Prank close to roaches

STRAPHANGERS who bugged out when an actress-turned-performance artist flung a container of crickets and worms onto a crowded D train should count their blessings.

It was almost roaches, prankster Zaida Pugh confessed to the Daily News.

“It was supposed to be roaches,” Pugh said Saturday. “I ordered some hissing roaches, but I had to pick them up from the post office. It’s a good thing it wasn’t roaches, because people would have bugged out way wilder. That would have been overboard.”

“I’m glad I didn’t considering how far it went,” she said.

Wednesday’s rush-hour prank went pretty far on its own — even without the roaches.

Videos of people panicking on the bug-infested train went viral — and police are weighing charges against the 21-year-old artist.

“We are exploring (charges),” a high-ranking police source said Saturday. “It makes sense to me.”

In the video, Pugh (photo) posed as a crazed homeless woman trying to sell a bucket of bugs as the train rumbled over the Manhattan Bridge. A seemingly fedup straphanger — another actor — smacks the container out of her hand, sending the critters flying and commuters scattering for cover. A second accomplice is later seen in the video punching Pugh.

But even before she could post something about the prank, other commuters had put up their own videos — and the prank ended up on the news.

She admitted Friday that the entire ordeal — which ended with her being hospitalized for a few hours — was a hoax.

“I wanted to show how the homeless are treated and how people react to things like this — they take out their phones and start to record when they should be helping,” she said. “I’m sorry how it went but I was trying to put a message across.”