White cockroach: what it means when you see one

Why it is white

A cockroach grows by moulting: it sheds its old outer covering for a new one. Straight after a moult the new covering is white. It darkens as it hardens, usually within hours, so a white cockroach is one you happened to see in that short window.

Young cockroaches do it several times on the way to adult size, and each time they come out white and turn brown again. A newly hatched American cockroach is white too, then turns greyish brown.

Is it an albino cockroach?

Almost certainly not. Albinism is an inherited lack of colour that an animal keeps for life. The white cockroach in your kitchen will be brown by tomorrow. The university and extension sources we read all explain white cockroaches as freshly moulted ones, and none of them records a true albino turning up in a house. If you want to be sure, put it in a clear jar and look again in a few hours.

Is a white cockroach a baby?

Usually. Young cockroaches moult many times, so most of the white ones people see are nymphs. Adults go white once as well, straight after the last moult: the University of Florida shows a newly moulted adult German cockroach and notes that its covering hardens and darkens within a few hours. A white one with full-length wings is a new adult. What young cockroaches look like the rest of the time, dark and wingless, is in baby cockroaches.

Is a white cockroach harmful?

No more than any other cockroach. It is the same insect, just soft for a few hours. The risks are the usual ones: germs carried in their droppings, and allergens in house dust that some people react to. Those are covered in cockroach bite.

What seeing one tells you

Because the colour lasts only hours, white cockroaches are seldom seen, which is why one looks so strange. A white cockroach is a growing one, and it probably moulted close to where you saw it. Small ones in the kitchen, or white ones among them, point to cockroaches breeding indoors rather than one that wandered in. Look where they hide, and for egg cases and shed skins.

Vacuuming takes up cockroaches, shed skins and egg cases together. To tell which kind you have, the cockroach identifier compares the four found in Philippine homes, and how to get rid of cockroaches covers what to do. If they keep turning up, book a visit through cockroach and ant control. We cover Pampanga, Bulacan, Bataan, Tarlac and Olongapo.