The Best Board Games with Insects 2026

Cockroach Poker Royal (Kakerlakenpoker Royal) elevates the art of bluffing to a royally entertaining level. This game, a twist on the original Kakerlakenpoker, swaps the traditional poker deck for one festooned with critters like cockroaches, rats, and stink bugs, emphasizing bluffing over traditional poker hands.

Cockroach Poker is a lighthearted and engaging card game focused on bluffing and reverse set collection. It features various critters like cockroaches, rats, and stink bugs, and the aim is to trick others into collecting these undesirable creatures.

Forest Shuffle is a strategic and environmentally themed card game where players vie to create the most ecologically rich and balanced forest habitat. By gathering valuable trees and attracting diverse species, players work towards building a vibrant ecosystem, all while keeping an eye on the changing seasons that signal the game's end.

Savernake Forest is a light tile-laying and drafting game for 2 to 4 players ages 10 and up. In 20 to 40 minutes you build your own corner of the woodland and make sure every animal gathers its favourite food before winter sets in.

Players select cards and take turns placing them in their individual ecosystems. Each player's area consists of up to twenty cards from eleven different types. Scoring happens based on strategic placements, such as placing bears next to bees and trout, while the largest stream at the game's end earns additional points. Diversification is key to maximizing your score!

Hive is a highly strategic two-player game that stands out for its versatility and unique gameplay mechanics, involving a variety of insect-themed pieces.

In each round, players spin the spinner on the board. If it points to one of the eight ladybugs, the player can move that ladybug to visit others. Each ladybug figure has a magnet in its nose, allowing them to swap places if they "like" each other. If they do not get along, the turn ends. Once a ladybug collects five different colored points, it is ready for the ball and is removed from the game. Players win when all ladybugs are ready. If the spinner lands on a smaller leaf, the player cannot move ladybugs and must advance ants instead. If all seven ants board the ship, the players lose.

Cockroach Salad is a fast-paced card game where players work together to create a salad but not always truthfully. With 128 cards representing different vegetables and the dreaded "taboo" vegetables with cockroaches, the aim is to deceive your way to victory. The game becomes a test of quick thinking and deception as you navigate through the rules of when to tell the truth and when to lie about the vegetables you're adding to the salad.

There’s a pesky little bug in the kitchen, a HEXBUG® nano® scuttling across the board. Players rotate utensils like knives, forks, and spoons to trap the bug. Roll the dice to see which utensils can be turned, catch the bug, and earn tokens; the first player to collect five tokens wins.

Players work together to create a soup made from leeks, peppers, carrots, and mushrooms, but they won't always reveal the ingredients they add! The game features a deck of 128 cards, including vegetable cards and "Taboo" cards showing cockroaches that may require special actions. If a player makes a mistake or hesitates too long, they must pick up all previously played cards, and the first player to run out of cards wins.

Cockroaches are ready to hit the dance floor in this lively game. Players take turns playing their dance cards and must perform the correct—or completely wrong—dance moves and sounds while naming the dance style.

Players take on the role of beekeepers who aim to make their fields bloom to attract bees and produce the most valuable honey. On a turn, they can either take flower tiles from the garden or make a field bloom by filling it with tiles from their supply and beehive tiles. When a player blooms their fifth field, each player takes one last turn before scoring extra points from their beehives based on the bees around them. The player with the highest score wins.

Beez is an abstract flight-planning game from Next Move Games in which you play a bee collecting nectar and storing it in your honeycomb hive. For 2 to 4 players aged 8 and up, 30 to 45 minutes – with an unusual movement rule that soon has your brain buzzing.

Kakerlaloop is a spin-off of Kakerlakak featuring a different game board, including loops, for added excitement.

Mariposas is a charming board game that captures the incredible journey of the monarch butterflies from Mexico across North America. It is a game of movement and set collection, where players experience the life cycle of these fascinating creatures.

Players face each other across the game board, which features four cockroaches arranged in four rows. On their turn, a player places stones in front of them, one per row, while the opponent reveals one or more of these stones. The goal is to mislead the opponent into making the wrong choice and to be the first to lure a cockroach to their side of the board.

A beetle has taken my dice from this row before I could exchange them for victory tokens. This is a common refrain in the casual dice game, as failing to act quickly allows other players to steal your dice.