Finding a pregnant roach inside your colony of feeder roaches is no less than a joyful moment for the owner of an exotic pet. But, on the other hand, if your house is infested with roaches, it might be a nightmare for you to find a pregnant roach because this is a fearful indication of an outburst of roach infestation.
The pregnant roach appears fatter, is too lazy to move around, and has an increased appetite. A white sac called ootheca containing individual eggs periodically appears out of the back for some time and moves back inward. On the other hand, a pregnant Wood or German cockroach has an attached ootheca to the back. This ootheca stays out of the body and never moves back inwards.
If you are a proud owner of an exotic pet like a bearded dragon or lizard, you might be breeding roaches for using them as a feeder insect. The critical step in breeding feeder roaches is to know whether the roaches are pregnant or not.
I have written this blog with two intents,
- To help you identify if your feeder roach is pregnant.
- Help people identify pregnant small roaches and assisting them with extermination.
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What does a Pregnant Roach look like?
A pregnant cockroach is like a lava mountain on the verge of an explosion. Once a pregnant roach gives birth to roaches, it spreads the infestation to other corners of the house. Moreover, the infestation might spread to your neighbors if you live in an apartment.
One thing is for sure that a pregnant roach has a few characteristics that are common to all roaches, irrespective of the type. A pregnant roach looks like a fat and lazy roach with an increased appetite and usually stays under the shadows.
Are Cockroaches Dangerous? Read this article to get the answers
Pregnant Roach Types
Exotic pets like bearded dragons, Monitor lizards, and Chinese Water dragons all require a constantly balanced diet in the form of proteins. Thankfully, insects come to the rescue in this scenario, but all insects are not ideal food.
Crickets are good feeder insects but are challenging to breed and are very noisy. On the other hand, roaches have proven to be an excellent alternative to crickets but have a lot of chitin that is difficult to digest. However, Dubia, Red Runner, and Discoid roaches have low chitin to protein ratios, making them ideal feeder insects.
If you are breeding these roaches, you can identify each of them to be pregnant.
2. Pregnant Madagascar Hissing Cockroach
Once the female mate, the hissing cockroach gives birth to live babies after 60 days and keeps giving birth until six months every 50 days. There are usually subtle physical changes when a Madagascar cockroach becomes pregnant.
However, press the abdomen gently and look at the rear end to know if your Madagascar cockroach is pregnant. A white capsule will appear and go away as soon as you stop applying pressure.
1. Pregnant Dubia Roach
Dubia roaches are very sort after feeder roaches because they do not infest home and are easier to handle than the rest because they are unable to climb container walls.
I have written an entire blog on knowing if your dubia roach is pregnant. Please read it there.
3. Pregnant Red Runner Roach
Once the female mate, Red Runner roach produces ootheca, including 15 individual eggs after 45 days, and continues to produce every month for the rest of her life. In her lifetime, she lays approximately 30 oothecae.
Red runner roach does not keep ootheca inside the body. Instead, they lay ootheca into the soil, and then the eggs hatch outside the body.
However, you can know if the red runner roach has mated successfully by observing its daily activist. After that, she will be lazy with increased appetite and stay away from male red runner roaches.
4. Pregnant Discoid Roach
Discoid roaches are bad breeders as compared to other feeder roaches. They often take a long time to mate and breed, making them scarce.
After discoid roach mates, the female roach lay live babies after 45 days and produce for eight months. You can know if your discoid roach is pregnant by,
- It will appear fatter
- More circular
- Ootheca will appear protuded from anus.
5. Pregnant Dangerous Cockroaches
Small roaches are dangerous roaches that have a great propensity to infest homes. These roaches include german, oriental, and brown-banded roaches. Therefore, it should always raise the alarm once you see a pregnant german or another small roach.
A. Pregnant German Cockroach
A pregnant German roach has ootheca always protruded outwards until its time for eggs to hatch. So it’s straightforward to know if the german roach is pregnant or not just by looking at it.
B. Pregnant Oriental Cockroach
The female oriental cockroach has a unique approach to pregnancy. Once the female develops ootheca, she keeps it attached to the body for three days and then lays it near food and water supply.
Additional Read!
