office as pets for a while. They are actually beautiful creatures. They are constantly cleaning themselves."
In June students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University demonstrated how they could control cockroaches with their minds. Translating human brain waves into electrical impulses, they directed a cockroach attached to receiver down different shaped tunnels - simply by thinking about it.
There is cockroach-related research in medicine too. Scientists had long wondered how roaches could spend their lives in dirty environments with no ill effects and it turns out they produce their own powerful antibiotics.
They might hold the key when it comes to developing drugs to knock out the most virulent bacteria that make humans ill, such as E. coli, MRSA and other superbugs resistant to many existing treatments.
