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Do cockroaches Lay Eggs When Killed?

After treating a roach infestation, a good exterminator will schedule a visit to take care of the baby roaches, which will hatch after a few days.

These baby roaches will appear after the laid eggs hatch. But do cockroaches lay eggs when killed?

Cockroaches have a natural reflex to lay a mature egg when killed, but if the roach is poisoned or crushed, it won’t lay an egg. Therefore, to avoid baby roaches from unhatched eggs, it’s always recommended to dispose of all roaches inside an airtight sealed bag.

The way you kill a roach will predict the destiny of unhatched eggs inside a roach. So let’s discuss it in detail.

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Use these products, and you will be roach free in less than a week.

1. Advion Cockroach Gel Bait (Review)
2. Gentrol IGR Point Source (Review)

Other Products to try:

1. Combat Roach Traps (Easy than gel baits)
2. Hot Shot Foggers (To kill in masses – 95%)
3. Pet Safe Killers (Uses Essential Oils)
4. Ortho Defence Outdoor Roach Killer (Prevent Roaches)

Some Roaches Keep the Egg Case inside them

A few species of roaches won’t lay the egg case until they are about to hatch. Top of the list is the German cockroach, which usually lays the egg sac 1-2 days before it’s ready to hatch.

This helps in a high rate of hatching eggs and significantly helps roaches increase their population.

A few species of roaches like Madagascar Hissing Roach will keep the sac inside them for the entire time, and roaches will come out of them directly.

In that case, a dead roach can still lay roach babies, but those will be coming out of the egg case inside them.

Egg hatching inside a hissing roach

Why roaches can’t lay eggs when killed?

Roaches won’t move or do anything once they are dead.

It’s true for everything.

Similar applies to roaches. But how the roach is killed can change a few things.

However, roaches have an instinct to lay eggs when they feel endangered or dying.

It matters how the roach is killed

The way a roach is killed can change the final destiny of the roach eggs. So let’s look into each possible case and if the eggs will survive or not.

1. Killing a roach by squashing it

There is no way a roach can lay eggs, or an already mature egg case can survive to hatch if you have killed a roach by smashing it.

A squashed roach which can not lay eggs when it is killed

A roach egg inside an ootheca needs a perfect environment to mature and develop a roach nymph inside it. The moisture content inside the eggs should remain stable for baby roaches to grow inside them.

If an egg case is punctured or crushed while you are killing the roach, the eggs inside them won’t survive to hatch.

2. Killing a roach with a glue trap

Killing a roach using a glue trap has the highest probability of roach laying eggs while it’s trapped.

The environment around a glue trap is quite ideal for the egg sack to retain its moisture for the eggs to develop into baby roaches.

Once the eggs hatch into baby roaches, they will leave the egg cases, but they will also get trapped in the glue and die sooner or later.

Catchmaster Glue Traps by MaxForce are the most popular roach traps.

An image of a German cockroach Laying Eggs After Killed with a Glue Trap

3. Killing a roach using a bait

If you are using bait to kill a roach, there is a high probability that the eggs inside the roach won’t survive. The poison inside the bait will also contaminate the eggs inside the roach, and they won’t survive to become baby roaches.

– Advion Cockroach Gel Bait is the most effective gel you can buy
– Hot Shot Liquid Cockroach Trapper and Killer is the best trap you can get for cockroaches
– Combat Max 12 Month Roach Killing Bait is the best bait out on the market

4. Killing a roach using an insecticide spray

Insecticide sprays typically kill roaches with contact. The active ingredient inside the roach spray will also pass through the porous shell of the egg case and will kill the eggs inside them.

So if you are using an insecticide spray to kill a roach, mature eggs inside them will still not hatch into baby roaches.

– Hotshot Fogger is the best cockroach bomb, very easy to use & highly effective.
– Bengal Roach Killer is the best spray to kill a cockroach
– Ortho Home Defence Max Killer is the ultimate choice to get rid of all types of cockroaches

5. Killing a cockroach by removing its head

Roaches breathe via special glands in their body, so luckily, they can survive for a few days without its head. Check this article to learn more: How long can a Cockroach live without its head?

While the roach head is removed, it can still function and lay eggs. If the egg case is mature enough inside the roach, the roach will lay it, and baby roaches will hatch from them.

6. Out of food and water

A mature egg case can still hatch inside if a roach dies due to a lack of food and water.

It’s exactly like if the roach is trapped in a Glue Trap.

Only mature Oothecas will hatch

A cockroach lays an egg case with multiple individual eggs inside them. The egg case is known as ootheca. A roach continuously develops these oothecae inside them and will lay about one ootheca per month.

If an ootheca inside a roach is not fully developed, it won’t hatch if it dies. However, the ootheca of roach can hatch on its own and won’t need a roach to survive in most cases.

However, if it over-moisturizes or over-dehydrates, the individual eggs won’t survive in them.

How to take care of baby roaches if they hatch?

In case the babies hatch after you have taken care of adult roaches, you don’t have to worry, as there is a great device you can use to stop them from growing up known as IGR ( Insect Growth Regulator)

An IGR releases hormones that stop roaches to molt. Molting is when roaches shed their skin to become white cockroaches (Also known as Albino Roach).

The presence of these hormones signals the roaches not to shed their skin yet, and this way, the small roaches will never grow into adult roaches.

An off-hand device other than pest control devices which actually works

All you have to do is install one device per infested room in a hidden place, and you will be all good for 3 months.