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Cockroaches are resilient, problematic pests. The Oriental cockroach, Blatta orientalis, is an outdoor species that’s no stranger to venturing indoors for food. These insects are also commonly called “water bugs” and thrive in cool, humid locations.

Unfortunately, Oriental cockroaches are a dangerous, disgusting pest that you definitely don’t want around your home and family. They commonly carry diseases that they pick up from their unpleasant diet of garbage and decaying material. And it only takes a few roaches to spread bacteria all over your home.

The information below will help you to identify an Oriental cockroach problem, eliminate the roaches, and prevent infestations in the future.

Read on to learn about these unwelcome pests. And what you can do to keep them out.

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How to Identify an Oriental Cockroach

Oriental cockroach identification: adult, nymph and egg capsule beside penny for scale
Oriental cockroach adult, egg sac, and nymph. Oriental roaches are brown when young, but grow darker as they mature.

Oriental cockroaches have several distinguishing characteristics. They grow to about an inch in length and are dark brown or black in color. They’re smaller than American cockroaches but larger than German cockroaches. Their bodies appear glossy and their legs feature tiny hairs.

Cockroaches have a reputation for being quick, agile insects, but Oriental cockroaches are noticeably slower than other species. Male Oriental cockroaches have wings that cover about 3/4 the length of their bodies, while females have much shorter wings. Despite their wings, neither gender of Oriental cockroach can fly.

Where Do Oriental Cockroaches Live?

Oriental cockroach range: cockroach illustration superimposed over U.S. map
Oriental cockroach known distribution (in orange) across the United States. Original data via BugGuide.

Oriental roaches are found around the world and are especially problematic in the Northwest, Midwest and Southern U.S. These cockroaches live primarily outdoors. They will enter homes looking for food but prefer to hide in woodpiles, clutter and debris.

Like many other cockroach species, the Oriental cockroach likes to live in humid places. Cockroaches need easy access to water to survive, so they’re attracted to areas that are humid or wet. However, Oriental cockroaches can live in cooler habitats than those of other roach species. This leads them into sewers, piping and any other damp, cool area in the house.

Oriental cockroaches thrive on a diet high in starch but they’ll scavenge for almost anything edible. This includes trash and sewage, making their presence in or around your home extremely unpleasant.

Places You Might Come into Contact with Oriental Cockroaches

Since these cockroaches look for warm, moist areas to live, you might find them in your garage, basement or crawl space. They also congregate in water meter boxes, around floor drains, and in other damp, shady areas near the ground, particularly those that contain organic debris.

Though they mostly live outdoors, Oriental cockroaches sometimes enter homes through drain pipes or spaces in window frames and vents. Once inside, they can move from room to room on piping in the walls, emerging in bathrooms or kitchens. They can’t climb smooth, steep surfaces, so you might find them trapped in a bathtub or deep sink.2

Signs of an Oriental cockroach infestation include egg cases, dead roaches, and droppings.

If you see a living cockroach, there are probably more hiding somewhere nearby. If the population becomes large enough, you might notice a strange odor near the area they’ve infested. Contaminated food might also give off this odor, signaling that Oriental roaches have touched it.

Life Cycle of Oriental Cockroaches

Illustration of an oriental cockroach and egg case superimposed over basement floor
The female Oriental cockroach deposits a single egg capsule that can hold as many as 16 eggs.

Female Oriental cockroaches carry egg capsules anywhere between 12 hours to five days before hiding them. The average female produces 8 egg capsules during her lifetime, called oothecae, that contain as many as 16 eggs each. The egg cases are a little less than 1/2 inch long and dark red or brown.

Populations can increase rapidly–a single female cockroach typically lays enough eggs to produce 115 roaches in a year. After hatching, the nymphs (baby cockroaches) mature slowly for cockroaches (around 185 days for males and 216 days for females), with 89% surviving to adulthood.

Adult Oriental cockroaches typically live between 1 to 6 months, mating at any time during that period. However, Oriental cockroach populations are seasonal, usually peaking in the spring and early summer. The largest number of nymphs tend to hatch later in the year.

These cockroaches depend on accessible water for survival but they can live up to a month without eating.

Are Oriental Cockroaches Dangerous?

Oriental cockroaches are problematic pests to find in your home. Their diet of garbage, sewage, and decaying matter makes them prime carriers of bacteria.

Once cockroaches have found a way into your home, they can quickly contaminate cooking surfaces and any food that’s left unsealed. They feed on crumbs, spills, and tiny scraps of food, and sometimes hide their eggs in unsealed food or pantry products.

In the process, they can contaminate utensils, cooking supplies, countertops, bathroom supplies and other household items. Floor drains and under-sink spaces are particularly attractive to cockroaches, as they frequently contain food waste.

Some of the most common illnesses that result from Oriental cockroach infestations are food poisoning and diarrhea from the Salmonella and E. coli they can carry and transmit. Dead roaches, old egg cases and droppings can also trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks in people sensitive to allergens.

How to Get Rid of Oriental Cockroaches

Controlling an Oriental cockroach infestation begins with discovering how they made their way in. It’s important to carefully inspect your home, inside and outside, to find their entry points. Look for gaps in siding, cracks leading into your basement, spaces where pipes enter the walls, and any other holes near the ground.

Oriental cockroaches are most active at night, so it’s difficult to spot them in action. You’ll do better looking for signs (such as droppings), and noting areas they’re likely to gather (for example, holes in walls and cracks along the floor).

Sometimes, it’s necessary to place sticky traps in areas you suspect cockroaches are hiding to better pinpoint their habitats. Insect “bombs” or foggers are not usually effective because Oriental cockroaches tend to hide in crevices and holes that are difficult to reach.

Professional treatment might be the only option for a large infestation. Professional pest controllers might use a perimeter spray to deter them from your house.

Tips for Preventing Future Cockroach Infestations

Oriental cockroaches are resilient pests that are dangerous to your home and can be difficult to control on your own. It’s much easier to take measures to prevent an infestation than it is to control one.

Here are some tips to help you protect your home from Oriental cockroaches:

  1. Prevent clutter in storage areas
  2. Seal holes and cracks around your home
  3. Clean up landscaping, stack woodpiles, and clear leaves and debris around windows and doors
  4. Sweep for crumbs and wipe counters frequently

1. Prevent clutter in storage areas

Oriental cockroaches’ favorite locations are cluttered, humid, dark spaces. Unfortunately, basements and crawl spaces are often exactly that: poorly ventilated and full of boxes and clutter. This makes them ideal habitats for cockroaches and other insects.

Tidy up these and other storage areas–your garage or shed, for example–to make them less attractive to pests. If you live in a particularly humid environment, it might be necessary to repair or install better ventilation.

2. Seal holes and cracks around your home

Over time, holes and crevices develop around the outside of your home. Weathering can create spaces around piping and utility boxes, making it easy for pests to come inside. Taking time to properly seal the exterior and interior walls of your home can make a big difference in your fight against pests. Use caulking in and around high-risk areas, such as closets, cabinets, doors, windows, and walls, to prevent cockroaches entering.

3. Clean up landscaping and woodpiles

As primarily outdoor creatures that tend to gather in warm, moist, shady areas that provide them food, hydration and protection, your goal is to deprive Oriental roaches of the spaces and material they find attractive around your home.

If the plants around your home have become overgrown or cluttered, spend some time clearing out the debris to remove potential cockroach habitats. In addition, you should stack woodpiles neatly (and away from your home, if possible) to keep them dry and organized.

4. Sweep for crumbs and wipe counters frequently

The primary reason an Oriental cockroach (or just about any other pest) enters your home is to find food. Leaving dirty dishes in the sink or crumbs on the carpet makes it easy for insects to thrive on your leftovers. To prevent dangerous pests from making your home their home, turn cleaning into a nightly habit.

Always sweep and vacuum floors for crumbs. Clean dishes after you’ve used them and wipe counters every night. We know that nobody wants more chores, but you’ll thank yourself every day that you don’t find roaches or other bugs scurrying across your floor.

Conclusion

You can’t cut corners when it comes to defending your home against pests. Oriental cockroaches are an especially resilient and dangerous pest. It’s important to do everything you can to keep them out.

If you’ve already seen a cockroach or found evidence that they might be present, don’t take any risks. Start planning your cockroach control solution today.

If you’re worried you won’t be able to stop them on your own, call a professional pest control service. Cockroaches can spread disease and multiply quickly. Implementing effective pest control as quickly as possible is key to eliminating the problem.

You can do this! Take action today to live pest-free tomorrow.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Oriental cockroaches fly?

No. Oriental roaches have wings, but their wings are too small and underdeveloped to be used for flight.

Can Oriental cockroaches climb walls?

No. Unlike many other roaches, their legs aren’t equipped for climbing.

Can Oriental cockroaches bite?

Oriental cockroaches have the ability to bite humans, but rarely do.

Can Oriental cockroaches come out of toilets?

It does happen, but usually only under certain circumstances: Your toilet has a u-bend that creates a water barrier between the sewer and your home. Should the toilet and u-bend dry out, roaches have an unobstructed path from the sewer into your house.

Can Oriental cockroaches jump?

No. Oriental cockroaches do not jump, and don’t even move very fast. Their legs are made for crawling.

Can Oriental cockroaches swim?

Oriental roaches don’t swim, but they do float. They can also remain totally submerged in water for as long as 40 minutes.

Can you flush an Oriental cockroach?

You can try, but it may not be very helpful. Since a cockroach can live for 40 minutes submerged, there’s a good chance it will end up alive in a nearby sewer – and possibly return to your house.

Do Oriental cockroaches smell?

Yes. Groups of Oriental cockroaches give off a pungent, unpleasant odor.

What kills Oriental cockroaches?

Oriental roaches can be killed with special dusts, baits, and sprays. The dusts are applied to areas where they travel. Sprays kill them on contact. And baits kill them after they’ve found and eaten them.

How to get rid of Oriental cockroaches naturally?

Begin by eliminating their access to food, water, and shelter – by cleaning up food sources, eliminating water drips, and plugging or patching holes around your house. To kill them, boric acid is a natural product that is often used to good effect.

Can exterminators get rid of Oriental cockroaches?

Oriental cockroaches are one of the more difficult roaches to eliminate, but the answer is yes – an exterminator can get rid of Oriental cockroaches.

Written by Andrew Martin. Reviewed by Rae Osborn, PhD.

Andrew Martin

Andrew Martin

Writer/Publisher

Andrew writes for, and along with his daughter, publishes Cockroach Facts. You can read more about him here.

Rae Osborn, PhD.

Rae Osborn, PhD.

Science Editor

Dr. Rae Osborn holds Honors Bachelor of Science degrees in Zoology and Entomology, and a Master of Science in Entomology from the University of Natal in South Africa. She holds a PhD in Quantitative Biology from the University of Texas at Arlington, where her research was in Entomology. You can learn more about our contributors here.


Sources:

  1. McCanless, Kim (2014) Oriental Cockroach. Featured Creatures. Retrieved from http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/roaches/oriental_cockroach.htm
  2. Sutherland, Andrew M. (2019) Pests of Homes, Structures, People, and Pets. How to Manage Pests. Retrieved from http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7467.html
  3. Jacobs, Steve (2017) Oriental Cockroaches. PennState Extension. Retrieved from https://extension.psu.edu/oriental-cockroaches

Many kinds of bugs can wind up in your home. But when you discover one that looks like it came in on purpose, you may begin to wonder if you have a cockroach problem.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to figure that out, starting with an easy question: how many legs do cockroaches have? Then, to narrow things down more, you’ll see a few other bugs that look like cockroaches so you can compare them. 

Finally, you’ll see what several kinds of roaches look like, and with some helpful links, learn how to get rid of them (along with all their friends).

Let’s get to it!

Roach Legs: What They Look Like and What They Do

Illustration of an American cockroach on orange. Label reads: 6 Legs
How many legs do roaches have? Six—two front legs, 2 middle legs, and 2 hind legs.

Like all insects, cockroaches have six legs. That alone doesn’t tell you exactly what your bug is, but at least you know it’s not a spider! (Those have eight legs. They’re arachnids, not insects.)

The Science of Cockroach Legs (Skip this section if you just need to identify the bugs)

Roach legs are slender, spiny and jointed. They come in three pairs, each of which is attached to a segment of the roach’s thorax—the “torso” part of its body.

The three pairs of legs serve different purposes and, thus, have different names.

  1. Right behind the head are the prothoracic legs, which the cockroach uses to slow itself down. They’re the shortest.
  2. In the middle are the mesothoracic legs, which help the insect adjust its speed, speeding up or slowing down as needed.
  3. At the rear are the metathoracic legs, the roach’s strong hind legs that propel it forward at speeds of up to 50 body lengths per second!

As a cockroach walks, it moves its middle leg on one side with the front and back legs on the opposite side. By alternating steps in this way, it gains incredible mobility on even the most difficult terrain.

Fun fact: When a roach is climbing upside-down on the ceiling, it takes slower, longer strides to better maintain contact and avoid falling off. This takes a lot of energy and care, so a roach runs much more slowly on the ceiling. 

Other Important Cockroach Characteristics

Illustration of 3 cockroaches side-by-side: Oriental cockroach, American cockroach, and German cockroach
Oriental cockroach (left), American cockroach (middle), and German cockroach (right)

In addition to its legs, you can begin to ID a cockroach by its color. Most are brown, tan, reddish-brown or black.

Roaches also have two long antennae, flat bodies, a small head, and wings (though in some species and sexes you can barely see them). If you were to examine a cockroach closely, you’d also find a pair of small tendril-like filaments called cerci at its base. If you were to discover a female cockroach carrying an egg case, you’d see the egg case protruding from behind, sometimes looking very much like part of the roach’s body.

Size is a less reliable characteristic since roach sizes vary widely. The very small German cockroach grows to only about 0.5 inches long. While the much larger American cockroach grows up to 2 inches in length.

Why You Might Not Always See Six Legs on a Cockroach

Realistic illustration of a cockroach that appears to have 4 legs.
Illustration of a cockroach missing a leg.

At first glance, you might see only four legs on the bug you’ve spotted, but that doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. Sometimes, a roach’s front legs are small enough to be hidden beneath its body, making it look like the insect has four legs.

Additionally, not every cockroach has six legs. A roach can live on after losing a leg or two as it scavenges and explores new environments. You might spot one with five or even four legs, hobbling along but refusing to leave you alone nonetheless.

One incredible part of the cockroach’s genome even allows these insects to regenerate lost legs! After enough time, that five-legged cockroach could return to its true six-legged form.

With the basics out of the way, we’re going to start narrowing down your suspect by eliminating some of the bugs that look like cockroaches.

How Cockroaches Are Different From Beetles

Comparison illustration of an American cockroach, Oriental cockroach, and Smoky Brown cockroach vs a Bor beetle

Most beetles have spiny legs, just like cockroaches. But beetles’ legs tend to be shorter than cockroach legs. On a ground beetle, an occasional household pest, you’ll notice that its mouth has pincers. You won’t find these on a cockroach.

You can also look at the wings (if it has any). Flying roaches have a single pair of long, thin wings, the top of which (the ones you’ll see) are leathery. Beetles usually have two pairs of wings, the top of which, the elytra, are hard and protective.

If the bug you saw was flying around your house and fluttered away as you tried to swat it, it probably wasn’t a cockroach.

Most roaches don’t like to fly. Even among the ones that can, they’re rarely very good at it. Roaches mostly use their wings to glide or “hop” to higher elevations. They like to keep their feet on the ground, where they’re fast runners.

How to Tell a Cockroach from a Cricket

Illustration of an American cockroach, a German cockroach, and a cricket in the foreground

With its huge hind legs, it’s hard to mistake a cricket for anything else. A roach’s six legs all look about the same, though they’re slightly different in length. But a cricket’s rear legs are much bigger than their other legs. They use them to make their signature chirping sound and to hop long distances.

Cockroaches are known for their flat, oval-shaped bodies that allow them to squeeze through tiny crevices. Crickets aren’t as flat. They also tend to have bigger heads, while a roach’s head is tiny and almost completely covered by a cowl-like structure (it looks like armor behind its neck).

How to Correctly Identify a Cockroach

Cartoon illustration of an angry cockroach caught inside a sticky trap

It’s going to be hard to tell with 100% certainty that you have a cockroach problem without seeing the bugs up close. For that, you’ll need a few sticky traps. These pest control products are inexpensive but extremely effective at catching, killing and, most importantly, revealing the bugs that have invaded your house.

One of the most popular sticky traps is the roach motel. To catch the bugs, place one roach motel close to the place where you saw the bug. Choose a spot that’s relatively hidden or out of the way—cockroaches don’t like to venture out in the open.

Depending on the size of the room, place 1–3 more traps, focusing on areas near appliances, large furniture or holes in the walls. If you can, put them behind or under the appliances or furniture, where insects would most likely hide.

The traps will attract any nearby roaches. By the next morning, you should have one (or more) trapped specimens to examine up close.

For more tips on identifying cockroaches and determining which species you’re dealing with, check out our guide to the types of roaches with pictures.

Conclusion

We started with a common first question: “how many legs do cockroaches have?” But you have to look a bit further than the legs to truly distinguish cockroaches from beetles, crickets and other insects that might’ve wandered into your home.

If you do have roaches, welcome to your new favorite site! You’ll find detailed overviews and step-by-step guides on how to eliminate any type of cockroach inside and outside of your home.

Don’t give the roaches a chance to get comfortable. Start getting rid of cockroaches today!

Frequently Asked Questions

How many pairs of walking legs do cockroaches have?

A cockroach has six walking legs. Its legs attach in three pairs to its thorax. The front, prothoracic legs are its brakes. The middle, mesothoracic legs are for adjusting speed. And the rear, metathoracic legs are for pushing it forward.

How do cockroaches walk on walls?

The segment of a cockroach’s leg closest to the floor is called the tarsus, and it might be the most important part of the leg. Underneath each subsegment of the tarsus are tiny, adhesive organs that act like sticky pads, suctioning the roach’s feet to smooth or vertical surfaces. This allows it to scale vertical walls and even climb on ceilings.

Can cockroaches regrow legs?

Cockroaches can regrow legs. It has a stronger ability to regenerate limbs in its nymphal stage, but adult roaches can regrow lost legs, too.

Can cockroaches walk backwards?

Cockroaches can walk backwards but, like most animals, they’re not as fast or agile as when they’re moving forwards. Their smaller front legs simply aren’t designed to propel them as quickly as their large hind legs.

Written by Andrew Martin, Reviewed by Helene Steenkamp, PhD.

Andrew Martin

Andrew Martin

Writer/Publisher

Andrew writes for, and along with his daughter, publishes Cockroach Facts. You can read more about him here.

Helene Steenkamp, PhD.

Science Editor

Helene is a Namibian born South African citizen with a great love for nature and its intricacies. She completed a PhD in molecular phylogenetics at the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2011, and has since worked as a postdoctoral researcher in this field at the University as well as the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa.

She has published several peer reviewed scientific articles with the use of genetic, taxonomic and phylogenetic tools, specializing in Entomology, taxonomy, zoonoses, epidemiology and bacterial & viral genetics.

These days, she is a stay-at-home-mother of two lovely boys, with whom she loves to explore nature from a different point of view. She also works as a freelance writer, editor and researcher for all things science.

You can learn more about our contributors here.


Sources

  1. Wilson, Tracy V. Cockroach Anatomy and Physiology. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved from https://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/cockroach1.htm
  2. Li, Sheng, et al. (2018) The genomic and functional landscapes of developmental plasticity in the American cockroach. Nature. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467–018–03281–1

To the surprise of no one who has ever lived in Texas, it’s one of the “roachiest” areas in the entire United States.

With multiple climates, many of which are pretty close to “cockroach heaven,” and weather events that are kind of like “cockroach hell” (floods and heat waves tend to drive roaches into nearby homes), Texas is not a place well suited to folks who can’t get at least a little used to having these bugs around.

Does that mean your home has to be stuck with a Texas cockroach infestation? Absolutely not.

Let’s take a look at roaches in Texas and nail down the best ways to get rid of them.

Types of Roaches in Texas

American Cockroach

American cockroach adult, nymph, and egg sac beside penny for scale
Known variously as a tree roach, palmetto bug, or wood roach, Texas has lots of these.

About

The biggest roach gets the most nicknames. Whether you know it as a tree roach, a palmetto bug, a wood roach, or Cockroach Rex (a current favorite of ours), the American cockroach is one monster of a bug.

Appearance

If you were to hold a ruler to a random Texas cockroach and found it well, really big—this is the roach it would be.

American roaches are oval-shaped and flat, with spiny legs, long wings and long antennae. They’re reddish-brown in color and often feature a yellow ring behind their heads. With the distinctive color of their wings and their often massive size, American roaches are easy to ID.

Habits

American cockroaches don’t mind living outdoors most of the time, where they live comfortably in harmless places like compost, trees, and decaying logs, as well as some of the worst places—storm drains, city dumpsters, and sewer systems.

However, they’re quite happy indoors, too, where they’ll nest in basements, boiler rooms, kitchens, and other spaces with lots of moisture.

Flight

Illustration of a huge tree roach flying in an open window
The flying cockroach, Texas-style

While there are actually four kinds of flying roaches in Texas, the American roach is the one everyone remembers—and with good reason. With a wingspan up to four inches, the American roach looks huge mid-air, makes a flutter you can hear, and has a bad habit of flying right toward you. (sometimes landing right on you).

German Cockroach

German cockroach nymph, adult, and egg, compared to a penny for size
The German cockroach: Texas has them even in cooler, drier regions.

About

Of the various types of cockroaches in Texas, German cockroaches usually do the greatest harm. Like a video gone viral, once German roaches take hold somewhere, they’ll spread and spread until they’re everywhere.

Appearance

Tiny and light brown, German cockroaches are among the smallest roaches, and partly because of that, often go unnoticed until an infestation is widespread.

Aside from its tiny size, you’ll know a German cockroach by the distinctive dark stripes running down its back. Most visible on the cowl behind its head, the markings appear bolder and thicker on younger roaches that haven’t yet grown wings to cover them.

Habits

German cockroaches can squeeze into tiny crevices with their flat bodies and leave behind dozens of eggs at a time. They prefer well-hidden, tightly confined spaces near lots of food and water. In most homes, that means a concentration of them in kitchen and pantry areas, with a seething, filthy nightmare often brewing in the spaces behind and underneath the fridge.

Most roaches actually prefer to live outdoors, but not the German cockroach. Texas droughts, floods, and searing temperatures never touch them because they always live indoors, and always inside human structures.

Though also technically a flying cockroach, Texas residents won’t see them do it often. What they will see is the damage this evil Texas cockroach does. They get into everything, defiling open food, and leaving cockroach droppings everywhere they go. They also spread disease.

Oriental Cockroach

Oriental cockroach identification: adult, nymph and egg capsule beside penny for scale

About

With its striking, shiny black exoskeleton, the Oriental cockroach is one of the most distinctive and easily identified roaches in Texas. With its seriously potent stink (you will smell them), it’s one of the strangest too.

Appearance

At about 1.25 inches in length, Oriental roaches are mid-sized insects. They’re rounder than German or brown-banded roaches and have shorter antennae.

To identify the Oriental cockroach, first look for its jet black color, then look for wings. If wings are short or nonexistent (and it’s not a wingless cockroach baby from another species), you’re probably looking at an Oriental.

Habits

Oriental roaches live in cool, damp areas. You’ll find them in basements, garages, bathrooms, laundry rooms and along the perimeter of your house.

Much less agile than other species, slow-moving Oriental roaches feed on crumbs from the floor and find shelter under appliances. These bugs don’t fly or climb; you might catch one in the shower at night or as it explores your basement.

Brown-banded

Brown banded cockroach adult, nymph, and egg case size comparison

About

Brown-banded cockroaches should head straight to East Austin because they’re the hipsters of the cockroach scene. Refusing to act like other roach species, they don’t like moisture, don’t like doing things at ground level, and regularly (if they’re males) fly to high-up hiding places.

Appearance

The brown-banded roach is named after the signature set of brown bands that cross its back. Its body is light brown to tan in color while the stripes are typically dark brown.

These roaches are nearly as small as German cockroaches and can be just as nasty to find in your home.

Habits

Being the moisture-hating outliers that they are, brown-banded cockroaches enjoy drier areas of Texas and prefer higher elevations.

They’ll nest in ceilings and attics, hide beneath roof shingles and even attach their egg cases behind wall decorations.

Asian Cockroach

Asian cockroach adult, nymph,and egg case relative in size to a penny

About

It might sound like we’re about to describe the German cockroach all over again but this is in fact another cockroach species to watch out for in Texas.

Appearance

About 1/2 inch long, light tan and featuring two dark stripes, the Asian cockroach looks so much like a German roach that researchers sometimes confuse the two species.

Habits

Although they look like German roaches, Asian roaches in Texas do mostly live outdoors.

They’re much stronger fliers than their German cousins—but not nearly the threat to your home. More of a nuisance pest than a homewrecking one, it’s their flying that gets under most people’s skin. Leave a window open in a well-lit room on a warm Houston evening and you might find yourself swatting Asian roaches for a good part of the night.

How to Solve a Texas Cockroach Problem

Getting rid of Texas cockroaches for good takes a multi-step cockroach control strategy that the pros call integrated pest management (IPM).

Sanitation and Exclusion

Start with the keystone steps—sanitation and exclusion—that hold up the rest of the plan.

Sanitation Tips for Texas Roaches

Sanitation cuts off roaches’ access to food and water, making them desperate to eat anything they can find.

  1. Use the vacuum to pick up crumbs, dust and dead and living roaches. Be sure to reach behind and under appliances and furniture.
  2. Wash the dishes every day and change the garbage bag as soon as it’s full.
  3. Store all of your food and ingredients in hard containers with tight-fitting lids.
  4. Repair leaky pipes, dripping sinks and loose hose faucets to remove water sources.

Exclusion Tips for Texas Roaches

Exclusion kicks them out of their hiding spots and makes it difficult for roaches to get in, get comfortable and get away from your traps.

  1. In eastern Texas and especially along the Gulf, battle moisture with dehumidifiers and fans.
  2. In western Texas, make sure your storage areas—especially in upper floors—are well-ventilated and decluttered.
  3. Cockroaches love a good cardboard box for nesting; use plastic containers to store things safely.
  4. Keep your landscaping clear of debris and avoid over-watering the soil. Look for the dark spots that signal trapped moisture around shrubs and trees and thin out the mulch.
  5. Seal gaps around water meter boxes, pipes, dryer vents and basement windows.
  6. It might be necessary to cover soffits with screens to keep out flying roaches in Texas.
  7. Texans already know to check their shoes for spiders and scorpions; you’ll want to check ‘em for roaches, too.

Texas Cockroach Control Plan

Once the roaches are desperate for food and displaced from their usual haunts, it’s time for a choreographed attack with the latest and greatest pest control tools.

  1. Traps – Use baited traps, like roach motels, or any of these great roach traps to start catching the pests ASAP. You’ll start to see where most of them are hiding and kill plenty along the way
  2. Gel bait – Use pea-sized drops of gel bait to target the colony—the heart of the roach infestation that’s hidden well out of reach. Insecticidal dust works well along with baits, killing any roaches that walk through it. You can treat wall cavities with dust to get as close to the colony as possible.
  3. Outside – Opt for a quality perimeter spray or granular bait to create an anti-roach barrier along walls and in mulched areas. This is especially important if you’re finding American or Oriental roaches in your home or business.

Need an exterminator?

If you’ve ID’d more than a few German, Asian or brown-banded roaches in your home, consider enlisting a professional pest control service. These bugs can explode into truly nasty roach infestations if they’re not controlled quickly and completely.

Since the climate and environment vary widely across Texas, research local exterminators that have experience treating homes in your area.

Ask about the specific products they use and inform them of any pets or other special conditions you might have. They should start with a walkthrough where you show them places where you’ve seen activity and they get an idea of how best to move forward with treatment.

Frequently Asked Questions

How common are roaches in Texas?

Texas is a huge state with plenty of pests and certainly no shortage of cockroaches. From the arid west to the Gulf Coast, roaches pose an ongoing threat to homes and businesses, spreading bacteria and contaminating food.

Are there flying roaches in Texas?

Yep! American roaches can fly, although they prefer to walk. Asian and brown-banded cockroaches are strong fliers that can cause problems in attics and ceilings. German roaches fly also, but prefer to crawl.

Why are roaches so bad in Texas?

It’s a combination of the climate, weather events, and the mix of urban centers and rural sprawls that makes Texas like one big cockroach hotspot.

The warmth and varying humidity make different areas ideal for different species of cockroaches. Put it all together and it’s a recipe for roach problems just about everywhere.

Texans, you’re not alone in the uphill battle against roaches—just ask anyone from Florida.

Conclusion

Roaches in Texas come in nearly a half dozen flavors but whatever the species, they’re disgusting bugs to find in your home.

With the details in this survival guide, you can identify the roach(es) you’ve seen and kickstart your plan to eliminate cockroaches for good.

Say goodbye to the Texas cockroach today!

Sources

  1. Brown, Wizzie et al. Cockroach Biology and Management: How to Control Them? Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Retrieved from https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/library/insects/cockroach-biology-and-management/
  2. Hurt, Harry III (1976) The World’s Most Despicable Bug. Texas Monthly. Retrieved from https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-worlds-most-despicable-bug/
  3. Wu, Gwendolyn (2019) Roaches are everywhere. How do I get rid of them? Houston Chronicle. Retrieved from https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/houston-how-to/article/Roaches-are-everywhere-How-do-I-get-rid-of-them-14446305.php

Finding a cockroach, even a tiny one, can be enough to ruin your day. But what about a roach so big it casts a shadow? So big that someone in your family actually starts to scream?

That my friend, is a giant cockroach, and yes—it’s real. The bad news? It’s not so much their size that’s the problem. It’s what they do.

They hang around in filth, and dirt, and sewers. And when they pay your home a visit, deposit germs and allergens that can make your household sick. If they decide they like your space, they’ll settle in. Then begin to multiply. Sometimes faster than you can imagine.

The good news? You can kill most roaches—even a giant roach, faster and more easily than you might think. Beginning with products that may be around your home right now.

Ready to say goodbye to giant roaches?

Let’s go!

What Exactly Is a Giant Cockroach?

American cockroach adult, nymph, and egg sac beside penny for scale
With its reddish brown body and a cream colored cowl behind its head, the American cockroach has a distinctive appearance, even beyond its size.

If you were to start poking around homes, yards, and sewers across the United States, you’d find several different species of cockroaches, some of them fairly large. None of them come even close however, to the size of a bug called the American cockroach, also known as the “palmetto bug” or “water bug.”

Tip: Is the above American roach not the one you saw? Also see these other large cockroach species: the Oriental cockroach, the smokybrown cockroach, the Pennsylvania wood cockroach, and the Australian cockroach.

With a body that grows well past 2 inches long, and antennae that equal its body length, the American cockroach is truly massive, sometimes unforgettably so, to people who see one for the first time.

And there’s something else to know about this monster bug: its long brown wings aren’t just for looks. They work—

Meaning that the giant flying cockroach isn’t just some bizarre and hideous internet meme. It’s an honest to goodness thing.

Illustration of a huge tree roach flying in an open window
Yes, the giant flying cockroach is a thing.

Though American roaches aren’t particularly good flyers actually, they use flight, along with impressive crawling and climbing skills (they mostly live outdoors), to make their way into homes in search of food, water, and a safe place to breed and lay their eggs.

Once inside, they’ll zero in on a few favorite haunts where they’ll eat, drink, and mate—typically at night or in the shadows. Then occasionally (and to your horror), they’ll pop up in places you can actually see them.

That’s when most people try to squish them, swat them, spray them down the drain, or suffocate them with anything that seems potentially lethal, or at the very least, handy. No luck.

There are better ways.

Let’s begin with (and rate) several products you may have around your house right now—some that can kill a giant roach almost instantly, others that take a little time:

Household Products That Can Kill a Giant Cockroach

Cartoon illustration of common household roach killers-sugar and baking soda- on a kitchen table.

#1 Soap, Detergent and Fabric Softener

Rating: 4/5 – Handy, fast, and cheap (but you’ll need a lot to kill giant roaches).

Surfactants might sound like a special pest control term but it’s really just a class of products like hand soap and detergent that can also kill a giant cockroach dead. Crazy, right?

Mix shampoo, dish soap or fabric softener with water in a spray bottle. Spray enough onto a giant roach and it’ll kick the bucket in under a minute!

Tip: Smaller roaches die more quickly from surfactants, and with less spray. To kill a giant cockroach with surfactant, you’ll need to seriously douse it. Be prepared to do a lot of squirting (and clean up a slippery floor)!

#2 Borax and Sugar

Rating: 4/5 – Easy to apply and effective.

If you keep a package of borax handy for the laundry, you’ve got a great weapon to use against giant cockroaches!

Borax is deadly poisonous to roaches that ingest it, and when you leave a wispy trail in areas they walk through, it will cling to them, then kill them later after they try to groom it off. Even if the roach doesn’t ingest the powder, it can pass through its exoskeleton, killing it that way, too.

You can also combine borax (or boric acid) with sugar or sprinkle it onto small dollops of peanut butter to make a bait. Placed in cupboards and behind appliances, the mixture will begin to slowly poison roaches before the sun comes up tomorrow.

For more simple recipes, check out our guide to killing cockroaches with borax.

Tip: Borates such as borax and boric acid may be natural products, but they’re not entirely harmless. Don’t let children or pets ingest the powder or any baits you make, and keep the powder stored away.

#3 Baking Soda

Rating: 4/5 – Easy to find, cheap and effective.

Chances are you’ve got a box or two of baking soda in the pantry. If you do, you’re in luck! This kitchen staple makes a deadly recipe for giant cockroaches.

Use some diced onion, a fragrant fruit peel or some fine sugar to bait these bugs to their doom. Simply place the powder in jar lids or on paper plates and leave them out for roaches to eat overnight.

#4 Duct Tape Trap

Rating: 3/5 – As simple as it gets; only catches 2–3 at a time.

Lay a strip of duct tape sticky-side-up and start catching roaches tonight! Not technically an instant-kill solution, it’s a near-immediate way to begin knocking roaches out of commission. Don’t forget to place a small piece of bait right in the middle. Set a dozen of these and if the bait is tasty enough, you’ll find at least that many roaches in the morning.

Tip: Poorer quality duct tape won’t be sticky enough, so use the good stuff. When you do, keep the strips well away from areas pets or small children travel. You don’t want to have to unstick a terrified pet or child.

#5 Glass Jar Trap

Rating: 3/5 – Requires some setup but it’s reusable and effective.

You can make a simple glass jar trap with just one mason jar and some petroleum jelly. Add a piece of bait to the bottom of the jar and spread the petroleum jelly all around the inside of the glass. Coat it well so even a giant roach has no chance of finding a foothold to climb out.

You can attach a straw or ruler to the side to form a ramp so it’s as easy as can be for the roaches to find their way in. In the morning, empty the jar into a sturdy bag and dispose of it outside immediately. Then reload and catch some more!

#6 Beer/Wine Bottle Trap

Rating: 2/5 – A bit steep and narrow for the biggest giant cockroaches.

The strong smells of beer and wine should be enough to attract roaches to this simple DIY trap. If you don’t have petroleum jelly handy, use cooking oil to coat the inside of the bottleneck as far down as you can reach. Roaches climb up, fall in and can’t get out.

Check out even more home remedies that you can whip together to kill roaches.

Commercial Giant Cockroach Killers

Cartoon illustration of a live cockroach and a dead one outside a roach motel.

While the common household products above can help you start the job, commercial ones generally pack a bigger wallop and have more certain outcomes.

#7: Bengal Gold

5/5 – As powerful as it gets (but not cheap).

The two active ingredients in Bengal Gold Roach Spray combine to make one of the strongest insecticide formulas available to non-professionals. This product is an odorless pyrethroid spray that delivers fast knockdown and a nearly instant kill. It’s pricey but with a can of Bengal at the ready, there’s no hope of escape for the next giant cockroach you see.

#8: Ortho Home Defense Max

5/5 – Super-effective! Doubles as a preventative spray.

Ortho Home Defense is one of the most popular names in cockroach control and their kill-on-contact spray is among the best. Another pyrethroid spray, it kills roaches quickly and leaves behind a residue that’ll keep taking down bugs for up to a year on hard surfaces. Use it to kill the next giant cockroach you see and spray it anywhere you think roaches are coming from to kill future invaders.

#9 Wondercide spray

4/5 – Skip harmful chemicals without sacrificing strength.

Wondercide Pest Control Spray is an all-natural way to kill giant cockroaches with just a few sprays of their cedar oil formula. Combined with a surfactant to boost absorption, this spray delivers a nearly-instant kill and leaves behind a fresh scent.

It’s rather expensive but it’s completely safe for homes with pets and small children. It’s naturally repellent, too!

#10 Zevo

3/5 – Works well but leaves a strong smell.

Want to rotate in another eco-friendly spray? Zevo makes a line of roach-killing products that use a combination of essential oils—cinnamon, lemongrass and geraniol—to knock down roaches in seconds.

#11 Roach Motels

5/5 – Don’t kill instantly but their success rate is top-notch.

Roach motels take the duct tape concept and turn it up to 11. Place them in kitchen cabinets, behind the fridge and in the bathroom, basement and closets to catch as many roaches as possible. By morning, they’ll be stuck for good and set for their date with the dump.

Make sure you buy the large size!

Roach-Killing Products That Don’t Work

Cartoon illustration of a cockroach triumphantly standing over a roach bomb.

As you might expect, not every commercial product or home remedy is what it’s cracked up to be. Here are some to avoid:

Vinegar (and Most Other Products That Would Make a Tasty Salad)

Lots of people think the strong smell of vinegar will either kill roaches or keep them away. Unfortunately, neither is true. Cleaning with it can’t hurt but don’t count on it to solve your pest problem.

Others claim lemons, lemon peels and lemon oils kill roaches but this is also a myth. Stick to lemon-scented pyrethroid sprays, instead.

Bug Bombs

Oh, and the possibly surprising thumbs-down? Bug bombs, roach foggers—whatever you call them, they’re not the solution. While they will kill a giant cockroach caught in the open and at just the right time, they won’t kill any of the dozens more that are hiding deep in cracks and holes.

After the Emergency is Over: How to Say Goodbye to Giant Roaches Forever

Cartoon illustration of a cockroach munching on a treat in a kitchen, a stop sign in the foreground.

Ok, you’ve got what it takes to kill the next giant cockroach that dares to cross your path.

But the real problem lies waiting in the walls in the form of who-knows-how-many cockroach eggs.

So how do you get rid of cockroaches forever?

With a strategic and proven battle plan, broken into 5 steps (check them out!):

  1. Sanitation to eliminate food sources
  2. Traps to kill some roaches and monitor progress
  3. Roach bait and insecticidal dust to take down the colony
  4. A solid prevention plan for keeping them gone for good.
  5. Exclusion to keep them out.

Conclusion

Let’s face it. Going toe-to-toe with a giant cockroach can be a special kind of horror. In the past, you may have lost that fight, but it’s one you can easily win.

Armed with a few simple weapons, you can solve even a giant roach problem. Then with a plan moving forward, make sure its solved for good.

Good luck!

There comes a time when you realize quick fixes won’t solve your cockroach problem. You’re fed up, tired, and just want to be done with the bugs for good.

If that’s you, it’s great news. Because there’s no better place to start. Effective, long-term cockroach control will treat the root of the problem and put you back in charge. It’s also easier than you might think.

Consider this your guide to a permanent, no-fail roach control plan—an introduction to the best tools and techniques (including home remedies) that control roaches, along with advanced advice for doing the job cheaply, safely, and well.

Ready to solve your roach problem? Let’s go!

Roach Pest Control: Do You Really Need an Exterminator?

Cartoon illustration of a cockroach exterminator and a shocked cockroach underneath a home's floorboards.

We’ve all taken on projects that at some point, became more than we could handle. Roach control can be like that too, when you underestimate what you’re facing.

A moderate cockroach infestation will leave you feeling pretty satisfied once you’ve cleared the critters out. But discovering a horror show pulsing behind your walls will make you wish you’d called a pro.

Before deciding to do the job yourself, try to make at least a general assessment of the infestation, judging its severity.

You may have a serious infestation if…

  • You’re seeing lots of roaches, even in the daylight. Roaches don’t usually come out during the day, so seeing them in broad daylight could be a sign that there are many roaches hiding.
  • You’re finding a lot of cockroach egg cases around your home. Roaches don’t like to leave eggs where predators (like you) can find them. Stumbling onto eggs with any regularity could be a sign that a roach population is ready to explode.
  • You’re seeing (and smelling) cockroach droppings everywhere. Roaches aren’t picky about where they do their business, but whatever droppings you see out in the open is nothing compared to what’s happening behind your walls.
  • You live in an apartment or condo where you have no idea what bugs are doing elsewhere in the building. For all you know, the roaches you’re seeing are the tip of the iceberg, and the ones enjoying your neighbor’s apartment will be headed for yours soon.

Tip: If you’re an apartment dweller, do make contacting your landlord or property manager the first task on your list. Legal responsibilities aside, they may already have a cockroach/pest control service under contract—which would make everyone’s lives easier.

If you do have a serious roach infestation—a truly ugly one, it may be smart to skip the DIY, and bring in a cockroach exterminator to clear it up.

Short of that, roll up your sleeves. Because the plan below has helped thousands, and will probably help you, too.

Part 1. The Roach Control Secret Weapon You Must Have

Cartoon illustration of an open book, turned to a page that discusses cockroach glue traps.

We live in an age of wonders, but many things that work best in life don’t come with a lot of sizzle. Cockroach control products are a case in point, with some that are chemical marvels and others that seem almost crude.

This “secret product” (secret because it’s sort of hidden in plain sight from consumers) is one of the crude ones. And besides being easy to use and gratifyingly cheap, it will also be a game changer for you. In fact, it’s one of the few products most professional exterminators simply couldn’t do without.

It’s the cockroach glue trap, a flat or folded piece of cardboard coated with glue and lure. If you’re like most folks who’ve dealt with roaches before, you’re probably familiar with sticky trap products like the roach motel, and you’re fairly satisfied with how they kill.

But killing isn’t the best thing sticky traps do. And if that’s all you know them for, you’re not benefiting as much as you could.

Because as it turns out, pest professionals don’t use use glue traps so much to kill roaches as to collect intelligence about them—to measure an infestation so they can make choices about the next steps to take.

If you’re serious about succeeding long-term with a roach control plan, you’ll want to use them that way, too. Doing it that way, you’ll place sticky traps throughout your home, then later count the catch from each one.

From that count, you’ll gain two important pieces of information:

  1. Where roaches tend to congregate.
  2. And where they tend to travel.

By starting your plan with sticky traps, you’ll learn where you needn’t waste your time. And where to hit roaches hardest.

Sticky traps are your secret weapon in this battle. Because you’ll know where to bring the fight.

Tip: Pick up a couple dozen sticky traps regardless of any other approach you use. They’re inexpensive, show you where to focus your efforts, and help to reduce roach populations, too. Use half your traps at the beginning of the job, and the other half when it’s done. The second set will alert you should any new roaches appear.

Part 2. Three Killer Cockroach Control Products That Eliminate Roaches Completely

Cartoon illustration of an open book, turned to a page that discusses three important roach control products- bait, dust, and IGR

Twenty years ago, cockroach elimination was a different, more troublesome story. Back then if you had an infestation and were committed to the cause, you’d rent a pump sprayer, lug it around your house or apartment, and pump lethal poison into every room.

The bugs would die dramatically—scores of them, right before your eyes. And while the carnage was sort of satisfying in its way, it wasn’t nearly as extensive as it appeared.

Because what you were really doing wasn’t solving the problem. You were doing what a cockroach bomb does today: killing all the dumber bugs, and sending the smart ones into your walls.

A few weeks later, your cockroach problem would be back. And you’d hire an exterminator to finish the job.

So much for the good old days. Because today’s cockroach control products are far better and go about killing in a very different way.

Gel Bait: Cutting Edge Poison and Lure in a Gel Matrix

Cartoon illustration of an open book, turned to a page about cockroach gel bait

Poison insect baits are nothing new in the cockroach world and have been used in one form or another for a very long time. They also weren’t particularly exciting killers—that is, until someone put them in a gel.

At their most basic, gel baits are just a matrix of lure and poison that kill roaches when they nibble. But the beauty lies in how they do it.

The gel matrix keeps the lure and active ingredient (the poison) moist, fresh, and tempting for up to several weeks. While the special poison does its job slowly—often leaving cockroaches to die in the heart of the infestation.

There, other roaches see its body as food, and get poisoned themselves when they eat it. When those roaches die, there may be enough poison in their tissues to kill still more. It’s an effective system that strikes the problem at its source.

Cockroach gel bait is sold in convenient bait stations, but syringe-based applicator products are the ones you’ll want.

To apply gel bait from an applicator, you’ll squeeze out tiny drops in areas your sticky traps have shown you they tend to go—inside and behind kitchen cabinets, around pipes, wiring and vents, under sinks, beneath appliances and in any cracks you find in walls.

Within a month of applying gel bait, you’re likely to see a lot of dead roaches, and then a dramatic (and satisfying) reduction in cockroach populations. Many people who try the product happily stop there and assume they’ve solved the problem.

But that’s typically a mistake.

Because roach problems respond far better to a multi-pronged attack, and can win out even over the power of gel bait if that’s all you ever use. To permanently beat roaches down, you’ll want to hit them with at least one, and possibly two more potent tools.

To learn more about using Gel Cockroach Bait, go to the guide here.

Silica Gel: Deadly to the Touch

Cartoon illustration of an open book, turned to a page about silica gel insecticidal dust

Roaches are not exactly sedentary creatures. To find food, water, and mates, they need to move around, which is what makes our next product—silica insect dust so effective.

Insect dusts are fine powders applied to the areas roaches travel. The dust sticks to their legs and bodies, either damaging their exoskeletons or passing into them. Roaches die eventually, succumbing to dehydration or internal damage.

You may already be familiar with insecticidal dusts like boric acid and diatomaceous earth (DE), but neither is as effective (or as safe) for cockroach control as silica gel.

Silica gel doesn’t grind into roaches like DE, and doesn’t poison them like boric acid. Instead, it soaks up their protective oils like a sponge, leaving them to fatally dry out. Silica gel is applied in the same way as boric acid and DE, but kills roaches faster and with fewer escapees.

Silica gel is packaged in the product CimeXa. In addition to being wildly effective, it’s one of the least toxic insecticides available, and is a great choice for homes with pets or small children.

To apply: Cimexa is applied with a special “puffing” tool called a hand duster. It’s also sold in containers that can be used in the same way. Spread a fine dusting across surfaces where roaches walk. It’ll keep working as long as it stays dry.

Production Freeze: Block Baby Cockroaches with an IGR

Cartoon illustration of an open book, turned to a page about insect growth regulator

Though gel baits and dust are effective, cutting-edge tools, they don’t destroy cockroach eggs waiting to hatch in your walls, your basement, or the back of your cupboards and drawers.

That means that even after you’ve wiped out every single living roach, you could still be in for a second wave.

An insect growth regulator (IGR) protects you from that wave, not by killing, but by stunting the growth of new roaches that emerge. Those roaches never fully reach full maturity, so don’t successfully breed, effectively breaking the next cycle of infestation.

You may not need an IGR to completely solve your roach problem, but it’s a great insurance policy against the sort of sneaky re-infestation that could ruin all the other work you’ve done.

To apply IGR: Spray it into cracks and behind cupboards or stick self-contained devices in areas roaches hang out. IGR’s can also be mixed with other insecticides and applied with a pump sprayer.

Part 3: Home Remedies for Cockroach Control

Blackboard illustration of a few cockroach control home remedies

Few home remedies even remotely compare for effectiveness against store-bought traps, bait, and dust. But if you’re short on cash or want to get started before more heavy-hitting products arrive, try these:

DIY Duct Tape Glue Traps

DIY sticky traps? Duct tape doesn’t work as well as store-bought traps, but does work. Tear off a couple 6-inch pieces and lay them sticky-side-up along baseboards, countertops, the bathroom floor and kitchen cabinet shelves. Stick a tiny piece of food to the center as bait. Replace daily or as needed.

Plaster Roach Bait

Have some leftover plaster in the garage? Mix it with cornstarch and spread it in cracks and crevices to give roaches a toxic snack. Or, if you have borax, sprinkle it onto a dollop of peanut butter.

Your Vacuum as a Roach Killer

Don’t forget to vacuum! An oft-forgotten but powerful tool is your vacuum. Use it to suck up dead and living roaches you might find out in the open. Just remember to discard its contents into the garbage can outside right away.

Interested in more home remedies for roaches? Click here.

Part 4: Natural and Environmentally-Friendly Cockroach Control

Cartoon illustration of a testy cockroach encountering a bottle of essential oil

If you want to control roaches without using man-made chemicals, there are alternatives that can help with mild to moderate infestations. You can also use them to supplement your other cockroach control supplies, so long as any strong scents (like peppermint) don’t cross paths with them.

Check out these easy eco-friendly alternatives:

Boric Acid and Powdered Sugar

A simple mixture of boric acid and powdered sugar becomes a deadly natural bait. If you have a bag of food-grade diatomaceous earth you’re using in the garden or as a supplement, that’ll also work as a roach treatment.

Essential Oils

Among the many essential oils that bring us calming relief and fresh fragrances, a few also kill cockroaches. Peppermint oil shows the strongest roach-removal potential.

Natural Sprays

You’ll find environmentally-friendly cockroach products online and in stores, too. Wondercide indoor pest control spray does the trick. Another effective roach control product, Zevo Roach Spray uses a different blend of oils to kill these nightmare pests.

Want more natural roach killers? Click here.

Part 5: Ongoing Roach Control Through Sanitation and Exclusion

Cartoon illustration of a small cockroach sneaking into a home's open window during the night.

While your roach control products are working in the background, you can prevent future roaches by cleaning, sealing and organizing your home.

If you’re thinking, Oh great, more chores, think of these as battle strategies, instead:

  1. Cleaning = starving roaches out by removing their food sources.
  2. Sealing up = eliminating roach entry points.
  3. Organizing = getting rid of nesting and egg-laying locations.

Anything roaches could possibly eat or drink: take it away from them. Every hiding place, entry point and escape route: close it off.

Focus on problem areas, like the kitchen, bathroom, basement and any other space that’s dark and cluttered.

Controlling Problem Areas

To Control Roaches in the Kitchen

Use your vacuum to suck up all the crumbs cockroaches would love to eat from behind the stove and under the table. Wipe the grease splatter off of oven knobs and clean cooking scraps out of the drain and garbage disposal. You should be washing dishes (and wiping down pet bowls) every night, too.

Kitchen cabinets, especially the ones where you store food, are high-risk targets for hungry cockroaches. They’re prime locations for placing gel bait or silica gel.

If you’re not already doing so, store foods and ingredients in glass or metal containers (that roaches can’t chew through). If there’s extra space in the fridge, take advantage of its tight-fitting seal to store some food products there.

To Control Roaches in Storage Areas

These pests love using cardboard boxes to hide and lay their eggs in (they’ll feed on cardboard and paper, too). Send them packing by switching to plastic bins with tight-fitting lids.

Controlling Roaches That Try to Make Their Way Inside

Several kinds of roaches live outside, but will invade your home when conditions are right. Take a notebook and inspect the entire exterior of your house for cracks and holes that they could use to enter. Make it a priority to seal them up with steel wool, caulking or insulating foam to stop them well before they become a problem.

Part 6: About Common Types of Roaches

4-Grid illustration of some common cockroaches- German, American, Oriental, and Asian.

Before you go, we’ve put together a quick guide to identifying the common types of cockroaches you might be dealing with. Check out each link for our full species overview.

German cockroaches are the tiny cockroach species that terrorize homes, grocery stores, restaurants and warehouses around the world. Light brown with two dark stripes, they spread quickly and thrive indoors, especially in apartment buildings.

American cockroaches are the big, reddish-brown ones—your classic ugly cockroaches that can be up to two inches long. They live outdoors and indoors, forming colonies of thousands in sewers and drain pipes.

Oriental cockroaches are glossy, black cockroaches that people often mistake for beetles. They’re mid-sized, winged but flightless. Oriental cockroaches live outdoors so, if you’re seeing them inside, focus on sealing up any exterior cracks and holes through which they could have entered your home.

Asian cockroaches are the German roach’s doppelgängers. They’re both yellowish-brown with dark stripes running down their backs. To separate them, you’ll have to look closely at its back: a German roach has brown coloring around its dark stripes while an Asian roach has white coloring.

Conclusion

When a roach problem hits home, you need to hit back with a cockroach control plan that puts you back in charge.

Identify your target areas, assemble the best modern tools, and get rid of roaches with methods that work for the long-term.

You can do this. And there’s no better time to start.


Sources

  1. Desiccating Dusts. Beyond Pesticides. Retrieved from https://www.beyondpesticides.org/resources/safety-source-on-pesticide-providers/what-is-integrated-pest-management/desiccating-dusts
  2. Nagro, Anne (2019) Rethinking German Cockroach Control. PCT Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.pctonline.com/article/rethinking-german-cockroach-control/
  3. Potter, Michael F., et al. (2014) Silica Gel: A Better Bed Bug Desiccant. Retrieved from https://www.pctonline.com/article/pct0814-silica-gel-research-bed-bugs/
  4. Omg, Barb, et al. (2006) Cockroach Control Manual. University of Nebraska Extension.
  5. Potter, Michael F. (2018) Cockroach Elimination in Homes and Apartments. University of Kentucky Extension. Retrieved from https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef614

The worst part of your cockroach nightmare is waiting for it to end. You’ve seen them crawling around, you’ve caught them eating your food and you just want them gone.

How long do cockroaches live? As long as you let them.

We’re going to explore the cockroach lifespan from birth to death, explain what can shorten it and show you how to stop waiting and start getting rid of roaches today.

Ready? Let’s go!

The Roach Lifespan: From Egg to End

Early Life

Illustration of German and American cockroach eggs under a magnifying glass
Illustration of two cockroach egg cases: from an American cockroach (top), and a German cockroach(bottom).

The cockroach begins its life as a minuscule egg, one of as many as fifty held inside an egg case, called an ootheca. The female cockroach carries its egg case for 1 to 2 months until shortly before the eggs hatch. Then, it attaches the ootheca to a well-hidden surface.

Growing Up

Illustration of an American and German cockroach nymph against a piece of rotted wood.
Two cockroach nymphs, American and German.

The baby cockroach—called a nymph—goes through as many as 10 instars on its way to adulthood. During each of these phases, it sheds its exoskeleton and begins to grow a larger one. A newly molted nymph might appear translucent white before its brown or black exoskeleton develops anew.

All of this occurs over a period of months, which varies from species to species.

During its final, “young adult” stage, the cockroach nymph looks much like its parents. This is also where it earns—er, grows—its wings if it’s going to have any. By this point, it’s ready to join in with the adults… terrorizing homes.

Adulthood

Illustration of an American cockroach and a German cockroach in closeup, terrorizing a woman in her kitchen
Adult cockroaches: German left, and American right.

As soon as it reaches adulthood, the cockroach is ready to mate and reproduce. It’s also in the prime of its life, doing the maximum amount of exploring and scavenging for food anywhere it can—dumpsters, sewers, warehouses, bathrooms and kitchens.

A Day in the Adult Cockroach’s Life

An adult cockroach has 3 jobs:

  1. Hide. Roaches spend most of their time in hiding. Even fully-grown roaches can squeeze into coin-sized crevices and holes the width of a pen. Because they’re so good at hiding, it’s tricky to guess how many there really are. One or two roaches out in the open might mean dozens or hundreds hiding in the walls or beneath the floor.
  2. Eat. If a cockroach isn’t hiding it’s probably out looking for food. Roaches are primarily nocturnal and do most of their scavenging in the dark. They need very little food to survive but search daily for it, and eat just about anything, including paper, book bindings, fingernails, and hair.
  3. Breed. Finally, cockroaches are prolific breeders. Remember the ootheca with 50 eggs in it? Well, one female can produce 8 or more of these egg cases—a lifetime total of 300-400 offspring!

What All That Activity Means for You

For roaches, that daily grind is simply what cockroaches do. For you however, it can mean trouble.

Those sewer trips and sneaky dumpster runs leave bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa clinging to their bodies. Then when they show up back at your place to eat your food, they deposit it on your shelves, your drawers, and in your food itself.

And then there are the droppings!

Cockroach droppings are yet another way roaches bring dangerous bacteria into your home. All those tiny black specks you’ve noticed lately? They’re cockroach feces. And along with all the egg casings roaches leave behind, they can trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks, too.

How Long Do Roaches Live; Or, WHEN DO THEY DIE?

Closeup illustration of two dead cockroaches on the floor, one an American roach, the other German.

Not soon enough…

The average lifespan of a cockroach is about 1.5 years.

But their lifespan depends heavily on food and water availability, climate and habitat. Some roaches freeze. Others fall into the mouths of predators. Most cockroaches die of dehydration or starvation.

What if you could take advantage of that weakness? What if you could get rid of cockroaches by taking away their food and water?

How long can a cockroach live without food and water?

These bugs can live up to a month without eating! That’s a bad sign for the starvation system.

However, they’re extremely sensitive to dehydration: a cockroach can’t survive longer than a week without water. Even a few parched days can make a roach too sluggish to get by.

When you take away their food and water, a cockroach immediately begins shedding weight.2 Its cells die at a higher rate. Mitosis—cell division—slows by up to 50% as part of the insect’s natural response to a lack of food and water. You’re winning!

Of course, you wouldn’t see this happening. Here’s what you would see:

  • Reduced cockroach activity: Without adequate food and water, cockroaches become weak and lethargic. They’ll stop scurrying around as much. If you were seeing a lot of roaches, you’ll notice a big difference within a few days. The change in a small infestation will be harder to notice but, after a couple of weeks, you’ll hardly see any living roaches.2
  • Dead cockroaches: A few roaches might kick the bucket on the floor or behind an appliance but most will die in their nest, out of sight and out of reach.

So, is it possible to starve roaches out?

If this sounds like a solution to your pest problem, remember that cockroaches eat almost anything. These insects have survived for over 300 million years because of their ability to scavenge food and find water almost anywhere.

Unless you’re sleeping in a lab, it’s practically impossible to starve them out. You’d have to eliminate every crumb, scrap of garbage and drop of water. And you’d have to keep it up for a month or longer!

Then there’s the problem of roach eggs—your sanitation won’t have any effect on the baby roaches already waiting to hatch in the walls or crawl spaces. They’ll grow up just when you think you’ve won and emerge as an even larger second wave facing an exasperated, exhausted enemy force.

Finally, there’s no way to know if you’re winning. You might not see any dead roaches, even if your plan is working.

It’s simply not worth the work, not when there’s a better, more powerful, proven and provable system at your disposal.

A state-of-the-art, professionally-inspired pest control system.

How long can cockroaches withstand an all-out attack?

Cartoon illustration on 4 grids of important tools for controlling roaches- Baits, Traps, Dusts, and IGR's.

We’re going to eliminate cockroaches using 4 state-of-the-art tools:

  1. Bait
  2. Traps
  3. Dust
  4. IGR

But it all begins with sanitation. Along with thorough cleaning, scrubbing and vacuuming, exclusion plays a vital role in eliminating roaches. You want to make sure they can’t find anywhere to get comfortable or, more importantly, lay their eggs.

Exclusion involves sealing up every potential entry point, crack and crevice that would allow roaches to enter and escape. That way, new ones can’t find any way to enter your home and existing ones can’t escape the doom you’ve laid out for them.

What happens when you clean, seal and organize?

Immediately, roaches will have to change their habits. Their normal food sources are gone, their pathways are cut off and they’re looking for new places to breed. Without easy access to water, they’ll start dying within the first week.

Now that they’re weakened, it’s time to roll out your cannons.

Baiting Roaches

Metaphoric cartoon illustration of a fisherman using bait to catch a cockroach.

Your main weapon against cockroach infestations is gel bait, or a set of bait stations.

When there’s no easy food around, the smell of gel bait becomes irresistible to hungry roaches.

It’s going to look like you’ve attracted even more roaches but those are simply the ones that were hiding.

It means the baits are working. You might even observe roaches limping out into the open to die. Baits will start to kill roaches within 1-3 days. Some infestations could be completely eradicated within 2 weeks.

Learn all about choosing and using roach bait.

Trapping Roaches

Metaphoric cartoon illustration of a cockroach sneaking into a spring-loaded trap.

Traps like insect monitors, roach motels, or sticky traps catch lots of roaches on their own. They’re baited with a food scent that will drive starving roaches crazy. Good traps can kill roaches overnight but eliminating an infestation takes longer.

Read up on 15 of the best roach traps.

Dusting for Roaches

Metaphoric cartoon illustration of a cockroach sitting glumly with a pile of insecticidal dust on its foot.

A strategic sprinkling of insecticidal dust in the places where your traps caught the most cockroaches will kill any that managed to escape.

Anywhere roaches travel, sprinkle CimeXa, boric acid or another deadly dust that will stick to their legs.

The insecticide poisons the cockroach while it grooms itself. A cockroach won’t survive longer than a day after walking through the dust.

Get our step-by-step guide to using insecticidal dust.

IGR to stop reproduction

Metaphoric cartoon illustration of a cockroach inside a lab beaker, next to a ruler, shaking its fist.

An insect growth regulator (IGR) prevents cockroach nymphs from reaching full maturity (and in some cases, prevents eggs from hatching). Any nymphs that absorb the IGR will have their growth stunted and their strength weakened.

More importantly, these roaches can’t have babies. While your other control methods kill as many adult roaches as possible, an IGR ensures that any that survive (for the time being) aren’t able to lay any egg cases to surprise you later.

IGR-affected roaches probably won’t survive more than a few weeks. These weakened insects will bumble around until they fall prey to a trap, bait or dust that’s left after the initial extermination.

Conclusion

How long do cockroaches live? Left to their own devices, they’ll survive about a year.

But there’s one factor that can affect the cockroach lifespan more than anything else: you.

If you heed the advice above and follow our comprehensive guide to killing cockroaches, you could be enjoying a roach-free home this time next month.

Be patient. Be determined. Be brave.

You can do this!

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the German cockroach lifespan?

From hatching to death, the German cockroach lifespan is only about 100 days. But these bugs are the worst of the worst. During that short time, one female can produce hundreds of offspring. Their population growth is exponential.

What’s the American cockroach lifespan?

The American cockroach is one of the hardier roach species, with a lifespan from hatchling to death of 2 years or more. Females produce an average of 150 young over their lifetimes.

What’s the Oriental roach lifespan?

The Oriental cockroach lives for up to 2 years but its adult lifespan is just 6 months under ideal conditions.

How long can a cockroach live in the cold?

any cockroaches don’t survive well in cold environments (finally, some good news). For example, the German cockroach struggles to live through cold winters in homes that lack central heating.

The lifespan of a cockroach decreases drastically in a cold environment. It also reproduces less frequently in the cold.

How long do roaches live in the freezer?

Roaches won’t survive 24 hours in a freezer. Sub-freezing temperatures kill these resilient pests after just a day of exposure, effectively shocking their cold-blooded bodies.

Obviously, you can’t plunge your whole house into subzero temperatures! But if you’ve got a couch or other piece of furniture that’s infested, placing it for a few days in a garage or shed where it’s below zero will kill the bugs inside.

How long do cockroaches live without air?

In a total vacuum, most cockroaches will be dead in minutes (though some can go for as long as 45 minutes). If you’ve found cockroaches in your clothes and thought about sealing them in a vacuum storage bag overnight, the results might disappoint—a normal vacuum won’t remove all of the air.

They won’t suffocate, but so long as there’s no moist food inside, they will die of dehydration in a week or so!

Pro tip: While you have the vacuum out, use it to suck up every roach you can find—dead or alive. Then empty the chamber or discard the vacuum bag into a sturdy garbage bag you can seal. Freeze it overnight or place it immediately in the dumpster, far from your home.

How long do roaches live after professional extermination?

After a professional exterminator has sprayed, fumigated and baited your home, how long do you have to wait until the roaches are finally gone?

If you’re lucky, you’ll see noticeable results within 3 days of the treatment. In most cases, you’ll start seeing fewer roaches after 1 to 2 weeks. After a month, all but the most severe infestations should be dead and gone.

Written by Andrew Martin. Reviewed by Rae Osborn, PhD.

Andrew Martin

Andrew Martin

Writer/Publisher

Andrew writes for, and along with his daughter, publishes Cockroach Facts. You can read more about him here.

Rae Osborn, PhD.

Rae Osborn, PhD.

Science Editor

Dr. Rae Osborn holds Honors Bachelor of Science degrees in Zoology and Entomology, and a Master of Science in Entomology from the University of Natal in South Africa. She holds a PhD in Quantitative Biology from the University of Texas at Arlington, where her research was in Entomology. You can learn more about our contributors here.


Sources

  1. German Cockroach: Biology, Identification, Control. (2013) North Carolina State Extension. Retrieved from https://entomology.ces.ncsu.edu/german-cockroach/
  2. Reynierse, James H. et al. (1972) The Effects of Hunger and Thirst on Body Weight and Activity in the Cockroach (Nauphoeta Cinerea). Animal Behavior.
  3. Park, Moon Soo and Mario Takeda (2007) Starvation suppresses cell proliferation that rebounds after refeeding in the midgut of the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana. Journal of Insect Physiology. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinsphys.2007.10.011
  4. Park, Moon Soo, et al. (2009) Starvation induces apoptosis in the midgut nidi of Periplaneta americana: a histochemical and ultrastructural study. Cell and Tissue Resesarch. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441–008–0737-y
  5. Valles, Steven (2017) German cockroach. University of Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Retrieved from http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/roaches/german.htm
  6. Omg, Barb, et al. (2006) Cockroach Control Manual. University of Nebraska Extension.
  7. How Long Can Cockroaches Live Without Food? (2019) PFHarris. Retrieved from https://pfharris.com/how-long-can-cockroaches-live-without-food/
  8. Hahn, Jeffrey (2018) Cockroaches. University of Minnesota Extension. Retrieved from https://extension.umn.edu/insects-infest-homes/cockroaches#pennsylvania-wood-cockroach-137714
  9. Wilson, Tracy V. V. How Cockroaches Work. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved from https://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/cockroach2.htm

If there’s one thing you can count on in the tropics, it’s running into some impressive creepy crawlies.

And as you might expect, in addition to all the geckos, ants, and giant centipedes, there are cockroaches in Hawaii, too. While most are harmless thankfully, a few are definitely not good bugs to have around.

Let’s look at the more dangerous roaches in Hawaii, then explore some strategies to get rid of them if you discover you have a problem.

A Simple 5-Step Guide For Getting Rid of Roaches

“Print or Follow on Your Phone. It’s FREE!”

Types of Roaches in Hawaii

Of the 19 cockroach species that Hawaii lays claim to, only 4 are considered significant pests.

Two of them are “domestic,” or indoor roaches that specifically target Hawaiian homes. Two others are “peridomestic” roaches that mostly live outdoors, but enter homes and businesses when certain conditions are met.

We’ll begin with the outdoor ones, starting with a bug that’s impossible to miss—

The American “B52” Cockroach

Illustration of an American cockroach flying over a country home's porch

Type: Outdoor/Indoor Cockroach

About

Known as the “B52 roach” among locals, the biggest, boldest, and most “in your face” of these pests is the American cockroach—a notorious flying cockroach Hawaii borders on being famous for.

Appearance

Found across the islands, and more than two inches long, it’s not only the biggest cockroach in Hawaii, but the largest cockroach in the United States.

If the sheer size of this bug doesn’t startle you when you see it, its ability to fly – sometimes directly toward you – should be enough to do the trick.

Should you encounter a creature that looks like an American cockroach but is wingless (and probably smaller), it’s likely to be a baby American cockroach. You’ll be able to recognize both by their characteristic reddish-brown color, exceedingly long antennae, and the cream-colored, mottled cowl behind their heads.

Habits

As outdoor/indoor roaches, you’ll find these bugs just about everywhere outside, especially yards, gardens, trash, and sewers where water is abundant and there’s plenty for them to eat.

Indoors, they seek out and colonize the moist areas of homes like bathrooms, kitchen sinks and drains. When they do come inside, they bring with them all sorts of dangerous bacteria and allergens from things they’ve crawled through and ingested.

Read how to solve an American cockroach problem here.

The Surinam Cockroach

Illustration of a Surinam cockroach feeding on a leaf, alongside 2 Surinam cockroach nymphs.
An adult Surinam cockroach and two nymphs.

Type: Outdoor Cockroach

About

Much smaller than the American cockroach, at about an inch long, the Surinam cockroach is brown to black in color and not much of a flyer (females can’t fly at all). It’s a common Hawaiian pest that tunnels through trash, soil, and compost, munching on decaying plant material and damaging living roots and stems.

Habits

Found widely across Oahu, Kaui, Molokai, Maui, Lanai, Nihoa, the Big Island, and French Frigate Shoals, you’re unlikely to see these roaches in the daytime, but will see them scatter quickly should you kick over something they’ve infested.

Special problems

If you grow flowers like roses or lilies, or pineapple, these pests will already be on your radar for the damage they can do.

If you raise chickens, you’ll probably be familiar with them, too. The Surinam cockroach has a special liking for the feces around chicken coops and is a carrier of chicken eye worm, which can damage chicken’s eyes and potentially blind them.

The German Cockroach

German Cockroach infestation with adults and cockroach nymphs
The German cockroach, one of the most common bugs in Hawaii houses.

Type: Indoor Cockroach

About

German cockroaches can be found in nearly every area of Hawaii that has human structures.

They’re a dangerous roach that can carry disease and transmit allergens—and they breed quickly. German roaches can cause infestations so intense that even professional pest control workers sometimes find them challenging to control.

If you’re not already familiar with German cockroaches and own or rent property of any kind, you’d do well to memorize what they look like and be on the lookout for them well before they appear.

Appearance

These aggressive invaders are light brown to pale yellow in color, with flat bodies and long yellow wings. At about half an inch long (sometimes much less) they’re tiny compared to outdoor species like the American cockroach, and can be distinguished by two stripes that run lengthwise down the cowl behind their heads.

German roaches are so small that even in a growing infestation, they can be easily missed. You’ll want to keep an eye out for their young, too. Baby German roaches known as nymphs can be as small as half a grain of rice. With the exception of wings which they grow later, they look almost identical to the adults, and are just as dangerous.

Habits

Your house, condominium, hotel room—even your car are fair game for German cockroaches in Hawaii. They thrive in the islands’ tropical warmth and flourish in human environments.

If you find you have these pests, there are many ways they could have gotten in. They could have hitched a ride inside a bag of groceries, a piece of luggage, or a second-hand purchase. If you live in an apartment or condo, they could have traveled into your unit through the walls.

Read how to solve a German cockroach problem here.

The Brown-Banded Cockroach

Illustration of a brown-banded cockroach crawling over the title edge of a book on a bookshelf

Type: Indoor Cockroach

About

If roaches have you climbing the walls, the brown-banded cockroach will be more than happy to join you there.

Though not quite as common as other roaches thanks to a parasite that nearly wiped them out, brown-banded infestations still occur. And like other roaches in Hawaii, the tropical warmth can help them thrive.

Habits

For an indoor roach, the brown-banded cockroach is an unusual little pest.

In contrast to the German cockroach, it prefers spaces with less direct access to food and water, like closets, living rooms, and garages. It also prefers to live “up high,” where warmth collects and the air is drier—areas like ceilings, picture frames, shelving, furniture, and the upper corners of walls and moldings.

Once on your walls and other high-up spaces, they’ll breed, attach their eggs to the undersides of things, and eat essentially anything they can find, including paper, cardboard, and the glues that hold your drawers, shelves, and picture frames together.

Appearance

If you think you might have brown-banded roaches, they can easily be identified by their size (they’re about the size of German roaches) and the brown bands that stretch across their abdomens.

Read how to solve a brown-banded cockroach problem here.

Two Last (Less Likely) Cockroach Contenders

Illustration of an Oriental cockroach compared to an Australian cockroach on yellow background

Type: Outdoor/Indoor (Oriental cockroach) | Type: Outdoor/Indoor (Australian cockroach)

About

Spot a roach that didn’t look like the American, Surinam, or brown-banded cockroach? There are a couple of other possibilities. It could be an Oriental cockroach which loves cool, damp spaces, and thrives in landfills, sewers (and unfortunately, bathrooms). It could also be an Australian cockroach, which looks a lot like the American cockroach, but invades homes far less often.

Read how to solve an Oriental cockroach problem here, or an Australian cockroach problem here.

Steps to Solving a Hawaii Roach Problem

Roach problems are best tackled head-on, and in steps. And regardless of the roach, some of the steps are similar.

Step 1: Removing food and water sources

The first step begins with starving roaches out—sealing up foods they could otherwise get into, cleaning up crumbs and spills throughout your home that would otherwise feed them, and making sure your garbage is well away from your home, sealed up nice and tight, or both.

It also means finding and eliminating any sources of water that could be luring roaches in, or if they’ve already gotten in, could be keeping them alive. Drips, leaky pipes, or surfaces where condensation regularly occurs.

If roaches have infested your car or truck, the same rules apply there too. Clear out any food, empty soft drink cans, food wrappers and leftover coffee cups that may be lying around, then vacuum up every trace of crumbs, smudges, or smears that could provide a roach a snack.

Step 2: Buttoning up your home

The second step is about keeping roaches out by sealing up your home. This can be more challenging in tropical environments where homes don’t have to button up against the cold.

This step begins by inspecting your home for potential entry points—gaps, cracks and crevices, or holes in your walls that a roach might squeeze through. Once you find them, carefully seal them up using supplies like wood filler, steel or copper mesh, and silicone caulk.

Step 3: Extermination

The final step is extermination, which you can either have done professionally (see how to hire a roach exterminator) or tackle on your own, using pest-specific strategies that begin here:

Now that you know a little more about cockroaches in Hawaii (and hopefully the problem bug you came here for), it’s time to reclaim your space and peace of mind. With a little effort, you can end your Hawaiian cockroach problem, hopefully for a good long time. ALOHA.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there cockroaches in Maui?

Yes, there are roaches in Maui, both the huge flying American “B52” roaches, and tiny German cockroaches which infest kitchen and pantry areas. If you’re a resident, you know about them already. If you’re a guest or visitor, your hotel or rental manager will (hopefully) be taking care of them before they become a problem.

Are there cockroaches in Kauai?

Yes, there are roaches in Kauai, too. As on the other islands, they’re to some degree a fact of life.


Sources

  1. Mark K.H. Leong and J. Kenneth Grace (2008) Occurrence and Distribution of Ants (Hymenoptera:Formicidae), Cockroaches (Blattodea), Centipedes (Chilopoda), and Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) of Public Health Importance on the Island of Oahu. Retrieved from http://manoa.hawaii.edu/ctahr/termite/aboutcontact/grace/pdfs/248.pdf
  2. Calvin W. Schwabe (1948) Observations on the Life History of Pycnoscelus surinamensis (JLinn.), the Intermediate Host of the Chicken Eyeworm in Hawaii. Retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/5104646.pdf

No one wants to find a big black cockroach-looking bug menacing their home or business. Especially when there might be more of them, or even a hidden infestation.

But knowledge is power, every cockroach problem can be solved, and this one is pretty clear.

Ready? It’s time to learn about the big black roach you found, and how to make it disappear.

A Simple 5-Step Guide For Getting Rid of Roaches

“Print or Follow on Your Phone. It’s FREE!”

First Things First: A Few Black Bugs That Look Similar to Roaches (But Aren’t)

Before putting the cockroach before the cart, let’s eliminate a few bugs that look sort of like black cockroaches, but really aren’t.

  • Black Carpet Beetles. Similar in size to a black roach nymph, these small black insects do resemble roaches. But unlike a roach, their shells are rounded (as opposed to a roach’s somewhat flattened body) and are visibly thicker. Their antennae are also shorter than a roach’s, and unlike the antennae of a roach, flare out at the ends.
  • Black Ground Beetles. Also black in color, but larger than carpet beetles, ground beetles look sort of like black roaches, but have squatter, rounded bodies, shorter antennae, and thick, un-cockroach-like protruding jaws.
  • Black Field Crickets. These insects grow to about the same size as a nymph (or baby) black cockroach. But their hind legs are longer and more powerfully built than those of any roach. You’ll never see a cockroach hopping, so if the one you’ve spotted does it, you can be pretty sure it’s just a cricket.

Luckily (or not so), if the bug you’ve found is indeed a cockroach, the number of possible candidates are few. The most likely culprit is a pest that invades homes across the United States and Canada: it’s called Blatta orientalis Linnaeus – the Oriental cockroach.

Understanding the Oriental Cockroach

Identification

Illustration of an Oriental black cockroach with labels: 1.Long antennae; 2. Dark, segmented body; 3. Spiny legs; 4. Cerci

Unlike other household roaches which tend to be tan, light brown, or reddish-brown in color, Oriental roaches are a deeper, darker brown that looks more like a shiny black..

3/4 inches to 1 inch in length and oval-shaped, they have segmented, glossy bodies, long antennae, short spiny legs, and a pair of appendages at the bottom of their bodies called cerci.

Males and females look somewhat different, based mostly on the length and structure of their wings. The adult male has short translucent wings that cover only a portion of its back.

The adult female Oriental has wings also, but they’re even shorter, less developed than the males, and blend in with the rest of their bodies. The female’s wings are so inconspicuous that unless you’re actually looking for them, you might miss them altogether.

Habitat

Two black cockroaches crawl across the floor of a basement

Oriental roaches are choosy about where they live and breed. They need lots of moisture to survive, so habitats that support them need to be humid and provide access to sources of water.

For you this means identifying dark, damp areas around your home to note and work with later.

Kitchen cabinets provide lots of suitable nooks and crannies, but the cabinets under sinks are especially attractive. Even a few drips from a sink pipe can be a black cockroach’s water source.

Speaking of pipes, these bugs have no qualms about crawling through them to move around a building. Both sink drains and outdoor drainpipes can give them access to virtually any room or space–no key or invitation required.

Which is one of the reasons they’re such notorious apartment pests. If they get into an apartment building, nursing home, or office building, they can easily spread from unit to unit by traveling through the pipes.

Crawl spaces and basements provide ideal spaces for them. These are often the dampest, least-visited area of a home, and offer black cockroaches a chance to live and reproduce in peace.

Outsides, like several other outdoor cockroach species, they’ll live anywhere that’s dark and damp, including mulch, bushes, your garage, the void below your porch and more. They’ll even live under tree roots or sections of paths and sidewalks.

Reproduction

Illustration of an Oriental cockroach female beside an egg case in a dark basement

Understanding how the black roach reproduces gives you insight into how and where they spread.

Females produce protective egg capsules which they hide in dark, humid areas near food sources. Each of the eight egg cases she’s capable of producing over her lifetime contains about 16 eggs – so even a few roaches can multiply quickly.

While finding adult roaches can be difficult, finding their carefully hidden oothecae (the egg cases) is even harder. Less than 1/2 inch long and well-camouflaged, Oriental roaches hide them in crevices or dark, out-of-reach places. After about 42-81 days, the eggs hatch into nymphs that will grow for up to a year before reaching adulthood and reproducing themselves.

Food

Illustration of an Oriental "black" cockroach feeding on a rotting potato

The diet of an Oriental roach isn’t exactly limiting.

It will eat virtually anything that ever was, or is alive–decaying plants, dead insects, sewage and more.

Your crumbs, garbage, compost, and every bit of decaying organic matter in your yard or garden are fit for a cockroach buffet. They’re particularly fond of starchy foods (like cereal and bread), and will eat the starches in book bindings and cardboard, too.

How to Get Rid of Them

As you prepare to deal with the Oriental roach, realize that you’re dealing with resourceful pests. They come from harsh places you might never have considered: sewers, drains, gutters and more.

So they’re used to surviving difficult conditions and evading situations that could potentially cause them harm. Grabbing a can of bug spray may kill one or two of them, but won’t do anything to kill the others that are hiding.

You’ll need to take actions to prevent them from entering your home, and actions to get rid of any that have already gotten in. We speak extensively elsewhere about specific strategies for prevention and elimination – and you’ll want to read those, too. Here’s how to start right now:

They’re usually happy living outside, but will go anywhere to find food, including the inside of your home. When they do decide to do that, they’re good at getting in. It only takes a tiny hole or crack in an exterior wall to let these bugs inside.

So that’s your first course of action – finding holes, gaps, and crevices, and sealing your home up tight.

The next, and equally important chore is eliminating the roach’s food sources. If possible, you should store garbage far away from your home until pickup day. Bury your compost pile or use a bin with a lid to keep roaches out. And always clean up crumbs, counters and dishes before bed.

And the last part?

Active pest control usually involves using baits and pesticides to kill bugs, too. Residual sprays around the outside of your home can kill black roaches as they try to come inside.

We tell you elsewhere about specific chemicals used for treating a black cockroach infestation, but if it really is an infestation (as in lots and lots of roaches) you may want to instead consider calling a professional pest control service instead of taking them on alone.

Conclusion

It’s not only unnerving to discover that a big, black cockroach has somehow made your space its own, it’s dangerous. Even a small black roach (like a nymph) can carry harmful bacteria into your house and reproduce quickly if not controlled.

Now that you know how to identify these bugs and the steps to help eliminate them, it’s time to make it happen. To learn more, read about:

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Oriental roaches fly?

Although black cockroaches have wings, neither males nor females can fly. Their wings–called tegmina–aren’t functional.

What’s the difference between a black beetle and a cockroach?

Oriental cockroaches are often called “black beetles” but they’re much different from beetles. Beetles are typically smaller and have a hard pair of protective forewings, known as elytra.

Are they poisonous?

No. And they almost never bite (or even approach) humans. Usually, they’ll run away as soon as they see you. However, they do carry bacteria and viruses that can spread across any surfaces they touch.

Written by Andrew Martin. Reviewed by Rae Osborn, PhD.

Andrew Martin

Andrew Martin

Writer/Publisher

Andrew writes for, and along with his daughter, publishes Cockroach Facts. You can read more about him here.

Rae Osborn, PhD.

Rae Osborn, PhD.

Science Editor

Dr. Rae Osborn holds Honors Bachelor of Science degrees in Zoology and Entomology, and a Master of Science in Entomology from the University of Natal in South Africa. She holds a PhD in Quantitative Biology from the University of Texas at Arlington, where her research was in Entomology. You can learn more about our contributors here.


Sources

  1. McCanless, Kim (2014) Oriental cockroach. Featured Creatures. Retrieved from http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/roaches/oriental_cockroach.htm

What does a cockroach look like? Take a flat, skinny oval, add six spiny, hairy legs to its sides and two long antennae to the front and you’ve got a cockroach. Some are big, some have wings, but all of them take this basic shape.

When you find a bug in your house, it’s easy to start fearing the worst—a cockroach infestation.

Before you give way to roach panic, here are all the details on what cockroaches look like so you can compare the bug you saw and, hopefully, conclude that it wasn’t a cockroach.

A Simple 5-Step Guide For Getting Rid of Roaches

“Print or Follow on Your Phone. It’s FREE!”

How Big are Roaches?

Here’s a cheat sheet of cockroach sizes sorted from biggest to smallest:

Cockroach SpeciesSize (inches)
American cockroach1.5 inches to 3 inchesIllustration of an American cockroach on white background
Oriental cockroach1.25 inch (approx.)Illustration of an Oriental cockroach on white background
Smoky Brown cockroach1.5 inch (approx.)
Australian cockroach1.5 inch (approx.)Illustration of an Australian cockroach on white background
Brown Banded cockroach0.5 inch (approx.)
Asian cockroach0.5 inch (approx.)Illustration of an Asian cockroach on white background
German cockroach0.5 inch (approx.) Illustration of a German cockroach on white background

What Does a Large Cockroach Look Like?

Illustration of a large cockroach species- the American cockroach - in a domestic habitat
Illustration of an American cockroach- the largest common cockroach pest in the U.S.

Relative to other bugs you might see around the house—ladybugs, ants, etc.—some cockroaches look like monsters. They seem too big not to have dangerous teeth, deadly venom or some other nightmarish defense mechanism.

The biggest species of cockroaches in the United States—American cockroaches—can grow to 3 inches long! Rest assured, though: they’re way too scared of you to bite.

What do Small Cockroaches Look Like?

Illustration of a small cockroach species- the German cockroach, in an indoor habitat
Illustration of a German cockroach, one of the smallest cockroach species.

Roaches come in miniature sizes, too. Among the most prevalent household pests in the world, German cockroaches are only 1/2 inch in length—about the size of a penny.

Other types of cockroaches, like the Australian roach, come in somewhere in the middle. Regardless of its size, a cockroach’s shape is unmistakable.

The Cockroach Shape: Designed for Survival

6 Grid Illustration of an American cockroach body parts
Illustration of cockroach body parts: Head, legs, body underside, wings, exoskeleton, and cerci.

How can you tell your bug is a cockroach?

Six legs, two long antennae and, sometimes, wings: these are the usual characteristics of a cockroach. Like other insects, it has a head, thorax (“torso”) and abdomen. However, most of its body is covered by a hard exoskeleton, which makes it look a bit like a tiny tank-bug, slow and uncrushable.

A roach’s tiny head is barely visible at the front of its flat, oval-shaped body. At a glance, a cockroach on the wall just looks like a dark oval with two long antennae.

Make no mistake, though—cockroaches are fast runners and flexible enough to squeeze into tiny cracks and crevices. Their exoskeletons are shockingly squish-able, making them tricky to kill.

What Color are Roaches?

Your average cockroach is brown, black or somewhere in between. German roaches are light brown while smoky brown roaches are dark, reddish-brown in color, like a mahogany desk.

Oriental Roaches: On the Dark Side

Illustration of a black Oriental cockroach on a yellow gradient background

Oriental roaches are the darkest species. They often appear black in color and shiny or glossy. Sometimes they’re mistaken for beetles but Oriental roaches have larger, skinnier bodies and longer legs.

Brown Banded: The Name Says It All

Illustration of a brown-banded cockroach highlighting colors

For some, the color is in the name: on the brown banded cockroach, two light-brown (or yellowish) bands run across its dark brown back, near its head.

Roach Twins: German and Asian

Illustration of an Asian and German cockroach highlighting their color

German cockroaches and Asian cockroaches are almost identical in color and size.

As if that weren’t enough, both also have a pair of dark, parallel lines running down their backs. An expert can tell that an Asian roach’s wings are slightly longer but you won’t notice that from your spot across the room.

The Trendy Green One

Illustration of a Cuban cockroach highlighting its green color

Then there’s the standout: the bright green Cuban cockroach. It’s not a common house pest but you’ll know one if you ever see one.

Do cockroaches have wings?

Illustration of a winged American cockroach both in flight and top-down, showing wings

Oh no! Did the bug you saw take off and fly straight at you? Roaches do that, sometimes. That nightmare-inducing experience isn’t an attack, though; it’s just the cockroach escaping anywhere there’s an opening (like the doorway you just walked through).

Quite a few roach species have wings—in fact, nearly all of the species on the list above have wings. But not all of them fly.

Wings on a cockroach can even help you determine if it’s a male or female since only the males of most species have fully-grown wings.

What Does a Baby Cockroach Look Like?

Illustration of an adult German cockroach and a baby German cockroach side-by-side
Illustration of a German cockroach adult beside a German cockroach “baby,” or nymph.

Baby cockroaches might look a bit different from their adult parents. It might be lighter or darker in color and have a different pattern than it will have as an adult. Baby roaches don’t yet have wings, either.

As they grow, cockroaches molt their old exoskeletons and grow new ones. Right after they’ve molted, they might appear pale or white.

It’s very rare to find baby roaches unless they’re almost fully grown.

Where Did You Find the Roach?

It was in the bathroom.

Cockroaches like to hang out in warm, moist areas. If you saw a big, brown or black bug in the bathtub or sink, chances are it was a roach.

I saw it on the wall.

If you had to try to squish your bug with the end of a broom handle because it was crawling way up near the ceiling, you were probably dealing with a brown banded roach. They like to stick their egg cases in high-up places, like on walls and in the ceiling. If your bug were a moth, it would have bigger wings and no hard armor.

I saw it in my dog’s food bowl.

That’s not surprising for a cockroach. Even a few morsels of pet food are enough to attract these pests. Even small roaches are bigger than ants. The other bug that might’ve crossed your mind, the flea, doesn’t eat pet food. It would be on your pet.

It was flying around the lights.

Nothing’s worse on a clear summer night than being annoyed by bugs buzzing around the lights and lanterns. It’s not just mosquitoes and gnats—some flying cockroaches are attracted to lights, too! Smoky brown roaches, for one, will even fly through an open window at your living room lights.

Some Insects that Look Like Cockroaches

Illustrations of 5 bugs mistaken for cockroaches: Beetle, Water bug, Bed Bug, Termite, and Cricket
Illustration of 5 bugs frequently mistaken for roaches: From left to right- Beetle, Water Bug, Bed Bug, Termite, and Cricket

A few bugs look a lot like cockroaches at a glance:

  1. Beetles
  2. Water Bugs
  3. Bed Bugs
  4. Termites
  5. Crickets

Check out our guide to these bugs that look like cockroaches for tips on how to tell them apart.

Other Signs You Saw a Roach

Maybe you only got a glance and you didn’t notice its color or if it had wings. Luckily, other signs can tell you if you’re dealing with a cockroach.

You’ll smell a roach.

Is there a distinct smell where the bug was walking or feeding? Roaches give off a strong, musty odor. You might notice it on countertops or on any food they’ve touched.

Were there droppings nearby?

Roach droppings look like tiny coffee grounds or spilled black pepper, clustered behind appliances or in cupboards. Droppings can help you identify a roach and also guess how many there are. (For comparison, rodent droppings are bigger, like grains of rice, and cylindrical.)

Conclusion

What does a roach look like? Like trouble, generally. And if your bug matched any of the characteristics we’ve covered, there’s a good chance it was a cockroach. Now it’s time to determine if one roach is actually a sign of more, implement a pest control plan if necessary, and get rid of cockroaches for good.

Don’t let these critters ruin your day! We have the answers to all of your cockroach questions:

…and more.

We’re rooting for you!

Written by Andrew Martin, Reviewed by Helene Steenkamp, PhD.

Andrew Martin

Andrew Martin

Writer/Publisher

Andrew writes for, and along with his daughter, publishes Cockroach Facts. You can read more about him here.

Helene Steenkamp, PhD.

Science Editor

Helene is a Namibian born South African citizen with a great love for nature and its intricacies. She completed a PhD in molecular phylogenetics at the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2011, and has since worked as a postdoctoral researcher in this field at the University as well as the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa.

She has published several peer reviewed scientific articles with the use of genetic, taxonomic and phylogenetic tools, specializing in Entomology, taxonomy, zoonoses, epidemiology and bacterial & viral genetics.

These days, she is a stay-at-home-mother of two lovely boys, with whom she loves to explore nature from a different point of view. She also works as a freelance writer, editor and researcher for all things science.

You can learn more about our contributors here.


Sources

  1. Ogg, Barb et al. (2006) Cockroach Control Manual. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension.
  2. Cochran, Donald G. (1999) Cockroaches: Their Biology, Distribution and Control. World Health Organization.

Cockroaches are widely known as small, ugly critters. But these ancient survivalists have adapted in amazing ways over hundreds of millions of years. Let’s take a look at some of the most important cockroach facts, and how they matter to you.

A Simple 5-Step Guide For Getting Rid of Roaches

“Print or Follow on Your Phone. It’s FREE!”

What Are Cockroaches?

Illustration of a cockroach field guide, opened to an introductory page.

Cockroaches are insects in the Blattodea order. They’re related to termites and once, deep in the distant past, the two insects shared a common ancestor. Scientists have discovered cockroach fossils that date back over 320 million years to the Triassic period and earlier. Talk about walking with dinosaurs.

There are well over 4,000 species of cockroaches living around the world. Most of them don’t live near or interact with humans but the few that do have become serious household and commercial pests.

Why are they called “cockroaches”?

“Cockroach” is actually an English mispronunciation of their Spanish name, cucaracha, that stuck. Have you heard the catchy tune “La Cucaracha?” It’s a Spanish folk song that’s been sung for centuries—and now you know what it’s really about.

The “Blatta” in Blattodea is Latin for “an insect that shuns the light.” Roaches belong to this family because they spend most of their time hiding in the dark.

Facts About Cockroach Biology

Illustration of a cockroach field guide turned to a page about cockroach biology

Life Cycle: How Cockroaches Reproduce

Cockroaches are egg-laying insects but they don’t lay their eggs like birds in a nest.

Female roaches lay eggs inside an egg case, called an ootheca. American cockroaches typically lay about a dozen eggs in an egg case while German cockroaches lay as many as 50 eggs in each. That’s a lot of baby cockroaches—up to 400 from a single female in her lifetime!

Male roaches of some species stick around to tend to the young after they hatch. Not only do the males scavenge food but they go as far as eating bird feces to take in vital nitrogen and bring it back to their offspring.

Why are baby cockroaches white?

Cockroach nymphs molt repeatedly as they mature. Each time, they shed their old exoskeleton and grow a new one. But during the short time in between, they appear white because they’re lacking that hard outer covering that darkens as it hardens with time.

What’s a cockroach’s lifespan?

Most cockroaches live for less than a year. The adult lifespan of a cockroach varies between species. An adult German roach only lives 20 to 30 weeks. However, an adult American cockroach can live for well over a year.

How do cockroaches breathe?

Cockroaches breathe very differently from humans. Instead of using their head to breathe, they breathe through tiny pores in their body segments called spiracles. A cockroach’s exoskeleton features a number of these holes that let them take in air and absorb oxygen directly into their organs.

This respiratory system gives them an amazing superpower— a cockroach can live a week without its head! (So when battling cockroaches, think the opposite of zombies—_don’t_ aim for the head!)

They also have an open circulatory system, which lets their blood travel through a system of connected spaces instead of on a closed track. A headless cockroach can still breathe and circulate blood; its undoing is actually that it can no longer drink water (or eat) without its head – thus dying from dehydration .

By Land or by Air: How Fast Are Cockroaches?

Cockroaches are crazy fast runners. Their powerful rear legs can propel them up to 1.5 meters (50 body-lengths) per second. Translated into human sizes and distances, that’s like running 200 miles per hour! (The Oriental cockroach is an exception—it’s noticeably slower than other species.)

Quite a few species of cockroaches fly but most of them do it awkwardly and seldomly.

For example, American cockroaches can fly but usually don’t. On the other hand, Asian cockroaches are relatively strong fliers. The unique green Cuban cockroach is probably the best flier of them all. It’s nicknamed the “banana cockroach” because of its tendency to fly around among the branches of banana trees.

Are cockroaches attracted to lights?

Some cockroaches avoid lights, hiding in dark places all day and scavenging at night. Others, however, are strongly attracted to lights. Flying cockroaches—like the smoky brown cockroach—are especially drawn to lights and, often, they fly through open windows toward TV screens and ceiling lights.

Can cockroaches swim?

A cockroach’s stick-like legs and delicate wings aren’t the ideal paddles for swimming through water. That doesn’t mean getting rid of one is as simple as flushing it down the drain, though.

A cockroach can hold its breath for up to 40 minutes! There’s a good chance it’ll come out fine at the other end and won’t mind a bit that it’s wound up in a sewer. After all, sewage is among the many things that make up a roach’s diet.

Why is it so difficult to crush a cockroach?

It turns out, a cockroach’s hard exoskeleton is also quite flexible or leathery. You can see the joints in it if you dare to look closely. Scientists studying these bugs used a machine to squish them with 900 times their body weight. They survived. More than that: they still ran at full speed, as if nothing had happened.

Where Cockroaches Live: Inside, Outside and Around the World

Illustration of a cockroach field guide, opened to a page about where cockroaches live.

Most cockroaches live outdoors. They crawl among the fallen leaves on forest floors or build colonies inside tree hollows. They burrow, climb and fly to find habitats and, sometimes, that search leads them into buildings.

Are cockroaches really everywhere?

Cockroaches have a reputation for being expert survivalists but there’s one place on Earth they haven’t been able to colonize: Antarctica. Though it’s possible a few roaches have stowed away on ships and sailed the seas to that southernmost continent, they haven’t yet been able to adapt to its harsh, freezing conditions. But don’t ever count a cockroach out.

Do cockroaches build nests?

A cockroach “nest” isn’t like a bird’s nest. It’s typically just a hole, box or other dark, out-of-reach place where the roaches hide and reproduce. It will probably contain molted exoskeletons, droppings and a few dead roaches.

Some cockroaches live with ants.

Our homes aren’t the only ones cockroaches like to invade. There are at least 2 species of wood cockroaches that have been seen living with ants!

Researchers have found the western wood cockroach and the Boll’s wood cockroach living in anthills among the ants. It’s the nymphs of both species that seem to hide in the anthills during the day and leave to find food at night.

That’s despite the fact that cockroaches occasionally eat ants and other insects (even other dead roaches)!

The Cockroach Diet: Is There Anything They Won’t Eat?

Illustration of a cockroach field guide, opened to a page about cockroach's diet.

Short answer: no. If it’s edible, a cockroach will probably eat it. Anything we eat—from meat and vegetables to sugar and grease—is fair game for a hungry roach.

Cockroaches are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals. They’re also detritivores—organisms that eat decaying organic material. Rotten fruit, dead leaves and even animal waste are all on the menu for cockroaches.

It sounds gross, but a cockroach’s unpleasant eating habits make it an important part of its ecosystem. Roaches and other detritivores break down the dead plant and animal material and help return nutrients to the soil.

Can a cockroach survive without water?

Cockroaches can live a month without food. However, they can’t live a long time without water. Cockroaches are sensitive to dehydration and changes in humidity. That’s why they’re frequently spotted in bathtubs and sinks.

Cockroaches can go for a month without eating but they won’t survive longer than a week without water (depending on what they are feeding on, they may get some of their water from their food).

Cockroaches and Us: Friendly or Dangerous?

Illustration of a cockroach field guide, opened to a page about cockroach dangers.

Although only a few cockroach species live among humans, those few can become major problems. The German cockroach is one of the most widespread household pests in the world, taking over city apartment buildings with ease. Once inside, roaches are destructive and potentially dangerous due to their ability to spread disease and filth.

Cockroaches can spread disease.

One of the more disturbing cockroach facts has to do with disease.

Because like rats and certain other kinds of pests, they can transmit diseases to people. Roaches crawl through sewers, drain pipes, gutters and piles of decaying material as they scavenge for food. If they make it into your house, they’ll spread the bacteria they’ve picked up on countertops, cooking surfaces and any food you’ve left out.

One of the adaptations that makes a roach so resilient is its body’s natural ability to produce antibiotics. That saves them from the harmful bacteria they could transfer to us.

Do cockroaches cause allergies?

The negative effects of roaches go beyond ruining food. Cockroach infestations can trigger people’s allergies. The main contributors to allergic reactions are the molted exoskeletons and roach droppings that they leave behind. People with asthma are especially sensitive to cockroach allergens.

Myths and Other Facts about Roaches

Illustration of a cockroach field guide, opened to a page about cockroach myths.

Can cockroaches survive a nuclear explosion?

Probably not. But cockroaches can survive intense levels of radiation.

“Rems” is the unit of measurement scientists use to describe radiation damage to the human body. 800 rems are fatal to humans. Meanwhile, cockroaches can withstand up to 100,000 rems. The thing is, a nuclear explosion creates a lot of heat too. Cockroaches are strong creatures but they can’t survive a temperature of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Do cockroaches like beer?

Cockroaches do like alcoholic beverages, especially beer! In a 2006 study, beer placed in a jar with bread attracted more cockroaches than any other bait. Roaches are drawn to beer by the sugar it contains, not for its alcohol content.

Do cockroaches crawl into people’s ears?

It’s extremely rare but… unfortunately… yes, they can. Your ears happen to be dark, humid and tiny—the 3 ingredients roaches look for in a habitat. Cockroaches may also see earwax as a food source. Again, cockroaches almost always stay away from people, so it’s probably best to forget about this fact as soon as possible.

Do cockroaches smell bad?

You already know about cockroaches’ poor hygiene. The places they venture don’t leave them smelling fresh. Cockroaches also produce chemicals that have a foul odor. When roaches touch food, they leave that smell behind—a good thing, since you definitely don’t want to eat a cockroach’s leftovers!

Do cockroaches bite?

Cockroaches can bite but they almost never do. There’s simply no reason for them to bite a person; they don’t feed on blood like mosquitoes and they’re not predators. On the fight or flight spectrum, cockroaches are very much flight when they come face to face with a towering human.

Conclusion

Despite all of their amazing adaptations, it’s important to get rid of cockroaches quickly if they’ve come into your house.

We’ve got all of the information you need to start an effective pest control plan, from where they hide to what they eat and how to keep them away for good.

Explore our in-depth guides to all things cockroaches and discover even more amazing cockroach facts while you learn how to keep your house cockroach-free.

Written by Andrew Martin, Reviewed by Helene Steenkamp, PhD.

Andrew Martin

Andrew Martin

Writer/Publisher

Andrew writes for, and along with his daughter, publishes Cockroach Facts. You can read more about him here.

Helene Steenkamp, PhD.

Science Editor

Helene is a Namibian born South African citizen with a great love for nature and its intricacies. She completed a PhD in molecular phylogenetics at the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2011, and has since worked as a postdoctoral researcher in this field at the University as well as the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa.

She has published several peer reviewed scientific articles with the use of genetic, taxonomic and phylogenetic tools, specializing in Entomology, taxonomy, zoonoses, epidemiology and bacterial & viral genetics.

These days, she is a stay-at-home-mother of two lovely boys, with whom she loves to explore nature from a different point of view. She also works as a freelance writer, editor and researcher for all things science.

You can learn more about our contributors here.


Sources

  1. Cockroach (2020) Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/animal/cockroach-insect
  2. Wilson, Tracy V. Cockroach Anatomy and Physiology. HowStuffWorks Animals. Retrieved from https://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/cockroach1.htm
  3. Jayaram, Kaushik and Robert J. Full (2015) Cockroaches traverse crevices, crawl rapidly in confined spaces, and inspire a soft, legged robot. PNAS. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/02/04/1514591113.full.pdf
  4. Wang, Changlu and Gary W. Bennett (2006) Comparison of Cockroach Traps and Attractants for Monitoring German Cockroaches. Environmental Entomology. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/ee/article/35/3/765/382141
  5. Dell’amore, Christine (2010) Cockroach Brains May Hold New Antibiotics. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/9/100909-cockroach-brains-mrsa-ecoli-antibiotics-science-health/
  6. Father’s Day Pictures: All-Star Animal Dads (2012) National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/6/120615-fathers-day-best-dads-animals-pictures-science/
  7. Disease Vectors and Pests (2009) CDC. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/publications/books/housing/cha04.htm6. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/6/120615-fathers-day-best-dads-animals-pictures-science/