Some Cockroaches Like to Cuddle, Too

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AAs the nights get colder and we hug our loved ones closer, it’s good to remember that humans aren’t the only animals who huddle together due to bad weather. Some penguins, for example, huddle together for warmth and share body heat to avoid freezing in Antarctic climates. We can now add a not-so-cuddly creature to the list of animals that like to snuggle up in bad weather: the Madagascar hissing cockroach.

According to a new study in EthologyThese cockroaches also like to huddle, not to conserve body heat in the mildness of Madagascar, but to conserve moisture when the weather is dry.

Biologist Lindsey Swierk, working with a team of undergraduate students enrolled in her animal behavior course at Binghamton University, divided 32 adult cockroaches into different groups and varied the relative humidity in their enclosures. When conditions became dry, the two-inch-long cockroaches tended to pile up, creating a more humid microclimate within the pile.

It’s a behavior that has been documented in insects before, primarily in smaller species and more vulnerable larvae, but this new research demonstrates that even relatively burly cockroaches rely on each other to stay hydrated.

Read more: »The acquired tastes of gourmands and cockroaches»

“In general, insects can lose water quite quickly due to their high surface area to volume ratio, and so humidity really affects their ability to retain moisture,” Swierk said in a statement. “Our research shows that even larger adult insects, which may in theory be more resistant to low humidity than smaller or larval insects, still use aggregation as a flexible behavioral adaptation to reduce the risk of water loss.”

The research also has important implications for ecology. Climate change is lengthening the dry season in Madagascar, and cockroaches will likely begin to aggregate as a result. The increased crowding that accompanies more arid conditions could spur competition among cockroaches and even provide a more tempting target for hungry predators.

So hold your cockroaches tight tonight, it’s starting to dry out there.

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Main image: Wiley Online Library

• Jake Currie

  Published on November 21, 2025

  Jake Currie is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York.