# Egg laying Madagascar Hissing Cockroach



## JoeCapricorn (Apr 14, 2010)

I've always thought Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches are supposed to give birth to live young. What does it mean when instead, there is a strand of eggs (or Ootheca) being laid? Does this mean she is ill, the eggs are infertile, or neither and that the eggs just needed to be expelled because she was tired of carrying them? Any advice on how to take care of them if they are fertile? There are two males and three females in this enclosure.

Edit:

I found this quote, "A cockroach has twice born. After laying eggs, some females’ cockroaches pull their eggs back into their bodies. There they stay until they have hatched, emerging the second time as young cockroaches." - so that may be what is going on...


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## Colorcham427 (Apr 15, 2010)

JoeCapricorn said:


> I've always thought Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches are supposed to give birth to live young. What does it mean when instead, there is a strand of eggs (or Ootheca) being laid? Does this mean she is ill, the eggs are infertile, or neither and that the eggs just needed to be expelled because she was tired of carrying them? Any advice on how to take care of them if they are fertile? There are two males and three females in this enclosure.
> 
> Edit:
> 
> I found this quote, "A cockroach has twice born. After laying eggs, some females’ cockroaches pull their eggs back into their bodies. There they stay until they have hatched, emerging the second time as young cockroaches." - so that may be what is going on...


My memory is telling me that Hissers are just like Dubia.

Dubia females sometimes retract, or simply push out the ootheca aka egg case to get some air..? not so sure what the purpose is, but it looks like a hot dog with extremely thin rims on it lol.

Anyways, don't pull it out or anything, it's OK. They do this from time to time, Hissers do infact bear live nymphs, simply because they hatch inside and escape from within.

Haha I remember the very first time I saw this, I freaked out. I thought it was some sort of giant parasite escaping the female's butt LOL... I pulled it out and popped it! I then googled it, and read that.. well.. I basically just murdered 25-30 baby dubia nymphs!  LOL


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## Orin (Apr 15, 2010)

The eggs are laid in an upright ootheca then turned sideways and retracted for gestation. This only happens once. If they are not retracted immediately after laying or are aborted at a later point they will never hatch.


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## JoeCapricorn (Apr 15, 2010)

How do I tell if the eggs are fertile?

I checked this morning, some were retracted, others were still out. A couple eggs at the very tip are brown and stuff. At first it looked like a white caterpillar with a brown head, but of course closer inspection reveals white rounded cylinder shaped eggs.

Of course I didn't touch them, I even took her out (she was on a piece of egg carton so moving her was safe to do) and sprayed the enclosure, so I wouldn't mist the eggs directly, wasn't sure if that would be a good idea or not.

But I could be gaining new baby hissers! ^_^


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## JoeCapricorn (Apr 30, 2010)

So far, 7 new babies hatched out. The rest seem to just be embryos, or look like pupae of bees or ants. Does this mean they are still hatching? What can I do to help them along? Or if they are behind compared to the 7 babies (that are now a dark gray color while these latent hatchlings are white and still eggshaped) does that mean they are stillborn?

Well, it don't matter. It was a chore to ensure I didn't accidentally throw any nymphs away when I changed out the food, since many curled inside the folds of a leaf of spring mix.


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## hibiscusmile (Apr 30, 2010)

This really freakes me out! I see it and I dont like it! I always say to self : oh, poor baby! dont know why, just do. And reading u pulled it out did not help


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## JoeCapricorn (Apr 30, 2010)

I didn't pull the eggs out, I left her alone except when I had to change their food or spray, then I took her (and the others) out so they don't get sprayed directly (Some hiss at me if they do, lol)

I'll check them when I get home, but still, 7 is a good number. I had thought that the eggs were infertile because there was no way their enclosure even reached 75 degrees.


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## sbugir (Apr 30, 2010)

Brian Aschenbach said:


> Dubia females sometimes retract, or simply push out the ootheca aka egg case to get some air..? not so sure what the purpose is, but it looks like a hot dog with extremely thin rims on it lol.
> 
> Anyways, don't pull it out or anything, it's OK. They do this from time to time, Hissers do infact bear live nymphs, simply because they hatch inside and escape from within.
> 
> Haha I remember the very first time I saw this, I freaked out. I thought it was some sort of giant parasite escaping the female's butt LOL...


Rofl, Brian, my dubias just had babies, and I saw the ooth... I showed it to my dad, and all he said was ######? Creepiest thing I have ever seen in my life to tell you the truth...


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## hibiscusmile (Apr 30, 2010)

haha, Lemmi, I concure


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## vera_renczi (May 2, 2010)




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## JoeCapricorn (May 5, 2010)

Exactly what she looked like. Later 7 of them hatched, rest didn't seem to make it. Ah well, I love the little buggers!


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## vera_renczi (May 5, 2010)

JoeCapricorn said:


> Exactly what she looked like. Later 7 of them hatched, rest didn't seem to make it. Ah well, I love the little buggers!


I really like them. I have a cave in my tank and there's one male that guards it. He has a hot babe too. If any of the other males come around his cave or babe, he headbutts them away and into submission. Really interesting to watch.


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## JoeCapricorn (Mar 6, 2011)

I think Azazel just laid again. Close to a whole year later...

A little update on the situation first - Since the 7 hatchlings, some got lost, or died while molting, or escaped or something. The 6 original adults were decreasing - 5 within a week of getting them (which was February 18... so I've had them for over a YEAR) - Right now, there are two originals - Azazel and an old lazy male. The remaining 3 of the 7 hatchlings are adult except for one, who is sub-adult. The adult male is named Shadow in honor of the first roach I ever had - he reminds me so much of that fella - with the horns, the long antennae and friendliness and lots of energy. I think what happened to Shadow is he ingested something toxic - it could've been from the orange cricket food, or the cheese-its.

One of the originals, Lilith, who is no longer alive, gave birth to... a LOT of babies. Over 40 easily. The number is down to 32, but 2 of those I gave to a friend of mine who wanted a couple as pets, so I have 30.

So now here we are in March and either the adult female offspring of Azazel or Azazel herself laid a long egg-case, similar to what I described in the OP. However, it seems to have broken off. What will happen? I've left it in the cage for the time being.

And I'm honestly not too excited about having more roaches. I have 35. That's plenty, and I am allergic to them slightly. Just fed them though and I'm fine.

Strange though, I can celebrate the one-year birthday of three of my roaches on April 29th


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## geckoboy3 (Mar 6, 2011)

Okay.... hi from hisserman!  

If they eject the ooth and it's not attached to a female, the ooth is dead. It's caused by stress. Make the humidity higher, leave her alone, etc. stuff like that will help decrease the number of dropped ooths.


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 6, 2011)

Or so u don't have more, keep up the same routine.


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## geckoboy3 (Mar 6, 2011)

hibiscusmile said:


> Or so u don't have more, keep up the same routine.


 :blink:  Bad idea.... it'd be better just to kill them or use them as feeders.


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## JoeCapricorn (Mar 6, 2011)

hisseman said:


> :blink:  Bad idea.... it'd be better just to kill them or use them as feeders.


I couldn't do that. I'll give them to others as pets though.


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## PeterF (Mar 6, 2011)

JoeCapricorn said:


> I couldn't do that. I'll give them to others as pets though.


Do these other people know about this?


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## geckoboy3 (Mar 7, 2011)

JoeCapricorn said:


> I couldn't do that. I'll give them to others as pets though.


They completely stop breeding at 65 F, but the babies (L1-L4) die pretty quickly. But first I recommend to have at least 25 adults in the bunch and make sure that they're not old or they'll die of old age faster at that temp  

Or keep a few (5-10) and all their babies at a good temp, but give the others cold. I'd also alternate males in the hot temp.

I did that for a while, but I needed cooling pads (is that what they're called?) since my house stays (upstairs) 75-100 F. Now I'm using them as a feeder to cull their population. :lol:


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