Bihar Festival Decorates With Giant Cockroaches; Perth Flat-Hunters Say ‘Feels Like Home’
Thermocol insects and spider webs draw selfie crowds; Perth letting agents take notes.
A festival in India, with fewer cockroaches in this picture than in the real one. Photo: Xopolino, “Pandal at Durga Puja in Kolkata 2018 23”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
KATIHAR — A festival pavilion in the Indian state of Bihar has been decorated with giant thermocol cockroaches and spider webs, and has become a hit with visitors taking selfies.
In Perth, students looking for flats said the photographs were “comforting”. “It looks like the viewing I went to on Atholl Street,” said one. “But tidier.”
Local letting agents have reportedly asked whether giant insects could be described as “characterful period features”.
The real story: Real: cockroach-themed Durga Puja pandal in Katihar, Bihar (India Today, 20 Oct 2026)
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