# Other Animals > Other Pets >  Hissing Cockroaches...???  Help!!

## Jace

I just got home and put some nice, fresh tasty orange in my Hissing Cockroach terriarium, and discovered my female, Desta, with an...unusual long white cylinder coming from her back end.  Would anyone have a clue as to what it is?  She is still alive and is not making a sound.  I suspected that she might be pregnant, so could this be an egg case??

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## John Clare

I'm not up on hissers I'm afraid but at a guess I'd say probably an egg case.

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## Jace

After finally getting a site to actually open, it is, alas, an egg case.  A rather large one.  She is just finishing (pardon the mental image on this) sucking it in.  From what I can gather, I have a while before she gives birth to live young, though how many that will be has more range in numbers than I care to think about.  Watching her was probably the grossiest, coolest, amazing sight I have seen in a while.  Then again, I don't get out much.  I'll try and post some pics.

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## Jace

Okay, here are some pics.  The first one is what I came home to.  The second one is her almost having finished bringing it inside to hatch in about two months.

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## Kerry1968

Ewwww, that is kinda gross! but fascinating! So they lay the egg case, then suck it back in? That's weird, is it incubated in a different part of the body than from where it's laid? Seems a pointless waste of energy otherwise!

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## Jace

> Ewwww, that is kinda gross! but fascinating! So they lay the egg case, then suck it back in? That's weird, is it incubated in a different part of the body than from where it's laid? Seems a pointless waste of energy otherwise!


From what I can gather, the egg case is formed, dropped, fertilized by the male-I have two, but I have a feeling Akida is the soon to be proud father-and then the female sucks it back into her abdomen where it incubates for up to 2 months (shorter period if enclosure is kept warm) and then she gives birth to 20-50 (?) live young and expels the empty egg case.  Most sites I've found tell you how to get them to breed, but not really about the egg case or what happens afterwards.  I agree with you, though-gross but fascinating!  I might be wrong about whether it is fertilized after or before it is dropped, but either way there is a bun (make that buns!) in the oven!!  :Embarrassment:

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## John Clare

Great photos Jo-Anna, thanks for sharing!

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## Jace

Thanks John.  For a cockroach, Desta is very photogenic!

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## Kurt

After looking at the photos I am convinced she ate a gummi worm whole and now its passing. I bet you guys will never ever eat gummi worms ever again. LOL

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## Jace

Okay, Kurt, it takes a lot to gross me out, but that came very close...especially since I ate a gummi worm earlier today!!  But, good one!  I, for one, have seen one too many horror movies, so I had numerous other visions dancing through my head.  I'll take gummi worms over those images!!

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## Ebony

Wow Jace, Absolutely fasinating, 
This is another one of my interests, insects. We don't have those here. Would love to know what happens next.
Thanks for sharing :Smile:

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## Jace

Thanks Ebony.  I am closely monitoring her, and I hope that I am home when she gives birth.  I will have the camera charged and ready to go when that happens!  I plan on keeping roughly ten of the babies and then the rest are going to be extra protein food for my African Bullfrogs.  I feel kind of bad, but I don't plan on naming the ones that are going to be food.  My daughter wants to girls-they are to be named Adrian and Ivy  :Smile: .

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## Kurt

Me so funny!

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## Ebony

Hey Jace, Thats the same with my son, He's 12 yr old and wants two of my Locusts as pets.  :Big Grin:  My 11yr old daughter wont even touch them. 
I saw some American Cockroaches for sale here, I don't know where they get them from :Confused: . Do your Frogs really love them? Ive never dealt with them before and well do they bite? Ive heard that they are very fast and I wouldn't want them running around my house. :EEK!:

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## Jace

> Hey Jace, Thats the same with my son, He's 12 yr old and wants two of my Locusts as pets.  My 11yr old daughter wont even touch them. 
> I saw some American Cockroaches for sale here, I don't know where they get them from. Do your Frogs really love them? Ive never dealt with them before and well do they bite? Ive heard that they are very fast and I wouldn't want them running around my house.


 
I'm not sure if Sam will touch them-she's brave to a point!-but she likes watching them and hearing the noises they make.  Having locusts as pets would be really neat-the bigger the insect the better in my opinion.  I almost got a praying mantis, but it sold before I could....another time.

My roaches are Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches-one of the larger, more docile species.  They are slow moving and do not have wings, so no attempted flight patterns.  I've also heard that if they do escape, they do not do well in cities and houses-or cold winters.  Hissers don't bite, but they do have very spiky feet that feel weird.  I've never had American Roaches, but if they are like what I think, that is one of the few insects I wouldn't want in my home!  If you can find Hissing Roaches, get those.  They are fascinating pets, easy to care for, and for an insect, they have interesting personalities.  And the hissing sound they make helps me fall asleep at night too!   :Big Grin:

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## Jace

Sorry, forgot one of your questions, Ebony.  I don't know if my frogs like roaches yet, as they have yet to be fed one.  I'm hoping they do, since that is the whole point of me trying to breed them.  I hear that it is best to feed the roaches right after they molt and are white....plump, juicy and soft.

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## John Clare

> one of the larger, more docile species


I would hate to meet the aggressive dangerous species!

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## Kurt

> I would hate to meet the aggressive dangerous species!


Bummer, I was going to give you one as a present. Oh well.

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## Jace

> I would hate to meet the aggressive dangerous species!


Lol-I've had one of the winged, flat, gross ones come at me.  I doubt if it was aggressive per say, but it startled me nonetheless.  Ugly bugger.  Little beady eyes...shudder.  Worse the hissing ones do-besides hiss-is wave their bums around.  Not very intimitating!

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