Excited children surrounded the tubes, tapping the plastic as racing cockroaches "Frodo" and "Pulled Pork" scurried down to the finish line.

As one of the racers reached the finish, an eager boy attempted to scoop it out of the tube with his hands instead of using the provided bucket. The roach escaped, and after a frantic minute the spectators managed to contain it.

The cockroach race was just one of the activities and exhibits at the 13th annual Great Insect Fair, held Saturday in the Penn State Agricultural Arena. Hundreds of children and fans of entomology attended.

Howard Fescemyer, senior research associate at the department of biology, oversaw the roach race. "We have one who has a wing malfunction who we call 'Misfit,' " he said, holding up a small plastic bucket with a cockroach inside. "We've had a couple get injured; we've had to retire them."

Fescemyer said Misfit and Pulled Pork were the star racers of the afternoon, smashing the dreams of such hopefuls as Frodo, Black Beauty and Longhorn.

He said the activity was designed to teach people about American cockroaches, specifically their ability to "run really fast" and their benign nature.

Debbie Schmider, leader of the Westmoreland County 4-H Entomology Club, displayed a prize-winning box of specimens captured by the 40 children in her organization. "We go out at one in the morning and we stay out 'til nine," she said, describing how the group found the moths, beetles and other bugs on display.

Neelendra Joshi (graduate-entomology) displayed a live praying mantis by putting it on his face.

"This is my friend's pet, he used to keep it in his lab," Joshi said.

He said the praying mantis is beneficial to humans. "It feeds on many species of insect that infest our crop," he said.

Yale Goldman was at the fair representing an organization he created called "The Dead Bug in Amber Club." He sold insects trapped in resin that, over the course of millions of years, fossilized into amber.

He pointed to a picture of a specimen and smiled. "You can see the hairs on the wings, you can count the lenses on the eyes -- and that's over 90 million years old," he said.

Pam Pollister wore a name tag proclaiming herself to be the "Cockroach Lady" as she sold Madagascar hissing cockroaches to fair-goers. She described them as the perfect pet. "They are low maintenance. They eat human foods. They don't move fast. They don't have wings," she said.

Pollister said events such as the Great Insect Fair were helpful in making people be more appreciative and less fearful of insects.

"Shakespeare said 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,' " she said. "I think a cockroach by any other name would not be as feared."