Strangest Roach Behaviors You've Experienced

G

goliathusdavid

First Instar
The first thing that pops into your head - whether it be from a species or individual.

Mine is the Simandoas I am keeping quite literally hiding food. And I don't mean just moving it away from where I put it. I mean full on hiding large bits of chow under moss, leaves, cricket gel dishes - so it takes FOREVER to find. Never experienced this with any other Blattids I've worked with (and that's 14 species). Curious if others have...

How about everyone else? Any unexpected behaviors that belong in the books?

 
I was very surprised when I noticed my Eurycotis lixa scratching their backs on objects in their enclosure, similar to cats. 😅 I might have observed the same behavior with other species too, but that's what pops to the top of my head.

I was also quite bewildered when my Blaberus species hissed at me for the first time, without having read about the behavior prior. 

 
My orangeheads will pounce on food thrown near them. I guess they feel the vibration. They quickly spin around and grab whatever it is. I can even get them to attack non food items sometimes. Love those little hungry bugs.

 
One of my dubias fell into the water bowl and was having a hard time getting out of it. Another one approached close enough so the one on the water could grab his back and  got out. Then they both left. Maybe he was just being curious, but I found it really cute, lmao. 
 

Oh, and hissers hiding the food, just like dogs. So cute!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
goliathusdavid said:
The first thing that pops into your head - whether it be from a species or individual.

Mine is the Simandoas I am keeping quite literally hiding food. And I don't mean just moving it away from where I put it. I mean full on hiding large bits of chow under moss, leaves, cricket gel dishes - so it takes FOREVER to find. Never experienced this with any other Blattids I've worked with (and that's 14 species). Curious if others have...

How about everyone else? Any unexpected behaviors that belong in the books?
Click to expand...
My simandoans do the same lol! They squirrel away fish pellets like my hamster does haha

 
Haha I actually have two! One behavior witnessed two years ago and one witnessed today.

1. Dubia hunting live prey - One night in 2019 I put some mealworms into a set of about 20 mixed Dubia nymphs (Mostly large and medium sized nymphs). These nymphs had not encountered mealworms before. I noticed several hunting the mealworms and eating them live similar to behavior seen by orange head roaches. Really bizarre behavior as my Dubia colony never attack their tank mates like mealworms or dermestid beetles. Maybe because the nymphs didn't get enough protein? I was fresh as a roach hobbyist back then and didn't know what I do now. My roaches have balanced diets now but back then I probably didn't feed enough protein so they hunted foreign invertebrates to get it. They never turned to cannibalism thankfully. 

2. Male Hisser Ramming Female - This was really odd. When I was feeding one of several hisser colonies I have I noticed a male charging and ramming multiple females like he would a rival male. This was odd as they NEVER from what I've seen charge females. All the males I've seen love their lady Hissers but this one wasn't having it. He rammed two that I saw and finally calmed down after several seconds. He then went to eat the fish pellets I gave them lol.

Roaches are so interesting. So many intriguing behaviors!

 
Rehoused my ivory roaches and all of the adults immediately started breeding.... like went crazy the second I dumped them in. My Byrostria do this a little when disturbed too.

Lobster roaches trying to attack a hisser

Hissers eating each other, even with food/protein...

Pantanal roaches literally tackling food and anything I throw in the bin, even more so than ivories and orangeheads, which also do it.

 
Jimbobtom said:
Rehoused my ivory roaches and all of the adults immediately started breeding.... like went crazy the second I dumped them in. My Byrostria do this a little when disturbed too.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I've noticed some extra social behaviors when moving orange heads from one bin to another. Wasn't sure it was really a thing before, but it sounds like it might be common.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top