This House Is a Job for ‘Dr. Cockroach’

TULSA, Okla. — This is one contest Rosemary Mitchell was embarrassed to enter and relieved to win. A San Francisco-based insecticide company chose her house as one of the most roach-infested in the country.

The grand prize: a house call from “Dr. Cockroach,” an entomologist whose true name is Austin Frishman. Frishman estimated that between 60,000 and 100,000 roaches had set up quarters in Mitchell’s one-story house.

“It’s really embarrassing, but I figure I’ve got this problem and I’m probably not the only one,” she said. “After you have roaches for so long and use everything I’ve used, you get kind of desperate.”