What bug is this? [It's an Oriental Cockroach, now what?]

minirhyder

These bugs pop up in my apartment in Queens, NY once in a while. It's about the same size as a waterbug, but looks more beetle-ey.

Pictures:

Enc

@BugBoy

Noxy

That looks like a roach. Female or nymph, likely.

zepherin

@Arch

Enc: are we racing entomology doctors?

BugBoy

Yup, agreed. Looks like the Oriental Cockroach, which does have a very beetlely look to it.
'

Arch

DANGIT BUGBOY YOU WIN THIS ROUND

I concur

Arch

Technically Fonjo wins this round

zepherin

Arch wrote: »

Technically Fonjo wins this round

The dark horse takes the race

*tears up ticket and sulks

minirhyder

Damn, I was hoping it wasn't a roach :?

So I see one of these crawling around about once a month. Would some boric acid in the kitchen and bathroom do it, or does this warrant an exterminator inspection?

Noxy

Wait, there are other bug folks around? Neat.

Well, the roaches are not the end of the world and very common in urban areas. Are you on the ground floor?

Is there a time when you see more of them? When it rains? Etc?

If you share a building, getting rid of any roach population can be... beyond challenging. First step is clean your living space. Store your food properly and don't leave crumbs.

Cauld

I also live in Queens, and this might not be the answer you want, but I think seeing one per month is roughly normal for Queens.

minirhyder

Yeah, we keep a clean apartment. We are on the first floor, yes. The building is small though, 6 apartments total.

There's no real pattern to them, like I mentioned, I only see one crawling around in our apt. on average once a month. I haven't seen anything that might look like eggs or juveniles.
I usually see them in the morning hours.

I kind of suspect that they might be coming from the basement apartment, and perhaps they're poisoning them, because I've seen a couple of corpses too.

Arch

Yeah, Fonjo, I've got a PhD in ento, and Bugboy is either almost there or well on his way.

As for the roach problem at hand, one or two roaches every month or so is not really indicative of a problem. You could leave out some boric acid or roach traps in the corners of pantries, cupboards, and under sinks to deal with stragglers, and as Fonjo said, clean up anything they could be crawling out of hiding to eat.

minirhyder

Cauld wrote: »

I also live in Queens, and this might not be the answer you want, but I think seeing one per month is roughly normal for Queens.

Ha, yeah. I mean I've seen German roaches, ants, American roaches, spiders, etc (in general, not this current apartment).

These guys are new to me though.

Noxy

These are less of a concern than the other roaches you mentioned, to be honest.

They kind of live everywhere and are often called water beetles. Look around your windows and entrances. Make sure all the cracks that need to be are caulked and remove anything that holds water, especially piles of leaves. If you remove ideal habitat, they are much less likely to show up at all. One or two is normal.

A good thing to note is that these critters thrive outside so if you take away their reasons to move in, it often solves itself.

@Arch Ooh, cool. I did a bunch of science in college and have since taken up bugs as a hobby of sorts. Started with keeping tarantulas and roaches but my interests kinda snowballed from there. Bugs are neat.