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When non-roach aficionados see a cockroach, they may dash for the bug spray or frantically call a pest control company. Or double-stomp or triple-stomp it.

Not at the Roach Races, hosted by the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) and held in front of Briggs Hall during the annual campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day. Admission and parking are free campuswide.

The roaches are athletes to be loved, supported and cheered. They bear such names as "Speedster" or "Dr. Bob" or "Papa" as they race toward the checkered flags.

This year's event is set from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 18. It features American cockroaches  (Periplaneta americana) from a UC Davis research lab. 

It works like this: the race director holds up a cockroach, and asks for volunteers to name the athlete: it could be named for anyone thought worthy or unworthy of a roach name. Sometimes it's a professor, a colleague, a friend, an enemy, or an innocent bystander. (All bystanders are innocent.) 

And then it's meet-and-greet time. "Who wants to pet the roach?"  Arms reach out. Cell phone cameras and videos record the scene. 

Once the "formalities" are over,  the athletes enter the starting gate. Teams cheer for their favorite. A puff of air prompts the roaches to head for the finish line. Some decline. Some stop. Some flip over. One wins.

The race directors make it fun.

Last year it went like this: "Where y'all from?" asks race director Carla-Christina "CC" Edwards, a doctoral candidate and mosquito researcher in the lab of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

"Maryland," one spectator says.

"You came all the way from Maryland to see our UC Davis roach races?"

"Yeah, sure did!" he says. And the crowd cheers.

As the roaches line up in the starting gate, another attendee yells "$50 on Number 2!" 

The crowd roars.

"We don't allow gambling in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology," Edwards deadpans.

And then the next race is about to begin.

."Who wants to pet the roaches?" ask two doctoral students, Veronica Casey of the lab of nematologist Shahid Siddique, and Alice Yu-Ping Meng of the lab of molecular geneticist-physicist Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. 

"I do! Over here! Over here!"

Arms stretch. A roach receives a pat on the head.  And another race begins. 

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Bohart Museum of Entomology

Roaches--Madagascar hissing cockroaches--also will be featured at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's pop-up tent on the Briggs Hall grounds. It will be staffed from 1 to 4 p.m. The "hissers" are part of the live petting zoo. Visitors can hold and photograph them, along with stick insects, aka walking sticks. The Bohart Museum is also spotlighting  "Oh, My" drawers and an butterfly netting competition, using an insect net and a whirling paper butterfly. (Note that the Bohart Museum headquarters in the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, will be closed Picnic Day.)

UC Statewide IPM Program

Another place to see a cockroach--in person--is at the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) exhibit in the Briggs Hall courtroom.  UC IPM will provide information on beneficial insects and pests, answer questions, and hand out free lady beetles (aka ladybugs) and temporary bug tattoos, said Karey Windbiel-Rojgas, associate director of UC IPM's Urban and Community IPM.

Windbiel-Rojas will be wearing her cockroach costume at least part of the time "but not very long," she said. Last year she sported a matching purse. Do cockroaches carry purses? They do. Some roaches also run in the UC Davis Roach Races and some are cuddled in the Bohart Museum's pop-up tent.

For more information on the entomological activities at Briggs Hall during the UC Davis Picnic Day, see the Department of Entomology and Nematology website.

Cover image: Petting an American cockroach at the 2025 UC Davis Picnic Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)