Can Cockroaches Fly or Bite? UK Species Facts Explained

Can cockroaches fly? Some can, but the two you are most likely to meet in a UK home rarely or never do. The German cockroach has full wings and seldom if ever uses them. The Oriental cockroach has wings too short to be much use. American cockroaches can fly but seldom do, and male brown-banded cockroaches may flutter when disturbed, while their females cannot fly at all.

So do cockroaches fly around a London flat? Almost never in a way you would notice. The British Pest Control Association (BPCA) says most cockroaches have wings but many do not fly, and that those that do tend to be weak, unsteady flyers that would sooner run. A cockroach in your kitchen will nearly always bolt for a gap.

That gives a simple rule. Do not use flight to decide what you have found. If it runs fast along the floor, flat and oval with long antennae, take it seriously whether or not it has wings. If it is flying around outdoors in summer, it is probably something else, and we cover the likely candidates further down.

This guide answers the flying, biting and danger questions. For identifying species, finding droppings and egg cases, and getting rid of them, go to our main guide to cockroaches in the UK.

Most adult cockroaches do. The Insects of Britain and Ireland reference by Watson and Dallwitz describes four wings: a leathery front pair that lies over the back, and a larger hind pair folded underneath. Oxford City Council also says two pairs. The front pair works more like a cover, and the folded hind pair is the part that would do the flying. That is why a cockroach at rest can look as if it has no working wings at all.

German cockroaches show that wings and flight are separate questions. Penn State Extension says the adults have fully developed wings but do not fly. Coventry City Council says the same: winged, but cannot fly. Midlothian Council, however, lists flying among what German cockroaches can do. Walter Ebeling's Urban Entomology, published by the University of California, Riverside, sums up domestic species as never or rarely flying, which we think is the fairest line.

Oriental cockroaches differ most between the sexes. Penn State says females have only small, functionless wing pads and broader, heavier bodies, while male wings cover about three-quarters of the abdomen. It describes males as apparently unable to fly, and UC IPM at the University of California says the species does not fly. The BPCA agrees that the wings are too short to be much use. Gravesham Borough Council is the outlier, saying some males can manage a short flight of 2 to 3 metres. Even if that is right, a hop of that length is not what people mean by flying.

American cockroaches have the most complete wings. Penn State says male wings reach slightly past the tip of the abdomen, and female wings are about as long as the abdomen. Brown-banded males have wings covering the abdomen, while females have short wings, says Ebeling, which matches UC IPM's statement that females cannot fly.

Young cockroaches, called nymphs, have no wings at all, as Penn State notes for both German and American cockroaches. If you find small wingless insects with the same flat shape as an adult, do not assume they are a different pest. Nymphs usually mean cockroaches are breeding on site, so check our German cockroach guide and book help sooner, not later.

Cockroach flight sits on a spectrum, and most of what people describe as flying is nearer the bottom end. Powered flight means taking off and staying up. Gliding means holding wings out to slow a drop or stretch a jump. Falling with some control is what the BPCA seems to mean when it says some cockroaches fall with style.

The American cockroach shows how reluctant a capable insect can be. The Urban and Structural Entomology Program at Texas A&M University says adults have well-developed wings, seldom fly and are capable of gliding flight. Penn State says they can fly but rarely do in the northern United States. Ebeling recorded that he could not get them to fly by shaking them, although some flew upwards when thrown into the air on a sunny day.

So if a large cockroach does take to the air, expect a short, clumsy trip, perhaps down from a shelf or wall, and not a sustained flight. There is a good reason for this. Running is what cockroaches do well, and the BPCA gives a speed of 1.5 metres per second. Over the short distance to a crack, the legs win.

We found no good evidence that cockroaches aim for people. One that lands on you has most likely been disturbed or dropped from above, and you are simply where it ended up. Our advice is to step back, let it land, then trap it under a clear glass so that you can photograph it. Swatting it in mid-air only leaves you with something harder to identify and a mess to clean up near food.

Yes, as far as the evidence goes, and it is the main reason internet videos of flying cockroaches do not tell you much about Britain. The BPCA says the ability of many cockroaches to fly depends on climate, and that higher temperatures and humidity encourage it. UC IPM gives the clearest figure we found: male brown-banded cockroaches sometimes fly when disturbed, especially above 85°F, which is about 29°C.

Now compare that with London. The Met Office's 1991 to 2020 long-term average maximum for July at Heathrow is 23.9°C, and August is 23.4°C. So an average London summer afternoon falls short of that brown-banded figure, and evenings are cooler still. Hot spells do pass it, of course, and the figure is for one species, from a Californian source. It is a pointer and not a law.

It also helps to look at the American videos. UC IPM says smokybrown cockroaches can fly, especially on warm, humid evenings. That species is not among those the BPCA lists for the UK, so clips of cockroaches flying around a porch light in warmer parts of the United States are not a guide to Ilford or Lewisham.

Indoors is a different matter, because heated buildings make their own climate. UC IPM says German cockroaches prefer 70 to 75°F (about 21 to 24°C), brown-banded around 80°F (about 27°C) and American usually above 82°F (about 28°C). The BPCA adds that both German and Oriental cockroaches can often be found around heating ducts and boiler rooms in large, centrally heated buildings. If something does fly in a warm boiler room or a hot commercial kitchen, take it seriously, and tell your managing agent or the business owner.

Our recommendation: expect more movement in warm weather, but do not expect British cockroaches to start flying through your open window. A hot week is more likely to bring out beetles.

Most reports of a flying cockroach in London summer weather have a better explanation, and a good one lives in the capital. Stag beetles are the UK's largest beetle. The Natural History Museum says males measure 35 to 75 mm including jaws and fly at twilight on hot, humid evenings, usually from mid-May to late July, often at about face height. It calls London a stronghold, with far more in the south and west of the city. A heavy, whirring, dark insect at dusk in Wimbledon or Richmond is far more likely to be this than a cockroach, and it is harmless to your home.

The other common suspect is the cockchafer, or May bug. The Wildlife Trusts describe a large brown beetle about 3.5 cm long with rusty-brown wing cases, seen from May to July. It is mostly active after dark and gathers around streetlights and lit windows, which is why it so often ends up thudding against the glass or blundering indoors.

Britain does have flying cockroaches of its own, but you would be lucky to see one. The Orthoptera Recording Scheme says both sexes of the tawny cockroach are fully winged and can fly, at 8 to 9.5 mm long, with adults from about late June into October. The Wildlife Gardening Forum says native cockroaches are 5 to 11 mm, live on rough grass and scrub and are not often seen in gardens. It adds that the lesser cockroach is mainly coastal, and that the dusky and tawny are more widespread in southern England. These small outdoor insects are not house pests, so one on a garden shrub needs no treatment.

Check four things before you worry: how long it is, whether the wing cases are hard and shiny, how long the antennae are, and where you saw it. Beetles have hard wing cases that meet in a straight line down the back. A cockroach has a flat, oval body and very long, whip-like antennae, which the BPCA treats as the key feature. If you have a stag beetle, leave it alone. If you have a cockroach indoors, go to the section on what to do next.

Yes, cockroaches can bite, but it is rare enough that you should not plan around it. The BPCA says it is incredibly rare for a cockroach to bite a person, with very few reported cases. Their mouthparts are made for chewing, and the BPCA notes that they are omnivores, so a bite is possible. They do not sting. It is simply not their normal behaviour.

The best-known evidence is old. Ebeling's Urban Entomology says Roth and Willis discussed 20 reports of cockroaches biting people in their 1957 Smithsonian review, and calls the cases rare and not serious. He says he included them mainly because people so often ask. So the classic answer to "do cockroaches bite?" rests on about 20 scattered reports, and not on any count of how often it happens in homes.

The cases follow a pattern. Ebeling describes ships where cockroaches were so numerous that they gnawed crew members' skin and nails, and one account of sailors wearing gloves to sleep. He says they are most likely to gnaw fingernails, the eyelashes of sleeping children and callused parts of hands and feet, and that they can make small wounds on softer skin. American and Australian cockroaches are the species most often named, and those are not the two you are most likely to meet in a London kitchen.

UK health and council advice reflects how rare this is. The NHS page on insect bites and stings lists bees, wasps, hornets, mosquitoes, ticks, horseflies, midges, mites and fleas, and does not mention cockroaches. The Hastings, Oxford, Redbridge and Lambeth council pages we read describe contamination and treatment, and none of them mentions bites.

We should be honest about the limits here. These reports are old, and a rare event on a crowded ship decades ago tells us little about a modern flat. Still, the direction is clear. The accounts involve huge numbers of cockroaches, so a home where this could happen would already have a very obvious problem. Our recommendation is to treat a suspected bite as a reason to look for the real cause of the mark, which is usually not a cockroach.

Will cockroaches bite you while you sleep? In an ordinary UK home, it is very unlikely. Cockroaches stay close to warmth, water and food, and the BPCA says they hide in hard-to-reach harbourages near those things, so a bedroom is not their first choice. The gnawing reports come from very heavy infestations, and a few cockroaches in a kitchen have plenty of grease and crumbs to eat.

If you are waking up with itchy marks, look for something else first. The NHS says bedbug bites are usually raised and itchy, often in a line or group, on skin exposed while sleeping such as the face, neck and arms. Flea bites usually sit in groups below the knee. Our guide to bed bugs vs fleas shows how to check. Mites, midges and mosquitoes can also leave marks, and a skin reaction may have nothing to do with insects.

If you did see a cockroach on the skin, treat the mark like any insect bite. The NHS says to wash the area with soap and water, apply a cold pack or a cloth soaked in cold water for at least 20 minutes, raise the area if it is swollen, and avoid scratching. Paracetamol or ibuprofen can help with pain. A pharmacist can advise on antihistamines and hydrocortisone cream.

Are cockroaches dangerous? Not in the way a wasp sting or a rat bite can be. They are not aggressive, and a single insect is unlikely to do you any direct harm. The real issues are indirect: what they leave on food and surfaces, and what they leave in the air and dust. Those two matter more than bites by a wide margin.

Ranking the risks helps, because it tells you what to do first. We would put soiled food at the top, because it is the most widely agreed and the most easily fixed. City of Westminster says cockroaches feed on almost anything, from faecal matter to food meant for people, and have been found with disease-causing bacteria on their bodies. Allergens come next, particularly in homes with someone who has asthma. Spreading specific diseases comes third, because the evidence is real but less direct than many websites suggest. Bites come last.

The size of the problem matters as well. A cockroach that came in once in a delivery is a very different risk from a kitchen with droppings along every kickboard. So do not panic about one insect, but do not ignore it either. City of Westminster advises against waiting, and Hastings Borough Council says it is almost certain there are more if you see one. Our advice is to check tonight and act on what you find, using the steps at the end of this guide.

This is where sources differ most, so we will give both sides. Council pages tend to be firm. Hastings Borough Council says cockroaches can transmit salmonella, E. coli, staphylococcus and shigella. Redbridge Council says they can infect food with food poisoning, dysentery, typhoid and polio, and Gravesham Borough Council says they can potentially transmit dysentery, gastroenteritis, typhoid and salmonella. The BPCA calls them vectors of disease. Penn State Extension goes as far as calling German cockroaches the main transmitters of gastroenteritis.

The research is more cautious. A 2008 World Health Organization review of urban pests, as quoted in a New York Times column, found that "definitive evidence that cockroaches are vectors for human disease is still lacking". The column treats them as a secondary factor in spreading disease. A 2020 review in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology by Guzman and Vilcinskas reaches a similar view for hospitals: there is no direct proof that cockroaches spread hospital infections, although they can carry bacteria, and some of those are resistant to antibiotics.

The two positions are closer than they first look. A mosquito carrying malaria is a true vector: the germ needs the insect. A cockroach is better seen as a dirty pair of feet. It walks through drains or waste, then over your chopping board. Laboratory work supports that part: Ebeling reports studies in which salmonella survived for a long time on contaminated food and glass. What is hard to prove is how often that chain ends in a sick person in an ordinary home.

Our recommendation is to act as though the contamination is real and leave the statistics aside. If cockroaches have been in a cupboard, throw away uncovered food with droppings on or near it, wash plates and utensils before use, and clean the surfaces. Keep food in sealed containers. If anyone feels unwell, follow NHS advice for food poisoning, which lists feeling or being sick, diarrhoea, tummy pain and a high temperature. Call 111 if you are worried about a baby under 12 months, if diarrhoea lasts more than 7 days or if vomiting lasts more than 2 days. Do not assume a cockroach was the cause, because the NHS lists many others.

For most households, this is the most serious cockroach health issue. Allergy UK says cockroach allergens in saliva, faeces and body parts can trigger allergic rhinitis, particularly in urban areas with large cockroach populations, and lists cockroach droppings among the indoor causes of year-round symptoms. Hastings Borough Council links them to dermatitis, rhinitis, bronchitis and asthma. The US Environmental Protection Agency says droppings and body parts can trigger asthma, and that cockroach allergens likely play a significant role in asthma in many urban areas.

The strongest studies come from American cities. A landmark 1997 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, reported by ScienceDaily, followed 476 inner-city children with asthma. Those who were both allergic to cockroaches and heavily exposed were admitted to hospital 3.3 times as often as children with only one of those risks. A 2012 review by Sohn and Kim puts sensitisation at roughly 40 to 60 per cent of urban and inner-city asthma patients, and 60 to 80 per cent of inner-city children with asthma, against 21 per cent in one suburban group.

These figures need care. They describe heavily exposed US city neighbourhoods, they show an association and not a proven cause, and we did not find an equivalent UK figure. The NHS does not name cockroaches on its asthma or allergic rhinitis pages, which list things like pollen, dust, mould, house dust mites and animals. Removing cockroaches is also not a guaranteed cure for symptoms. A 2017 review by Pomés and colleagues reports mixed results: some home trials cut allergen levels without much change in asthma outcomes, while a New Orleans trial of insecticidal bait over 12 months did improve children's asthma outcomes.

So what should you do? Do not diagnose yourself. The NHS says allergic rhinitis symptoms include sneezing, an itchy nose or roof of the mouth, a runny or blocked nose, itchy, red, watery eyes and a cough, and that you should see a GP if symptoms get worse, if your asthma is getting worse, if they affect your sleep or daily life, or if you are not sure of the cause. Mention the cockroaches at the appointment.

If someone at home has asthma, is pregnant, or is very young, tell the person treating your home before any work starts, and avoid DIY sprays and foggers. The EPA advises pest management methods that pose less risk than insecticides used in general. In our view, bait placed in cracks fits that advice better than aerosol in the air. Allergens are found in droppings and shed skin, so proper cleaning matters after the insects have gone. The NHS says to call 999 during an asthma attack if symptoms get worse, do not improve after the maximum reliever dose, or you have no inhaler, and not to drive yourself to A&E.

No. The BPCA calls the idea a myth, and it dates the story to reports from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The University of Florida says it may have started with accounts of cockroaches walking out of the rubble unharmed. Whatever its origin, it stuck because it contains a small truth: cockroaches do tolerate far more radiation than people.

The usual test is the one from the TV show MythBusters. The BPCA and the University of Florida report that cockroaches survived 10,000 rad, about ten times the dose lethal to humans, but that none survived 100,000 rad, while flour beetles did. BBC Science Focus gives a similar picture: cockroaches can survive roughly 6 to 15 times the human lethal dose, which is no better than most insects, and the parasitic wasp Habrobracon can take more than 180 times. Figures differ between sources because the dose, the time and the species all vary. We could not read the original 1959 laboratory paper by Wharton and Wharton, so we have left out its numbers.

The University of Florida gives a reason for the tolerance: cells are most vulnerable when dividing, and insects divide cells mainly before moulting. Then comes the part that settles it. A cockroach near a blast would not survive the heat of the fireball or the pressure of the shockwave, it says. Radiation is only one of the things a bomb does.

Why bother with this in a pest guide? Because the same myth can lead people to think cockroaches are unkillable, and they are not. They die from the right bait in the right place. The main obstacle is reaching them: the BPCA says control is seldom easy because of the difficulty of getting the insecticide to the insect. That is a planning problem, and our cockroach removal guide explains how to approach it.

Yes, for a while, and this one is less of a myth than the bomb story. The BPCA says they can live for at least a week without their heads. Scientific American goes further: it reports entomologist Christopher Tipping saying that some decapitated American cockroaches lasted several weeks in a jar.

The explanation lies in how an insect's body works. Scientific American, quoting physiologist Joseph Kunkel of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, says a cockroach's neck can clot shut, so it does not bleed to death. It has an open circulatory system with far lower pressure than ours. It breathes through small holes called spiracles along the body, and its brain does not control breathing. Clusters of nerve tissue in each body segment can manage simple reflexes, so a headless body can stand, react to touch and move. As a cold-blooded insect, it can also last for weeks on one meal.

The figures do not sit neatly together, which is worth saying. The BPCA also says cockroaches will not live for more than a few days without water, yet a headless one cannot drink. Conditions and species clearly matter, so read all of these durations as rough. Our practical takeaway is modest: a cockroach that looks dead or badly injured may still move. Pick up bodies with gloves or tissue, put them in a sealed bag in your outside bin, and wash your hands. Stamping on them adds nothing, and it leaves a mess you have to clean up anyway.

Cockroaches attract more folklore than almost any other pest, and some of it affects what people do. Here are five claims that come up often, with our verdict on each. The one that matters most is the idea that only dirty homes get them, because shame stops people reporting a problem early. If you live in a block, that silence is what lets an infestation spread through shared pipe runs and ducts.

One extra point on the name: the BPCA says the German cockroach's common nickname is the steam fly, but the name reflects its liking for warm, humid places, and has no bearing on whether it flies. Do not read anything into it. The sensible recommendation across all of these is to use what you can check tonight, such as droppings, egg cases and shed skins, and not what you have heard.

Whether it flew, ran or just sat there, the next step is the same: find out what it was and whether there are more. Do not spray it, do not set off a fogger, and do not start moving appliances around. Our full cockroach guide has the detailed first-hour steps and explains why sprays can backfire, so here is the short version.

If you live in a block of flats, tell your landlord, managing agent or freeholder as well. Hastings Borough Council says that where cockroaches infest a building with more than one dwelling, the whole building must be treated to be effective. Tenants should report it in writing straight away, because Citizens Advice says landlords are usually only responsible once they know about the problem. It adds that a landlord is likely to be responsible if the agreement requires it, if failed repairs caused the problem, or if the infestation makes the home unsafe. If you run a food business, do not wait, and see our commercial pest control page or our guide to commercial pest control duties.

You do not need to work out which species you have before you contact us. Send a photo, tell us where and when you see them, and let us know if you live in a flat or shared building and if anyone at home has asthma. Our cockroach control starts from £119 and covers an inspection and targeted treatment, with the price, visits and inclusions confirmed in writing before booking. If you are not sure what you have found, start with a pest inspection, which starts from £60 and is confirmed in writing before you book.

Cockroaches often need more than one visit, so packages are available. For a 1-bed property, a 2-visit package is £160 to £190 with a written 1-month guarantee, and a 3-visit package is £210 to £230 with a written 3-month guarantee. Packages include a safety report, follow-up and proofing advice. For comparison, Redbridge Council lists £230 for cockroaches, covering 3 visits 7 to 14 days apart, and our Ilford pest control page sets its fees beside ours. Compare what each one includes, and see our prices page and our pest control cost guide for the bigger picture. The final price depends on the extent of activity, the property, access around appliances, preparation and the number of visits.

We are based on Clements Road in Ilford, cover London and carry public liability insurance. Our phone lines are open Monday to Saturday, 8am to 8pm. Landlords and managing agents can look at pest control contracts for shared areas, and all our other work is listed under pest control services. If you only want advice about a photo, contact us.