Breeding Dubia Roaches is very easy and is almost a by-product of proper care: if your roaches are housed, heated and fed correctly, they will breed with no further intervention.

Temperatures of at least 90F are required to breed dubia roaches successfully. Although they appear to be live-bearers, their birthing method is actually an intermediate stage between egg-laying (oviparity) and true live-bearing (viviparity). Dubia Roaches are “ovo-viviparous”, meaning that the egg sac (called an “ootheca”) is stored in the female’s body. When the eggs hatch, they exit the female’s body as small, 1/8” nymphs.

In order to ensure breeding, a Dubia Roach colony must consist of both adult males and females. Dubia Roaches are sexually “dimorphic”, meaning that the males and females are easy to tell apart. The males have complete wings (which do not allow them to fly) while the females have wing stubs only.

The difference between the male and female can be seen here:

Since a single male can fertilize multiple females, it’s best for the breeding dubia roach colony to have more females than males. This can be easily accomplished by feeding off the adult males first. Females are mature and ready to breed by 3-4 months of age. They will produce approximately 30 nymphs every two months or so during their active breeding life. Nymphs have soft bodies and shed fairly often as they grow to adult size and develop the hard, or chitinous shells of adulthood.

For best management of your breeding roach colony, maintain a ratio of approximately 1 male to every 5 females, keep temperatures at 90-95F, and keep track of the rate of hatching. If the rate decreases significantly and husbandry remains correct, most of the females may be older and producing fewer young. In this case, be sure to allow more females to mature and reproduce.