Discoid roaches (Blaberus
Discoids are known as false death’s head
Lifespan: 10-12 months for males
Females live longer, usually reaching 20-22 months.
Discoid Roaches are easily digestible as feeder roaches, high in meat to shell ratio for a high protein and nutritious meal. The various life cycles of the discoid roach offer
Discoid Roaches are easily maintained, cannot climb smooth surfaces or fly. They eat almost anything, are silent, and smell free compared to other insects like crickets.
Housing Discoids
Discoid Roach colonies can be housed in a ventilated plastic tub or aquarium tank with a large surface area.
This species also cannot climb smooth vertical surfaces, such as glass, which makes them easy to house in an open aquarium or similar.
The surface area is increased with the addition of egg flats for Discoids to hide in and nestle.
Discoid Roaches do not climb well on smooth surfaces, so as long as the sides of the enclosure are smooth there is little chance of escape.
No substrate is needed as this makes removal, separation, and maintenance easier.
A Discoid Roach prefers living in dark conditions so using a dark tub or storing it in a dark place is preferable. Because Discoid roaches like nestling and living in close quarters, they require places to hide.

As adults, these insects can battle and injure each other.
Discoid Roaches Eat Just About Anything
Afterall they are roaches.
This makes for easy feeding. Make sure that they have access to high protein grains at all times like oats, wheat, wheat bran. They also need other forms of protein. Some keepers feed dog, cat, or fish food.
Alternatively, a lot of people will use a commercial diet that is formulated to have a balanced ratio of proteins.
You Are What You Eat!
Any food that you give your roaches will be passed along to your reptiles and amphibians.
For this reason, it is best to keep the Discoid Gut-Loaded with optimum nutrition to be passed along as you feed the

Use these fruits as a staple food. They are best as they are sweet and nutritious and are readily consumed. Feed the amount that the discoid will consume within 24 hours. Remove, the remains to eliminate the growth of mold. Mold wipes out entire discoid colonies.
Remove, the remains to eliminate the growth of mold. Mold wipes out entire discoid colonies. Use Fresh produce like carrots, leafy greens and other root vegetables provide a well-rounded diet for not only the roaches but the pets that you feed them to.
Nutritional Chart | ||||
Protein | Fibre | Fat | Water | |
Silkworms | 63.8% | – | 10.6% | 76% |
Discoid roaches | 35.6% | – | 6.75% | 61.18% |
Waxworms | 15.5% | 7.7% | 22.2% | 62% |
Crickets | 21.3% | 3.2% | 6.0% | 70% |
Locusts | 41% | – | 5.25% | 62.3% |
Discoid roaches may not be the highest live food in protein however their low chitin levels, high protein,
In comparison to crickets, they are 7x meatier (large to large) and a lot healthier, without the risk of parasite infection.
Breeding Discoid Roaches
You Do Not Breed Roaches, They Breed Themselves!
Discoids are optimally kept in temperatures around (82- 88°F ). They can survive at lower temperatures, but will not breed as quickly. Higher temps 88-95°F will greatly increase breeding cycles and produce more Discoid roaches as Feeders as well as increase the life cycle of your colony. Make sure humidity levels are at least 40%
Males are generally smaller than females with his wings going past the tip of the abdomen while females wings are shorter than the abdomen. Females are much wider and thicker. The easiest and most effective way to sex them is by looking at their underside. Males have more of a white striped belly while females have a blacker underbelly.

Males have white stripes on the abdomen.

Females have no stripes and are a bit rounder.
The roaches mature at 3 to 4 months of age depending on temperature. This is the stage where they can start reproducing. Place your mature roaches in a container and wait. Soon you will see the females getting larger.
You might even witness a female extracting their egg case called an ootheca. Do not disturb them when they are doing this! If disturbed you may lose the babies.
Once the egg case is extracted the female then retracts it back inside a special cavity. This is where the babies develop and the female gives birth to 20 to 40 live babies after about a month gestation. The best part about
Take The UG Out!!! Feed your animal in a plastic bin!
Say What?
You can not make this stuff up!
The movement of B.
In laboratory tests, specimens were adept at obstacle
The species served as the basis for the kinematic design of several cockroach-inspired robots.
B.
Discoid Cockroaches are also used in insect-eating competitions since they are often raised in captivity and are easier to gather in large numbers during a contest.
In 2012, Edward Archibold died as a result of ‘asphyxia due to choking and aspiration of gastric contents,’ according to his autopsy report, while participating in a
If you are going to eat roaches, we recommend the
They taste like chicken!Dubia species.
- A cockroach can live for a week without its head. Due to their open circulatory system, and the fact that they breathe through little holes in each of their body segments, they are not dependent on the mouth or head to breathe. The roach only dies because, without a mouth, it can’t drink water and dies of thirst.
- A cockroach can hold its breath for 40 minutes, and can even survive being submerged underwater for half an hour. They hold their breath often to help regulate their loss of water.
- Cockroaches can run up to three miles in an hour, which means they can spread germs and bacteria throughout a home very quickly.
- A one-day-old baby cockroach, which is about the size of a speck of dust, can run almost as fast as its parents.
- The world’s largest roach (which lives in South America) is six inches long with a one-foot wingspan. Average cockroaches can vary in size from ½”- 2″ long.
- Cockroaches are believed to have originated more than 280 million years ago, in the Carboniferous era.
- There are more than 4,000 species of cockroaches worldwide.
- Because they are cold-blooded insects, cockroaches can live without food for one month, but will only survive one week without water.
They cannot survive our winters and they are native. Cmon. Both of those can’t be true. Discoid roaches CAN survive Florida winters because they are native to Florida. That is why they are legal. Has nothing to do with not being able to climb wall or dying in winter high is not true.