cyberlocc
Chameleon Enthusiast
Sorry wrong quote but good enough. They 100% can and will infest Socal. They infest in Phoenix and they can even be found wild, in all of Arizona and California. The South West to Texas is where they are found wild (in the States).
Distribution
The species is found in central Asia, the Caucasus Mountains, and northeastern Africa. It can be found throughout the area of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kashmir, Libya, Palestine, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States (adventive).[11][12]
US introduction
The Turkestan cockroach was first noticed in the US in 1978, around the former Sharpe Army Depot in California, followed shortly after by appearances at Fort Bliss in Texas and several other military bases.[5]Researchers believe the species arrived on military equipment returning from central Asia, perhaps Afghanistan.[5][13] Since then the species has been rapidly replacing the common oriental cockroach (Blatta orientalis) in urban areas of the southwestern US “as the most important peri-domestic species”, with advantages of laying more eggs and maturing more quickly than the oriental cockroach.[6][13] “They typically inhabit in-ground containers such as water meter, irrigation, and electrical boxes, raises of concrete, cracks and crevices, and hollow block walls.”[6]They are well established in the Southwest and parts of the Southeast, and have been reported in the Northeast.[13]
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/249675-Shelfordella-lateralis
They want humidity for eggs, but they will find water or they will breed during monsoon season. They are Arid roaches, they live in Arid climates. I won't keep them either personally.
As you can see though, they can also inhabit out of their normal. Which is not high humidity, but Arid Desert.
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