When you think of a pet in your pocket, it’s usually some fuzzy little critter like a hamster or a guinea pig… most people don’t conjure up images of a hissing cockroach. Many of us, after all, hire exterminators to rid our homes of as many bugs possible.

But some people actually keep cockroaches as pets! I recently read about a family who has a menagerie of pets—including a millipede—and thought, what other kinds of bugs do people keep as parts of their families?

It turns out that there are quite a few. Below are some of the most popular bugs people choose to keep as pets.

Hissing Cockroaches: These big bad bugs from Madagascar just creep me out. Does anybody out there keep one? If so, maybe you can explain your fondness for them and help those of us with the heebie jeebies “get it.” They’re supposed to be super cheap and easy to handle.

Caterpillars: OK, I get this one. They’re fuzzy and generally not too scary, after all. You’ve probably seen kits that kids can use in watching their own caterpillars grow into butterflies.

Praying Mantids: There are kits for keeping these insects, too. They’re quite popular among the insect lover crowd and easy to care for—though they don’t live for more than a year. Maybe feminists (like me) might like to keep them—after all, the females do eat their mates after mating. Way to control the population growth!

Spiders: From wolf spiders to tarantulas, I’ve never understood the desire to have a spider as a pet. (Aren’t pets supposed to like, love you back?). In fact, we hire a guy to keep our spider population down—brown recluses are big in our area—and those spiders include wolf spiders. Does that mean we could catch the things and sell them to pet stores?

As a side note, I will admit to keeping three harmless spiders in our kitchen window one summer. They kept the bug population down and I talked to them every day, fondly dubbing them Charlotte, Arachne, and Big Mama.

Ants: Ants—as in ant farms—are the most popular form of insect pet in the United States. It is kind of cool to see them tunnel their way around—but imagine the mess if they get out!

Milipedes: These suckers just creep me out. There was one in the carpet the other night and I screamed until my guy stepped on it (please don’t call me, PETA). I can’t imagine forking over $20 for an African Giant Black Milipede, but to each his own.

Field Crickets: The little lucky cricket in Disney’s Mulan was a cutie, so why not? Field crickets can’t fly, so it might be fun to have these musical critters in your house in an aquarium.

Do you keep insects as pets? Share your bug pet stories in the comments.