How Long Can It Take For Cockroach Eggs to Hatch?
WouterWhen you think about cockroach eggs, you might be surprised to learn that they can take from four to eight weeks to hatch. This timeframe is based on different roach species and their breeding habits. The German roach, for example, can lay as many as 40 eggs per ootheca in its lifetime. Meanwhile, the American roach has a gestation period of about 44 days.
Cockroach eggs are made of a hard casing and can vary in size and color. They are usually a brown or dark red color, and change to black color after a few days. During incubation, the color of the egg remains the same. A cockroach egg case will resemble a full egg casing, but it will not remain that way for long before it starts to crack and decompose.
Cockroach eggs will be roughly half an inch long and can be as large as eight millimeters. This means that they are quite large for an egg. However, American cockroach eggs are larger than German cockroach eggs, and the German cockroach egg is about a quarter of an inch. Cockroach eggs can be a few millimeters long, so you should check to make sure you have the right kind before applying pesticide.
Cockroach eggs may take anywhere from 14 to 38 days to hatch. The cockroach egg case, or ootheca, is placed in a suitable environment by the female cockroach a few days before hatching. Once the eggs are laid, they will hatch and be immature cockroaches in approximately 24 to 38 days.
