Plano, Texas -
Cockroach Hall of Fame

Quoting from the business owner, "It is not the Smithsonian." The owner Michael Bohdan shows his live Madagascar roaches if the weather in TX is not too cold. When we visited the museum, the live cockroaches were taken home by Michael because it was too cold to let them sleep in the shop overnight.

The hat that he will put on will show some dead Madagascarian roaches. His shop is not only available to help with the extermination of pests such as ants, mice, roaches, rats, etc, but he will inform you how to get rid of pests in your home. He exhibits his collection of roaches in the form of celebrities such as Elvis, Brittney Spear, Liberoachi and others.

Michael is very friendly and will give you historical info and will pose or take pics of you and your party (with your camera) when you visit his shop. Bohdan is a zoology major with a bachelor's degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. So he knows what he is talking about! [Carol Saltsgaver, 01/07/2010]

I just wanted to confirm the Cockroach Hall of Fame is still up and running all these years later. I just called Mr Bohden, and he's wearily maintaining his business. To be honest, I worked as a manager of a fast food restaraunt two doors down from there for a year from 1993-1994, and I never knew it was there! There are no signs indicating that his Pest Store is an attraction or museum of any kind. It's just a do-it-yourself pest control store.

If you're in the area, and you've got nothing to do . . . go see nearby Southfork Ranch where they filmed the TV show Dallas. [Terrence S. Chapman, 08/06/2005]

Just wanted to add more info about the great Cockroach Museum in Plano Texas. The guy is real fun to talk to, and he gave me free BBQ flavor Larva to eat! His hat has mounted on it some dead hissing cockroaches, he'll let you wear it for photos. Michael Bohdan is his name, and he gives autographs. He really is a kick in the pants to talk with. I think the best part is the fact that he'll stop mid-convo (talking about his old "Last Supper with roaches" diorama) and help customers with problems with skunks, then hop right back into his old stories about his nationwide competitions for roach art.

Well worth the roadtrippers time. I mean, can you think of a better time spent than checking out "David Letterroach"?

Take I-75 north from dallas, Exit at the 15th street off-ramp. The museum is about 1.5 miles west at the northwest corner of Custer and 15th streets. It's just a small glass door in a series of shopfronts labeled the "pest shop." [Darren Collins, 04/21/2000]

[RA: Jan. 2003 - Todd Kent provided this close-up view of the cockroach Elvis.]

Here in my home town of Dallas is a wacky little display of signer roaches. It used to be "The Cockroach Hall of Fame" but the owners expanding interest in pest trapping and more high tech ways of pest disposal other than Raid or the ol' boot method have taken front seat to the shrinking roach museum. It is located in "The Pest Shop". He has a number of roach dioramas on display, such as "Liberoache" and the best one is a mechanical Psycho display where a little roach dressed in a housecoat and wig moves along a little track from the Bates Roach motel office to Room 1, with a tiny knife in its hand.

The owner is very nice and loves to reminisce about his days on talk shows when his roaches were all the rage. And to top it off, he will show you his prize pets, some really big exotic hissing roaches which jump and "pssss" if you touch them. He offered to let us pick them up and play with them too, but we politely declined. He doesn't have postcards anymore, but he does have t-shirts and books. [Tess B., 06/24/1998]