Do Roaches Like Honey? Are They Attracted to It?

A roach infestation in your home can cause a whole lot of headaches. These deep brown, spikey-legged, and winged creatures tend to get into everything! What is it that brings them into our homes? Food! What foods do they love? Everything… but in particular, they love sweet things.

Do roaches like honey? oh yes, they do.

  • German cockroaches in particular tend to have a sweet tooth
  • Cockroaches are attracted to foods that are starchy and sugary
  • Honey is among the top favorites for cockroaches

For many years, humans have used bait to find and rid of cockroaches. We tend to research what cockroaches like and use that against them because these insects have outsmarted us time and time again. It is important to know what they like and dislike in order to beat them at their own game.

Therefore, if you have a jar of honey lying around and wish to use it as bait to catch these tiny monsters, you’d be happy to know this is a possibility.

Let’s dissect the matter further.


Do Roaches Like Honey and Other Sweet Foods?

Cockroaches prioritize two habits and surround their entire lives. These are hunting for food and sustaining their survival by reproducing.

They’re not so different from humans when it comes down to it!

They’re not so different from humans when it comes down to it!

This makes it difficult to get rid of a cockroach infestation because cockroaches have intelligent survival strategies that we sometimes can’t outsmart.

Cockroaches tend to eat anything that comes in sight. This includes garbage, fruits, vegetables, paint, cardboard, and even each other!

These pesky pests also feed off hair, fingernail clippings, dead skin, and soiled clothes. They can survive on just about anything other than rocks. And probably that, too!

But when it comes to food preferences, cockroaches are particularly attracted to starches or high-protein food. They are also particularly attracted to sweet foods. Honey makes it to the top of the list for these insects!

Many who keep roaches as pets (like Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches) feed them honey. They love it.

If you accidentally tipped over a jar of honey, clean it up quickly and thoroughly! It will attract household roaches like a magnet.

Cockroaches have a heightened sense of smell from their antennae, and they are usually able to smell sweet foods from meters away. This eventually leads them to sprint towards the honey and eat away at it.


What Other Kinds of Foods Attract Roaches?

Now that you’ve understood the type of foods cockroaches particularly enjoy, let’s move on to other foods that are common cockroach cuisine.

These include:

1. Starches

Cockroaches are big fans of starch, and this obsession extends to the point that these insects sometimes munch away at book bindings due to their starch content! These sneaky pests are also prone to eating paper or cardboard, particularly wet cardboard.

Those poorly-sealed moving boxes in your basement and those left-over pizza boxes in the trash can are not ideal spots for a cockroach infestation.

2. Sugar

Essentially the reason why cockroaches have a strong liking for honey is due to their undying love for sugar. Sugar is one of the best baits if you wish to lure a cockroach out of hiding. Sugar tends to take precedence over all other forms of food for cockroaches.

Sugar tends to take precedence over all other forms of food for cockroaches.

Keep that jar of honey and sugar sealed to keep cockroaches from getting inside. Any food with a high sugar content acts as a magnet for these pesky monsters. Soda and juice are also dangerous to be lying around.

Clean up your rooms and get rid of crumbs and random glasses of water and juice, people!

Cockroaches tend to detect smells easily. If you spill a soda, they will be quick to sniff the dried-up version of it. Their ultimate love for sugar also explains why they prefer to eat garbage.

Therefore, if you have left-over mango peels in your trashcan, you may well find several roaches munching away at it.

3. Cheese

We all know mice and rats (and people!) love cheese. But A lesser-known fact is that cockroaches love cheese.

Since cheese also comes with a strong smell, which can easily lure these insects out of hiding, any left-over cheese particles will be a source of attraction for these insects.

Rotting cheese thrown in the garbage may be a gateway to heaven for these tiny monsters.

4. Grease

As small as cockroaches are, they still aim for a balanced diet. Since grease is an ever-ready source of fat, cockroaches are heavily attracted to it (only healthy non-seed-oil fats, TYVM!)

This is a major inconvenience for house owners because grease is often difficult to clean, particularly from the nooks and crannies of appliances.

Any seemingly invisible layer of grease found on kitchen walls or oven hoods will be fantasy land for these insects. Do your best to scrub away the grease from your kitchen in order to keep roaches away.

5. Garbage

Moving on from the relatable and human-like foods, it is important to note that cockroaches are dirty insects. The strong smell of garbage brings them to run to the trash can to look for food.

These creepy crawlies don’t care about eating rotten food until they get their desired nutrition.

Keep your garbage bins sealed and closed up during the night. All in all, cockroaches consider organic matter of any kind as a source of nutrition. If you can, use a garbage disposal to ensure minimal food is around your house, and store compost outside as much as possible.


Conclusion: roaches like all things sweet!

When it comes to cockroach cuisine, sugar, honey, caramel, and other sweets are all high on the list. Cockroaches are heavily attracted to sweet things.

If you leave anything sweet lying around or accidentally drop a can of soda during the night but forget to clean it, you might have some uninvited guests suddenly making themselves known around your home.

If you want to set up baits to get rid of roaches, honey is an excellent choice. They are attracted to it, so you can use that to your advantage and poison them with honey combined with insecticide!