The adults may remain alive for several months. The maximum number of eggs in a capsule is 32. An average of 26.1 nymphs hatch from each capsule. The capsules are deposited only during the summer, and the average incubation period is 34.2 days. The nymphs hatch in summer and mature the following May or June.
Wood cockroaches survive the winter as a partially grown nymph under bark of trees.
Nymphs even in subzero weather is quite active when exposed by pulling away bark. Adults are present from May until early October. Wood cockroaches commonly invade houses surrounded by or near woods. The males are capable of long flights, while the females may migrate some distance by crawling. About dusk the cockroaches begin flying in short flights.