OAK HARBOR, Wash. — These are not pests. They’re pets!
"There are thousands of isopods in this house," laughed Narissa Jackson, who's raising them in bins in her Whidbey Island home.
Isopods are not insects. They're actually members of the crustacean family. They're members of Narissa Jackson's family as well.
It began like a lot of these things do...
“There was a Craigslist ad, a couple of sisters in Sedro Woolley that were selling isopods and I got a few different types from them and [it] just kind of spread from there," Jackson explained.
She bought them to serve as a cleaning crew for her pet reptiles - isopods eat decaying material. Soon, she was obsessed with these colorful cousins to the common potato bugs that you find in your garden.
Jackson's isopods are more exotic than garden variety ones. With names like "Magic Potion," "Dairy Cow" and "Panda King" - which sports a wide black stripe and does look a bit like a panda. Exotic isopods, like the "Thai Spikey" that Jackson covets, can be pricey.
"Yes, there are some that are really expensive upwards of a couple $100 per bug," Jackson said.
They're generally low maintenance - except for the occasional escape.
"I got out of the shower the other morning and I looked down on the floor and there was one crawling across the floor so I had to rescue him and put him back in its bin," Jackson said.
Jackson's family has caught 'the bug' too.
"They really enjoy helping me take care of them for sure,” she said. "It's just kind of fun to watch and take care of them and just be able to dive into that little world."
These tiny relatives of crab and shrimp don't sit or fetch. But for some folks, they're a perfectly practical pet.
"I don't think they really have personalities. They're just fun to watch.” Jackson said.
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