Ultimate (Bug) Fighting Championship

VS.

Ever fantasized about watching exotic insects fight to the death inside tiny glass arenas? Then prepare for a one-way trip to Happy Town! Japanesebugfights.com brings the uniquely Asian obsession with bug battling online, where spectators can watch deadly duels between centipedes, praying mantises, rhinoceros beetles, scorpi­ons, bees, and everyone’s favorite biblical badass, the locust. “No one can beat the locust,” says the site’s founder and operator, Kyle Benzle. “He’s a deadly and unmerciful killer.”

Now based in Ohio, Benzle caught the bug-fighting bug while living in Japan. He says Japanesebugfights.com has nearly 600,000 hits since he launched it in 2004, and now he’s trying to turn the squirmy site into a TV show. As for why the insects seem so eager to attack each other once unleashed, experts say the critters are simply responding to innate survival instincts. “It’s eat or be eaten,” says Michigan State University entomologist Rich Merritt. Hey, better them than us!

WHAT'S ALL THE BUZZ ABOUT?