The harvester roasp is a hive-minded, scavenging insect that combines many aspects of cockroaches and wasps. They were created to gather usable materials from old waste disposal sites and the environment in general.
Each strain of roasp can sense a different kind of material and uses this to build its nest. When released on an area which contains this stuff, a swarm of roasps gathers and cleans it, then constructs a hive around the queen with it. Their hardiness means they can enter into toxic environments and bring out purified material. They do not eat their nesting matter, instead being omnivorous scavengers and opportunistic predators.
Humans keep harvester roasp colonies and move them around the wilderness, searching for old deposits of valuable material. At the start of winter, most of the drones die off, and the queens can be taken from their hives, which are then sold as raw material.
Roasp keepers are often adventurous and strange people who spend more time in the company of