Cockroaches For Sale

Not pest species. Every cockroach listed on this page is an ornamental or feeder species from tropical and subtropical regions. None of them can survive a British winter outdoors, and none of them is one of the synanthropic species that lives in buildings. What you're buying are striking, often genuinely beautiful insects that are about as far from the German or American house roach as it's possible to get.

We stock display species like Domino, Four Spotted Jade, Emerald, and Centurion Porcelain roaches that people actually want to look at; feeder species such as the parthenogenetic Shadow Cockroach and Banana Cockroach for reptile and amphibian diets; and the Simandoa Cave Roach, which is extinct in the wild and survives in zoo collections and in the hands of hobbyists.

Every colony is captive-bred, shipped Monday to Thursday only with Royal Mail Next Day by 1pm, and covered by our live arrival guarantee with a 20% overcount on top.

What we currently keep

• Domino Cockroach (Therea petiveriana) - black with bold white spots, mimicking the toxic ground beetle Anthia sexguttata. From the dry scrub of semi-arid southern India, so keep it drier than instinct suggests. It does not fly, but adults climb smooth glass, so fit a close-fitting lid from the outset. The "gateway roach" that changes people's minds about the whole order.
• Emerald Cockroach (Pseudoglomeris magnifica) - metallic green species from Vietnam and southern China, arguably the most beautiful roach in the hobby. Give the lid your full attention: every stage climbs smooth surfaces, males fly, and newly hatched nymphs are around 3mm and will find any gap you leave, so a tight-fitting lid is not optional.
• Sapphire Flower Cockroach (Eucorydia yasumatsui) from the Yaeyama Islands of southern Japan, sapphire wing cases over a body flashed with orange, and the Giant Flower Cockroach (E. dasytoides) from southern China, Taiwan and northern Vietnam, iridescent metallic blue-green. Adults climb and the males fly, so both want close-fitting mesh rather than a lid that rests on top. Mesh, not a solid seal: these two need running drier and airier than instinct suggests, and a sealed humid box is the exact opposite of what they want. Poor ventilation is by a wide margin the most common way people lose this genus, and it does not show as a problem until it is too late to correct.
• Four Spotted Jade Roach (Eustegasta buprestoides) - jade-green Central African species with four gold spots. Adults fly and they climb glass, so a lid that seals plus a barrier round the upper wall is not optional. Nymphs are slight enough to slip through ventilation nobody would think twice about, so mesh every vent and keep the holes under about 2mm. Do not undersize the ventilation to chase humidity, though: this family does better with airflow than with a stagnant box.
• Centurion Porcelain Cockroach (Gyna centurio) - cream, maroon and brown patterning, a slow but reliable colony builder. Adults climb smooth surfaces and they fly, so an escape-proof, well-ventilated enclosure is essential rather than optional.
• Chrome Cockroach (Gyna caffrorum) - southern African porcelain roach that runs through a full colour progression: peppered black-and-white nymphs, then chrome-blue young adults, then soft silvery-white in maturity, with orange-red legs throughout. Buy it as a nymph and you will not see the chrome for months, which is rather the point. Adults climb and fly, and the 25 to 28C that drives breeding also brings more flight, so a tight-lidded setup with a smooth barrier round the rim is non-negotiable.
• Headlight (Lucihormetica verrucosa) and Glowspot Cockroach (L. subcincta) - a pair of yellow-orange spots set high on the shield behind the head, like small headlights catching the light against a dark body. Worth knowing before you buy: only the adult males wear them, females are a plain glossy dark brown, and nymphs of both sexes are unmarked, the males developing their spots only at the final moult. The spots do not glow. Neither species is bioluminescent, a 2025 study found no light-producing organs at all, and the original claim was never substantiated. Adults climb glass and smooth plastic, and we have found no reliable statement either way on whether they fly, so build for one that does: a well-ventilated lid that would hold a flier.
• Simandoa Cave Roach (Simandoa conserfariam) - extinct in the wild since bauxite mining destroyed their only known cave system in Guinea. Every living specimen is captive-bred. They have wings but do not fly; what they do very well is climb, including up glass and smooth plastic, and they move quickly when disturbed, so the enclosure has to be genuinely escape-proof.
• Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (Gromphadorhina sp.) - the big one that hisses, 5 to 7.5cm and among the largest cockroaches in the world, with no wings at all. No flight risk, but it climbs glass, so the lid still has to fasten.
• Shadow Cockroach (Pycnoscelus nigra) - parthenogenetic, so hobby stock is all-female and a single animal is a colony waiting to happen. It cannot fly, but it climbs smooth surfaces, adults and large nymphs both, so the lid has to seal or the rim needs a barrier. Fine mesh over the vents holds the smallest nymphs in.
• Banana Cockroach (Panchlora nivea) - soft lime-green adults with translucent wings, closer to a leafhopper than to anything the word usually brings to mind. The whole difficulty of this species is containment: the adults are arboreal and climb, they are agile fliers drawn to light, and one will slip out through a slow-closing lid and head for the nearest lamp. A genuinely escape-proof, tight-fitting lid is non-negotiable rather than a precaution.
• Cockroach Mystery Box - a mixed selection at a lower price per animal, and you will not know which species you are getting until it arrives. Build to the strictest spec on this page before it does: a lid that fastens, vents meshed under 2mm, and a barrier round the rim.

Common questions

Can any of these cockroaches infest my house?
No. None of them is a species that lives in buildings, and none can survive outdoors in this climate. What they need in order to breed is sustained warmth and damp of the kind you build into an enclosure deliberately, rather than the conditions of an ordinary room, which is why an escapee is a nuisance to recapture and not a pest risk. Several of them will stay alive indoors for a while, though, because a heated room sits inside the range they tolerate, so treat an escapee as an animal to go and find rather than one that will quietly solve itself. That goes double for the Shadow Cockroach, which is parthenogenetic: a lone female does not need to meet a mate. She still needs the 24 to 29C we run this species at, which is warmer than a UK room usually runs, but go and find her all the same.

Are pet cockroaches legal to keep in the UK?
Yes. The ornamental and feeder species we sell are unregulated invertebrates - no licence required. The UK's pest-control laws target a handful of synanthropic (human-habitat) species like Blattella germanica and Periplaneta americana, which we don't sell and would never stock.

Which species is easiest to start with?
Domino Cockroaches (Therea petiveriana) are a common first roach for good reason - hardy, beautiful as adults, calm temperament, and content across 21 to 29C, so a UK room suits them. Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches are the other classic starter, and the Banana Cockroach suits anyone curious about display roaches who is happy to take containment seriously. Shadow Cockroaches are beginner-friendly too, and reproduce parthenogenetically, so a single individual can start a colony. Whichever you pick, buy the lid before the animals: every species on this page climbs, and if you pick the Banana it flies as well.

Do they smell?
Well-maintained display colonies produce very little smell. Good ventilation and prompt removal of uneaten fresh food handles most of it.

Can cockroaches fly?
Some do. Banana Cockroaches fly, and fly well, and they are drawn to light. Centurion Porcelain, Chrome and Four Spotted Jade adults all fly. In the Emerald and in both Flower Cockroaches, the males fly. Domino, Shadow and Simandoa do not fly at all, and Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches have no wings to begin with. For the Headlight and the Glowspot we have found no reliable statement either way, so we build for a flier and suggest you do the same.

So is a fastening lid enough?
Not on its own, no. Climbing is the escape route that catches people out more often than flight does. Every species on this page climbs smooth glass, several of them ones that cannot fly, and it is not only the adults: Emerald nymphs climb at every stage, Shadow nymphs climb once they are large, and nobody has established whether Domino nymphs climb at all. The vents matter as much as the lid, too, because Jade, Emerald and Shadow nymphs are all small enough to pass through ventilation you would not look at twice. For several species the enclosure wants a barrier as well, a smear of petroleum jelly or a smooth plastic strip round the top few centimetres, which is what stops a climber reaching the rim in the first place. Fine mesh is the answer to the vents: it holds the animals in without stopping the air. That distinction matters, because several of these species want more airflow rather than less, and sealing the box is not the way to contain them.

Can I keep cockroaches with springtails?
Yes - most ornamental cockroach species coexist peacefully in bioactive setups alongside springtails, which occupy a different niche and don't compete aggressively. The combination works well in larger reptile bioactive vivariums, though a vivarium with sliding doors or large vents will not hold the fliers, and every species here climbs, so check the gaps before you commit to one. If you are building a clean-up crew, our isopods are the other half of it.