While most people miss summer at the onset of winter, most will agree that one of the best parts about winter is not having to deal with all those pesky insects always lurking about, but not cockroaches! In fact, roaches can actually survive during the winter. If you are curious about where do roaches go in the winter, here you will learn what helps them survive the cold months.
While cockroaches thrive during the summer - layering eggs and populating the earth like other insects - most (not all) cockroach species tend to die once it starts freezing. The adults die, leaving their eggs behind, which will hatch come spring. A few other species go into deep hibernation, and wake up just in time for Spring. When they wake up, their nymphs immediately begin breeding, as if they too fear extinction.
Where do Roaches go in the Winter? - Eliminate Their Favored Home
One of the cockroach species that can survive the winter, even adults, is the German Cockroach. They're somewhat "smarter" than other species as they'll move - usually into your home - where its warmer to hide and populate. They spend the entire winter reproducing in whatever crack or crevice they can crawl into that's 50 degrees or higher. At times when it does get too cold, they slow their breathing so that they can go into a self induced temporary coma, and then automatically revive themselves once the weather's better.
Another hardy species of roach is the Oriental Cockroach. Similar to the German roaches, they somewhere warmer to hibernate while its freezing, and come back out during the spring. The difference is that while German roaches will find whatever crevice they can to crawl into your home, oriental roaches simply look for places outdoors to hibernate - mostly places with water like drains and sewages. When they're not crawling into your sewage, the toughest of them find wood piles and other decaying trees outside your home to hibernate in.
At really cold temperatures, below 15 degrees, most of these roaches outside won't survive. If you experience really cold winters, adult roaches (not their eggs) will die. If you're hoping for nature to kill off these pesky insects and their young, it is going to take some time. The reason is simple. Roaches have been on earth for an incredibly long time - roughly three hundred million years. And over that period of time, they've had to deal with different climates and natural disasters, ice ages, volcanos rupturing - all without going extinct.
Bottom Line
So, where do roaches go in the winter? If you live in particularly warm climates (Texas, California, Arizona) don't hold your breath for mother nature to take care of them for you. Unless where you live hits 15 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, you'll need to place roach bait stations all over your home, regardless of the season, so that at bare minimum, you control their population.
