Florida Bugs That Look Like Roaches: How to Tell What You Found

Plenty of Florida bugs that look like roaches are not roaches at all. Ground beetles, June beetles, crickets and pond water bugs get mistaken for them every week in Brevard County. And some real roaches, like the Florida woods roach and the outdoor Asian cockroach, look scary but rarely set up house inside. A quick look at the back, the antennae and the legs tells you which one you have.

TL;DR

• A beetle has hard wing covers that meet in a straight line down its back. A roach has a flat, oval body and long, whip thin antennae.
• Crickets jump on big back legs. Roaches run.
• True water bugs live in ponds and rarely come inside. A "water bug" in the bathroom is almost always a big roach.
• The Asian cockroach looks almost the same as the German roach, but it lives outside and flies to lights.
• The small tan roach that stays in the kitchen is the one to take seriously.

How to tell a roach from a beetle

This is the mix up we hear most. Turn on the light and look at the back.

• Beetles have a hard shell over the wings. The two halves meet in a neat straight line down the middle. Most have short antennae, and you can usually see the head from above.
• Roaches are flat and oval. A shield behind the head hides most of the head from above. The antennae are long and thin, often as long as the body, and they wave all the time.
• Speed. A roach runs fast and goes for a crack. A ground beetle often just walks.

Ground beetles and June beetles come in under doors and collect at porch lights at night. They do not breed in your kitchen. Sweep them up and fix the door sweep.

Florida bugs that look like roaches, one by one

• Crickets. Brown or black, with big back legs for jumping. They chirp. Small ones get mistaken for baby roaches, but a cricket hops and a roach does not.
• Giant water bugs. These are real insects in Florida ponds and lakes, sometimes called toe biters. They are big and grey brown, with grabbing front legs, and they can bite if you handle one. They live in water and rarely come in the house.
• The "water bug" in your shower. Almost always an American roach, the big reddish brown one many people call a palmetto bug. It comes up from damp places, as we covered in our post on why roaches come out of the drain.
• Florida woods roach. A real roach, but a different story. UF/IFAS lists it at about 1 1/8 to 1 9/16 inches, dark reddish brown to black, with tiny wing pads and no flight. It is called the stinking cockroach because it gives off a foul smell when bothered. It lives in mulch, wood piles and rotting logs, and UF says it does not live long indoors.

The Asian cockroach: the one that fools people

This is the lookalike most posts skip, and in Florida it matters. The Asian cockroach looks almost the same as the German roach. Both are small and tan, about 1/2 to 5/8 of an inch, with two dark stripes behind the head.

The difference is where it lives and what it does. UF says the Asian cockroach lives outdoors in lawns and leaf litter, especially in damp spots. The adults fly, and they fly to lit surfaces, sometimes by the hundreds on a porch or a window at dusk. German roach adults do not really fly.

So here is the ten second test. A small tan roach that flies at your porch light at dusk is likely an Asian cockroach from the yard. A small tan roach that runs out of the dishwasher at midnight is likely a German roach, and it is breeding inside.

What we see in Brevard

Getting the name right changes the whole job. Ron's point on German roaches is that they build resistance, so a real infestation needs products rotated in a set order, timed to their life cycle, over several visits. That plan is wasted on beetles from the lawn. It is also wasted on outdoor roaches that wander in from the mulch. And a single spray is not enough for a German roach colony behind the fridge. If you saw young ones, our post on the baby German roach shows what they look like.

What to do now

1. Catch one. Put a clear cup over it, or use a sticky trap. Take a sharp photo from above.
2. Check three things. The back (straight seam or flat oval), the antennae (short or long and thin) and the legs (jumper or runner).
3. Note where and when. Porch light at dusk points outside. Kitchen cabinets at night point inside.
4. Fix the easy entries. Door sweeps, torn screens and mulch piled against the wall let in most of the outdoor visitors.
5. Set sticky traps in the kitchen. If they keep catching small tan roaches, you have more than a visitor.

When to call somebody

If the photo shows a small tan roach and you keep finding them indoors, it is worth a proper look. Roaches, beetles and crickets that come in from outside are all part of our general pest control service. Our roach guide goes deeper on the German, American and woods roach.

Sources

• UF/IFAS EDIS, Florida Woods Cockroach (IN915)
• UF/IFAS EDIS, Asian Cockroach (IN277)
• UF Entomology, Asian cockroach, Blattella asahinai

Frequently Asked Questions