Hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhini) are large, flightless cockroaches native to Madagascar. They grow up to four inches in length and are among the world’s largest roaches. They’re primarily known for their unusual size, interesting colors, and unique personalities. They adapt well to captivity, often becoming “tame” with frequent handling. They’re long-lived, easy to keep, exotic in nature, and all these traits combined make them popular as pets.
Hissers need certain conditions to survive, thrive, and breed in captivity. These conditions differ (often significantly) from the typical room temperature and humidity found in most homes throughout the United States. If you’re going to keep them, you’ll need to provide these conditions at a minimum.
For basic survival, hissers need an average room temperature of at least the mid-60sºF. The temperature should not fall much lower than 50ºF at night. The average humidity should be no lower than 70%, and sustenance can come from table scraps, pet food (wet or dry), and fruits and vegetables.
But again, this is bare-bones survival. To thrive and breed, they need more. The following information outlines how to care for hissing cockroaches from Madagascar for optimal health and breeding.
NOTE: This information is what hissers need to survive and thrive. For guidance on how to provide the heat, humidity, harborage, and enclosures hissers need, please see our Dubia Roach Breeding Guide.
Temperature & humidity
The temperature range for optimal health and breeding is 75-85°F during the day and 65-75°F at night. Hissers can tolerate deviations from these ranges, but we recommend staying within these limits whenever possible.
Temperatures above 90°F are approaching their upper limit of survivability and are not necessary for growth or breeding. At about 95°F, hissers become hyperactive and begin moving away from heat sources. It’s OK to provide high heat if all the roaches are able to move away from it. For example, using a heat source at one end of an enclosure.
Hissers need at least 70% humidity, but higher is better. If your goal is optimal health and/or breeding, aim for 80% and higher.
NOTE: Be cautious with high humidity. Pathogens thrive and grow in hot, dark, moist environments, and some have the potential to harm a colony of hissers. Keep roach enclosures as clean, dry, and odor-free as possible.
Housing
Be sure you can house your hissers before they arrive, as they can climb any surface, including glass. Small nymphs are very fast, and they love to explore. If there is an exit somewhere, they will find it. To secure them, you will need a bin sealed with a tight-fitting lid or a strip of petroleum jelly on the inner walls.
Depending on your circumstances, you may want to do both. Young nymphs constantly explore, and they will find any exit points that exist. Smearing a thin, 2-inch-wide strip of petroleum jelly around the entire inner wall near the top of the bin helps prevent escape.
Housing can be bare-bones or elaborate, depending on your needs and tastes.
Bare-bones housing for specimens doesn’t require fancy containers. You just need to contain them and provide plenty of air and harborage to create hiding places. A small plastic container with air holes in the lid or a screen top works well. Of course, all holes must be smaller than the roaches or they will escape.
Harborage can be any of the following: Egg crates, cardboard squares or tubes, roach huts, bark, or crumpled paper. Basically, any material that creates surface area, provides hiding places, and allows the roaches a place to grip. Hissers can become stressed if they lack hiding places.
More elaborate setups for displaying roaches or housing growing colonies can be of any type or style—plastic, glass, large, or small. However, environments that cultivate healthy hissers have all of the following: space for growth, good air circulation, and plenty of harborage in which to hide.
For space, make sure there is room for all the roaches. They don’t mind being packed tightly, but they do need something to hold onto. A rule of thumb is that if there are roaches without something to hold onto, they need more space. You can create more space by adding more harborage and upgrading to a larger bin or splitting the roaches with another bin when necessary.
For air circulation, make sure there are no signs of excess moisture buildup. If you see soggy harborage or condensation on the lid or walls, increase the air circulation. High humidity is good, but excess moisture buildup is bad, so do what you can to avoid it. Increasing circulation is often the best and easiest way to achieve this.
Diet
Hissers love fruits and vegetables, particularly apples, bananas, and carrots. However, their diet should not be fruits and vegetables alone.
High-quality processed (dry) dog and cat kibble, fish food, chick starter, and similar pet foods can be used as a primary food source. These are ideal for hissers because they’re nutritious, convenient, widely available, and clean. Rotting food in roach bins often leads to problems, and dry pet foods help you avoid that.
Hissers evolved to eat rotting plant matter and fallen fruit on the forest floor, so everyday foods widely available from grocery stores and online are more than enough to meet their nutritional needs.
NOTE: Go easy on the protein. The cockroach’s natural diet is low in protein, and they evolved to be protein-sparing. They don’t need a lot, and too much can cause problems.
Breeding
Hissers live 2 – 4 years on average, while some particularly healthy specimens can live longer. Generally, the larger a species is, the longer it lives. Promoting longevity is a simple matter of providing conditions as close to ideal as possible. Stress tends to reduce roach longevity.
Nymphs mature into adults in 6 – 7 months and can produce their first batch of offspring at about 1 year of age. It is important to monitor and maintain breeding colonies as they grow. Keep them clean and provide the conditions they need for health, previously mentioned, as their numbers increase.
If you keep more than one hisser species, it is important to know that they can interbreed. If they interbreed, your roaches will produce hybrid offspring. This is something most people want to avoid. Hybrid hissers lose the traits that distinguish one species from another.
Species-specific Information
Aeluropoda insignis – Flat Horn Hisser
Flat horn hissers are fast! Particularly nymphs. And they like to explore. With this species, you have to be extra vigilant about containment and escape. Adults are somewhat prone to running for the exit, but nymphs certainly are. Of all our hisser species, these are the fastest.
Their enclosure requires more frequent cleaning than other species. Not due to more frass, but rather smell. They produce a musky odor that’s stronger than other hissers, and we prefer to keep it to a minimum. For this purpose, weekly substrate changes are sufficient.
Males can be aggressive when competing for females. They’re aware of their horns, and they use them. Keep a balance of females and males to reduce this aggression and provide more space for males. Additional hide material can help in this regard.
Elliptorhina javanica – Halloween Hisser
Halloween hissers eat more and grow faster than the average hissing roach. They are not aggressive toward each other, but they like exploring and will attempt to escape if given the opportunity. This is especially true of nymphs and juveniles. Adults are balanced in their desire for activity and hiding inside whatever substrate is available.
Gromphadorhina portentosa – Madagascar Hissing Cockroach
Of all the hissing cockroaches, Madagascar hissers are the largest, slowest, and longest-lived species. While they can climb glass and other smooth surfaces like all hissers, and the nymphs like exploring, they are the least aggressive when it comes to escaping. Their personality can be summed up as “chilled and relaxed,” relatively speaking, and they respond well to taming attempts and frequent handling. While other species may tolerate it, Madagascar hissers don’t seem to mind it.
