What do baby roaches look like? Definitely, it can be creepy and alarming to find these nymphs in your house or yard. Mainly, they’ll be running around the house or hiding in a creepy. Further, you must know their molting stages and how they reproduce.
In summary, baby roaches (particularly of the German cockroach species) measure 1/8 inches in length. They’re black-colored with a single stripe. The nymphs vary in size from one species to the other. However, they’ll all molt (the stage called instars) through 5 to 10 stages to become adult roaches.
The baby roaches love humid and warm areas like bathrooms or kitchens where they eat food debris and garbage, glue, meats, soap, greasy foods, toothpaste, and grains. But adult German roaches are light-brown in color, measuring 1/2 t 5/8 inches plus have 2 stripes (running parallel) along the body length.
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1. Color – Baby Roaches Images
Baby roaches start after the eggs hatching stage. When they emerge from the roach eggs, the nymphs or ootheca are bright-white colored in their early life stages. However, as the nymphs take in air, their body will become darker and harden as they molt progressively.
- Baby Pennsylvania wood Roaches – Tan-colored
- Baby Oriental Roaches – black-colored
- Baby German Roaches – dark-brown colored
- Baby American Roaches – red-brown colored
Further, the bugs will develop faster when they get enough food in twelve hours after molting. The different nymphs stages will have varied body lengths over the months up to 1 year. However, partly the baby roaches will look the adults-only that they’ve molted over several stages.
Baby roaches 6 have spiny and long legs that’ll help them fast over the house floors and carpets. Besides, for walls and ceilings – they’ll be helped to move by their tiny pads that are conveniently positioned on the tarsi.
On the other hand, the nymphs of German roaches will be dark-colored, while the Brown-banded cockroaches will have an abdomen with a single yellow band. In comparison, the nymphs of German cockroaches will have a larger body compared to Oriental roach nymphs.
2. Size – Baby Roaches in Bathroom or Kitchen
Roach nymphs, particularly German roaches, measure roughly 3 mm in length. As noted above, the nymphs will initially be bright-white in color but will become darker as they molt but will remain with a single light patch at their back.
- Pennsylvania wood Roaches – length of 20 mm and are Tan-colored.
- Oriental Roaches – Length of over 17 mm and are black-colored
- German Roaches – Length of 15 mm and are dark-brown colored
- American Roaches – Length of 40 mm and are red-brown colored
However, the roach’s light patch becomes bright and larger as the roaches molt into the 2nd and 3rd stages. The Brown-banded species are light-gold to black in color, plus they have 2 bands on their bodies. Male roaches are generally smaller in body size compared to their female compatriots.
On the shape, baby roaches have a flat body that’s also oval in shape – further, and it’ll feel very oil when you touch their body.
- Besides, they have downward- and backward-directed mouths plus have pronotum-covered heads that are tiny too.
- The nymphs are white in color in their initial stages, but they’ll also mature in 3 to 24 months.
Adult female cockroaches will lay their eggs as ootheca – which has about 10 to 50 eggs – this varies with the roach species under consideration.
Roach ootheca is an egg encasement (for between 10 to 50 eggs) seen in insects like mantises and roaches.
Therefore, the roach eggs will be protected in their initial stages, and hence thorough control methods must be used against the roach nymphs.
How to Identify Cockroach Eggs
Baby roaches are evidence that you’ve some roach nests in the house or walls.
Therefore, you must know how to kill roach eggs in addition to knowing how to identify them and the roach nymphs in your house truly.
As noted earlier, female roaches will “lay” or carry an ootheca – which is an eggs protein-enveloped casing that contains 20-50 eggs. You will also see some wings on the roaches, but not all will use them to fly.
1. Oriental Roach Eggs
Oriental roach eggs are also covered in a casing (oothecae) measuring 8 mm to 10 mm and are reddish-brown to dark in color.
This egg encasement has roughly 16 roach eggs and thus may look a bit swollen. Also, the female oriental roaches tend to produce 1-18 oothecae during their whole life.
Their nymphs will mature into adult oriental roaches within 600 days, but this will vary with the prevailing environmental conditions.
The dark-brown Asian roach adults measure about 22 mm – 27 mm in length. Equally, these roaches have rudimentary wings (females) while males have fully-developed wings. ‘
The female roaches will carry the oothecae for about 12 hours to 120 hours before dropping them in areas that have food – these are warm and sheltered places.
The eggs will hatch within 40 days – 82 days, and the female roaches won’t help the nymphs.
2. American Roach Eggs
American roach eggs measure a length of 8 mm and are also covered in a purse-shaped and hardened soothe dark color.
One of these female roaches will produce about 6-70 cockroach eggs over its whole life. Also, the female American roaches will carry the egg oothecae for up to several days.
The female American roaches will deposit the egg oothecae into dark arrays like in walls or other hidden places (including damp or protected areas) away from harm.
The baby roaches tend to come out of the egg oothecae within 3-6 weeks – every one of the oothecae has roughly 15 embryos.
The ootheca (measuring 5 mm in height and 8 mm in length) comes with adequate sufficient for the roach eggs to continue developing in the enclosed space.
Further, the ootheca will initially be brown and will continue to become black within 1-2 days.
The American roaches will molt through 6-14 times before becoming adults. Its 1st instar will be white initially but will turn grayish-brown.
However, the other instars will be white before tuning to red-brown in color, with the lower areas of their abdomen and thorax being dark in color.
3. German Roach Eggs
Like other roaches, the German cockroaches also carry their ootheca (having about 50 eggs) when the eggs are ripe for hatching.
German roach eggs will take about 3 months to hatch and molt from the egg stage to full adults.
The female adults will also “lay” their oothecae measures about 9 mm in length by 6 mm in width – the egg encasement is brown-colored.
- Each of these encasements will contain roughly 50 eggs. Further, their reproduction rate is thus fast.
- However, the American roach nymphs lack wings, while their wing pads will only be seen clearly during the 3rd and 4th instar.
The hatched nymphs, like their adult counterparts, will quickly start foraging for water and food. The molting from eggs to adult roaches takes roughly 600 days.
4. Brown-Banded Roach Eggs
Brown-banded roach eggs are also carried in egg cases called ootheca.
The female roaches will carry the ootheca for roughly 30 hours before the eggs emerge and attach onto ceilings and walls. Their ootheca measure about 5 mm in length and are reddish-brown.
The female Brown-banded roaches will produce about 20 oothecae over their whole life.
Like the other species, the oothecae of these roaches have anywhere from 10 to 18 embryos. You’ll notice these species because they have a unique upper abdomen with a yellow band running across it.
The adults and nymphs of the Brown Banded roaches come into their house carried through furniture and will only survive in the indoor spaces in warm climatic areas.
Also, you may find these bugs in elevated areas of your home, including ceilings and picture frames.
You can get the Oriental roach nymphs in places with cool temperatures and high humidity, including bathroom and kitchen plumbing, basements, and crawl spaces where you’ll find roach dirt, egg cases, and dead roaches.
Also, check for spider webs as they may host some of the roach nymphs and eggs.
Any Dangers of Having Baby Roaches in your Home?
Unlike bed bugs, roaches have wings, but the roaches’ flying capability varies with species. American cockroaches have colored reddish-brown and 1.5 inches – 2 inches. Also, these roaches can fly.
1. Transmits Diseases
So, will baby roaches pose a health risk to humans, pets, and other animals in the house or yard? But first, review these yard fleas sprays.
Otherwise, we all hate roaches, and it’s definitely true that these bugs will bring harsh health effects into your home.
In summary, roach nymphs will carry different diseases that they’ll spread rapidly when no active roach extermination is undertaken.
I would recommend that you remove any food debris, water in addition to installing roach killers like roach sprays, roach baits, and roach bombs.
Some of the diseases that the roach babies will transmit include typhoid fever, leprosy, dysentery, cholera, diarrhea, and plague.
Further, the roaches will contaminate different food surfaces plus food within a short time. Read Also: Water Bugs Vs. Cockroaches.
2. Allergic Reactions
Besides, the roach nymphs will cause respiratory illnesses, including asthma and allergies, leading to sneezing and coughing.
You’ll find the roach nymphs living and breeding in sewage and garbage.
- In fact, the baby roaches will carry the bacteria and viruses while transmitting them to humans and pets in your home or yard.
- The adult and baby roaches may also lead to allergic reactions since they have molted shells.
Notably, the nymphs and shells may be dropped on many locations in your house – which may cause many allergic reactions for you and your pets.
This is because the cockroach saliva, dead roaches, and roach waste may cause asthma attacks or allergic reactions.
The allergies and asthma reactions from the roaches are similar to those caused by dust mites or ear mites (check treatment for ear mites).
Conclusion
To control baby roaches: apply an IGR pesticide using a sprayer, treat the home with Gentrol (an IGR to kill juveniles and nymphs) plus DemonWP (kills in seconds) and set up roach killers and traps (like Catchmaster) with fatty or sugar baits.