Cockroach Life Cycle

How Long Do Cockroaches Live?

A cockroach’s lifespan typically lasts between 7 – 10 months but can last up to 15 months long. The lifespan of a cockroach is largely dependent on the species, available resources, and environmental conditions. During this period, all cockroaches develop the same as they progress from cockroach egg to cockroach nymph to mature adult cockroach. Upon reaching maturity, cockroaches will become fertile and start to lay eggs. Understanding the cockroach life cycle should help determine the best plan of action when creating a custom cockroach treatment strategy. 

Stages of the Cockroach Life Cycle 

Seeing cockroaches in your home is never a pleasant experience. Taking the proper steps to help minimize the cockroach presence requires an understanding of where the cockroaches are in their lifecycle and if they have reached sexual maturity. To understand this, one needs to be able to identify what stage of the cockroach life cycle it is in and how to treat for cockroaches in that specific stage of development. 

When cockroaches reach sexual maturity, they will start to mate. Within a week of mating, cockroaches will produce a small leathery egg case called an ootheca. These oothecas typically hold anywhere from 10 to 55 cockroach eggs, depending on species, and will generally be carried around by the female for a few days until it gets deposited somewhere safe, warm, and humid near a source of food and water. This egg case will stay hidden for 1 -2 months until the eggs hatch and release the new cockroach nymphs. Most species of cockroaches are oviparous which means that the egg sack develops outside of the female but there are a few species that are ovoviviparous and develop the egg case inside the female cockroach until they are ready to hatch. Depending on the species, a female cockroach can produce between 4 - 14 oothecas over their lifespan. 

American Cockroach Eggs:

American cockroaches will produce roughly one ootheca every month for 10 months after reaching maturity. Each ootheca will contain roughly 16 eggs and these eggs will take 6 – 8 weeks to hatch. These oothecas are immediately deposited somewhere close to food and water.

German Cockroach Eggs:

German cockroaches are the most prolific egg producers with each ootheca containing between 30 – 40 eggs. Female German cockroaches will hold the ootheca until the eggs are ready to hatch which usually takes roughly 28 – 30 days. In their lifespan, a German cockroach can lay between 4 – 8 oothecas. 

Brown Banded Cockroach Eggs:

Brown banded cockroach egg cases will contain roughly 16 - 18 eggs that will hatch in roughly 70 days. The female cockroach will generally hold the ootheca for a day or two before attaching it to a safe surface for the eggs to finish incubation. Each female brown banded cockroach will lay up to 13 - 14 oothecas in their lifetime. 

Oriental Cockroach Eggs:

Female oriental cockroaches will lay roughly 8 egg cases in her lifetime, with each ootheca carrying roughly 16 eggs. The incubation period for these eggs can take roughly 40 – 80 days under optimal conditions. The female cockroaches will carry the ootheca for 1 – 5 days while they look for somewhere safe and warm to deposit the eggs. 

Cockroach Nymphs

Nymph is the term used to describe adolescent cockroaches that have not yet reached maturity. This stage is broken down into several stages that require the cockroach to go through 6 - 14 molting periods called instars. As roaches molt for the first few times, they will remain lighter in color. Once they develop further, their color will darken in the final stages of development. Depending on the species of cockroach, the nymph phases can complete in ~ 60 - 900 days. Finding these molted skins are a good indicator that you have a roach problem because it indicates that roaches are not only breeding but growing towards sexual maturity to repeat the process.

American Cockroach Nymphs

American cockroach nymphs will be slightly smaller than mature adults and they won’t develop their wings until adulthood. American cockroach will molt between 6 – 14 times before reaching maturity with the nymph stage taking roughly 600 days on average. Depending on conditions, the American cockroach nymph phase can last anywhere between 160 – 970 days. 

German Cockroach Nymphs

German cockroach nymphs will molt roughly 6 times before reaching adulthood. This process will take roughly 60 days to reach maturity under optimal conditions. German cockroach nymphs appear darker than mature adults and will remain flightless during their developmental period. 

Brown Banded Cockroach Nymphs

Brown banded cockroach nymphs will take between 8 - 31 weeks to fully develop into mature adults. In this time, brown banded cockroach nymphs will molt through 6 – 8 instar phases. 

Oriental Cockroach Nymphs

Oriental cockroach nymphs will develop through roughly 7 – 10 instar phases before reaching maturity. This process can take between 24 – 130 weeks but will generally take 52 weeks in optimal conditions. 

Mature Adult Cockroaches

Once cockroaches molt for the last time, they have reached full maturity and have developed all of the adult cockroach features like wings and the ability to reproduce. Depending on cockroach species, this period of the cockroach life cycle can take between six months to over a year. At this time, most cockroaches will have grown to be between 1 ½ to 3 inches long. 

Adult American Cockroaches

Mature American cockroaches will typically live between 360 – 400 days. Over this year long period, female American cockroaches can lay up to 160 eggs in optimal conditions. American cockroaches will grow to be as long as 1 ½ inches long at full maturity.

Adult German Cockroaches

Adult German cockroaches will generally survive between 20 – 30 weeks in optimal conditions. During that timeframe, an adult female German cockroach can lay as many as 400 eggs which can result in over 10,000 cockroach descendants in one year.

Adult Brown Banded -Cockroaches

Adult brown banded cockroaches usually survive between 13 - 45 weeks given enough resource availability and optimal conditions. During this time, an adult female can lay up to 250 eggs. 

Adult Oriental Cockroaches

Adult oriental cockroaches have one of the shortest adult lifespans, only surviving between 5 -26 weeks. During that short time frame, an adult female oriental cockroach can lay between 130 – 200 eggs. 

How Long Do Cockroaches Live?

Species is probably the largest determining factor for how long cockroaches live. Then environmental factors come into play which can drastically extend or shorten how long a cockroach survives in the wild. 

American Cockroach Lifespan

American cockroaches’ lifespan is dependent upon external factors like environment and diet. American cockroaches have oothecas that enclosed in a dark shell-like casing that are about 8 mm long. Females can produce up to 1 ootheca a month at their reproductive peak. Each ootheca can contain up to 16 eggs and one female can produce 10 oothecas on average during their lifespan. Females cockroaches will typically deposit these egg cases in a crack, crevice, or somewhere else safe after a couple days of development where they will hatch in 1 ½ - 2 months.

When American cockroaches hatch, they are white and light grey. Every molt, the color of the cockroaches darkens further to a reddish-brown color. Early stages of nymphs are wingless but American cockroaches will develop wings after as many as 14 molts when they reach maturity. Reaching maturity can take American cockroaches between 160 – 970 days with 600 being the average. This makes American cockroach development one of the longer development periods for cockroach nymphs.



Adult American cockroaches are reddish brown with a lighter band around the head of the cockroach. Males have wings that extend past its body but both sexes have flight capabilities. At full maturity, American cockroaches are 1 ½ to 2 inches long and are much longer than their German cousins. An adult American cockroach can live up to 400 days and that is not including the developmental or incubation period. Altogether an American cockroach’s lifespan including incubation and nymph development, can theoretically last over 3 ¾ years under optimal conditions. However, surviving that entire time is rare given resource availability, pesticide exposure, and predators.  

German Cockroach Lifespan

German cockroaches are the most prolific breeders with their oothecas containing up to 40 eggs at a time. German cockroach ootheca are a lighter brown, have a ribbed exterior and are about 7- 9 mm long. Female German cockroaches will carry the ootheca until the eggs are ready to hatch in about a month. Females generally produce up to 8 ootheca in their lives.

German cockroach nymphs tend to be darker than adults and will lighten up over 6 – 7 instar stages. German cockroaches have the shortest nymph stage which typically lasts for 60 days before reaching maturity. Like American cockroaches, they are light brown with 2 dark strips that go down the back of the head. An adult male German cockroach’s lifespan is roughly 100 – 150 days while females live between 190 – 200 days. Over the course of a German cockroach’s development, they can theoretically live for roughly 300 days in optimal conditions. 

Brown Banded Cockroach Lifespan 

Brown banded cockroaches will lay up to 8 small oothecas in their lifetimes that carry as many as 16 eggs each. This incubation period will typically take up to 70 days before the eggs hatch into nymphs. These oothecas are attached in high up places where they are safe from disturbance. Once the eggs hatch, brown banded cockroach nymphs will typically molt between 6 - 8 times before reaching maturity. The time it takes for brown banded cockroach nymphs to develop can take up to 31 weeks.



Upon reaching maturity, brown banded cockroaches will survive for another 13 - 45 weeks. During this time, they will produce as many as 250 eggs. When combining the incubation period, the developmental instar phases, and adulthood, a brown banded cockroach can live for a little longer than 1 ½ years long.

Oriental Cockroach Lifespan

Oriental cockroach oothecas look similar to that of the American cockroach. They are dark, smooth egg cases that also carry about 16 eggs per oothecas. Females will produce about 8 cases in their lives and will deposit them somewhere safe after about 5 days. At this point, the young oriental cockroaches are on their own.



Oriental nymphs are much lighter than their dark black adults. They generally reach maturity after 7 molts which can take up to 130 weeks. At this point, oriental roaches will develop a dark brown / black shell and be capable of reproduction. Female oriental cockroaches can survive up to ~180 days while males only live for ~ 160 days. In total, an oriental cockroach’s lifespan can last around 3 ¼ years in optimal conditions if you include incubation and instar development. 

How Many Offspring Can a Cockroach Produce?

Cockroaches in general are notorious for creating problematic infestations due to their reproductive capabilities. Each species can create several oothecas in their lifetimes, with each oothecas filled with at least 16 eggs. The most problematic species, however, is the German cockroach who breeds at an unbelievable rate. German cockroach egg cases can carry up to 55 eggs and likely average around 40 eggs per case. German cockroaches will yield up to 8 oothecas in their lives which means that under optimal conditions, German cockroaches can produce close to 400 eggs in their lifetime. American cockroaches on the other hand only produce 16 eggs per ootheca. If you factor in 10 oothecas over the course of an American cockroaches’ lifespan, then American cockroaches can produce about 160 nymphs in their lives. 

Contact EcoGuard Pest Management if You Have Seen Cockroach Activity

If you have seen signs of cockroaches, it might be too late to prevent an infestation. Call EcoGuard Pest Management today to schedule a free inspection to determine how bad your cockroach problem is. Our team of licensed cockroach exterminators will identify problematic areas and provide treatment to ensure that any and all signs of cockroaches are eliminated. 

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