Does A Cockroach Have Red Blood? Will it Stain Everything Red?

Imagine this: casually sprawled across your couch on a lazy Saturday afternoon, you spot a cockroach running through your living room as if it owns the place. Your first instinct would be to crush it.

Naturally, you’d expect a trail of red blood oozing. However, the sight is borderline yellow-white and transparent. This poses the question: does a cockroach have red blood?

  • Cockroach’s blood is creamy, whitish, orange, yellowish, or entirely colorless
  • The color of a cockroach’s blood varies depending on its gender and stage of development
  • A cockroach’s blood is never red because it does not contain hemoglobin

This might be news to you, but cockroaches don’t have red blood. They continue to make it a point to be as different from humans as possible (which is a good thing)! Their behavior, coping mechanisms, survival instincts, and bodily functions are widely different.

As if that wasn’t enough, the color of their blood is also backed by an entirely different story.


Does a Cockroach Have Red Blood?

A cockroach’s blood does not consist of hemoglobin. Thus, it does not appear red.

On the contrary, their blood consists of hemolymph. This makes their blood much more transparent and yellow-white than the normal blood-red we know.

Cockroaches have an open circulatory system, which causes their blood to clot instantly. Their heart is not the ordinary human or chicken heart shape but is shaped like a tube.

This contains an aorta responsible for pumping blood to the cockroach’s body.

This process essentially proceeds through an open circulatory system made of spaces called the hemocoel.


What type of blood do cockroaches have?

Like other insects, cockroaches have a distinct blood type, also known as hemolymph. This white or colorless fluid flows throughout a cockroach’s body.

These insects have an open circulatory system that contains a wide network of spaces known as the hemocoel.

These operates like capillaries, blood veins, and vessels. This is present in vertebrates and takes up the role of pumping blood to the cockroach’s main organs.

Essentially, hemoglobin is responsible for giving blood the color red. It is responsible for transmitting oxygen within the blood for vertebrates.

Since cockroaches don’t have hemoglobin within their system, they opt for their tracheal system to supply oxygen throughout their bodies. Therefore, their blood remains colorless, whitish, or a shade of yellow, consisting of colorless plasma.

Interestingly, they also don’t have lungs and can survive for 40 minutes without breathing!


What is hemolymph, and how does it differ from hemoglobin?

Hemolymph is a mirror image of hemoglobin. The main difference is that the prior is present in cockroaches while the latter is present in animals and humans. This compound is an extracellular fluid.

It is colorless and flows through the bodies of various insects, including:

  • Flies
  • Various arthropods
  • Beetles
  • Cockroaches

To simplify it, hemolymph acts as the blood in various insects. Its primary function is to move hormones, nutrients, waste, and nucleating agents between cell tissues. Studies state that hemolymph makes up 15% to 75% of a cockroach’s body mass.

This fluid is made of up to 20-50% water. The remaining percentage is a solution of organic compounds and salts.

All these facts explain why a white, colorless liquid might ooze out of a cockroach as you crush it to death.


How does the color of a cockroach’s blood vary?

The most common color of a cockroach’s blood is no color. Indeed, a cockroach’s blood is almost always colorless.

However, you might find some exceptions within these cockroaches where the color ranges from yellow-white to shades of orange.

The core reason behind hemolymph not being red is the lack of hemoglobin. But, it doesn’t end there. A cockroach’s gender plays a major role in determining its blood color.

The common norm suggests that female and male cockroaches have transparent, colorless blood. This color may vary in pregnant cockroaches or egg-laying females as they emit yellowish or orange-shaded blood. This color change results from adult pregnant cockroaches with hormonal changes as they produce eggs.

A hormonal shift among adult cockroaches leads to the cockroach’s liver emitting a protein called vitellogenin. It is orange or yellowish.

When an adult cockroach’s blood interacts with vitellogenin, it becomes yellow or orange. This change remains constant until the female cockroach completes the egg-laying process.


What is the Appearance of Cockroach Blood?

As unique as these mini-monsters are in other biological factors, their blood looks similar to other insects with hemolymph. It is whitish, clear, or slightly yellow, depending on the cockroach’s gender and development stage.

Another core characteristic of a cockroach’s blood is that it does not flow like a normal animal or human blood. It is best not to expect hemolymph to ooze like vertebrae blood.

This contains ions, water, carbohydrates, fats, and amino acids. This is essentially why its consistency is creamy and thick, similar to pus, and has a low viscosity.


Do all cockroaches have blood?

Although their blood type is different than that of humans and animals, all cockroaches have blood in the form of hemolymph.

This helps with numerous functions in all cockroach species. Such as delivering vital nutrients, transporting different materials, and flushing out poison or toxins.

Cockroaches are not likely to survive without hemolymph. This is because it plays a vital role in helping cells and tissues perform their intended functions. But, the appearance, texture, and consistency of blood within cockroaches are widely different from what most people perceive blood to look like.


Conclusion: cockroaches do not have red blood!

These deep brown insects function widely differently than humans or animals. Therefore, their blood is also widely different than ours to expand on that further.

These insects don’t have red blood and carry whitish or colorless blood within their system. However, this does not mean that their blood is inferior. It performs various functions and plays an integral role in keeping these cockroaches alive.