Is this a German cockroach or something else?

Look at the shield behind the head. Two dark stripes running front to back, on a small tan cockroach found indoors, point to a German cockroach, the kind that breeds inside homes. Pale bands across the wings point to a brown-banded one. Found outdoors, by a porch light or in a gutter, it is more likely an outdoor kind that wanders in and does not settle. Where you found it is half the answer.

If you found it in a child’s room and your heart is racing: one cockroach there does not mean the room is the nest. They roam at night. You have time to look properly before you do anything.

The tells that matter

• German: small, about a fingernail long, tan to light brown, two dark parallel stripes on the shield. Lives in kitchens and bathrooms, near warmth and water. Often seen with young ones.
• Brown-banded: also small, but with two pale bands across the wings and body, not stripes behind the head. Prefers warm, dry rooms and high places: bedrooms, behind pictures, around electronics. It breeds indoors too, but the plan is different.
• Wood cockroaches: they live outdoors in leaf litter, woodpiles and gutters, and often have a pale edge around the shield and the front of the wings. They come in by accident, attracted to lights, and usually do not breed indoors.
• Outdoor lookalikes: in some warm regions there is an outdoor cockroach, the Asian cockroach, that looks almost identical to the German one. It lives in gardens and flies towards lights at night. A local pest controller can tell the two apart.

Small and striped is not enough on its own. The stripes need to be on the shield behind the head. Bands across the wings, a pale rim around the shield, or a life lived outside all point somewhere else. Our four cockroaches side by side shows the house kinds next to each other.

Why the photo tools disagree

A phone photo of a small brown insect is hard to read. The stripes are tiny, the light is often poor, and a squashed one loses its shape. So one tool says German, another says wood cockroach, and both sound sure. Neither settles it on its own.

A good ID tells you how sure it is and what it could not see. That is how the Shoo scanner works: when it cannot tell, it says so and asks for another photo. Whichever tool or person you ask, give them a better picture:

• Shoot from directly above, so the shield behind the head is in view.
• Use daylight or a bright lamp, close and in focus, with a coin next to it for size.
• Say where you found it: indoors or out, which room, which floor, and whether there were young ones.

What to do for each answer

• Probably German: put out monitor traps today, check under the sink and behind the fridge for droppings and egg cases, and start the plan in the German cockroach guide. If you have already seen young ones, go to found baby cockroaches.
• Probably brown-banded: put traps in several rooms, including high up, and look for egg cases glued under shelves and drawers.
• An outdoor kind: fit a door sweep, close gaps around windows and doors, and keep outdoor lights off or away from the door at night. If indoor traps stay empty, there is nothing to treat inside.
• Large and dark or reddish: that is a different group, usually coming up from drains. See big dark cockroach at night.

Still not sure? Let the traps decide. Young ones on an indoor trap mean breeding indoors, whatever the name turns out to be. Empty traps after a couple of weeks mean you can relax.

Found it in a child’s room? Do not spray the room. Put a trap behind furniture where the child cannot reach it, and keep any bait out of that room until you know what you are dealing with.

A tiny one in the car

Cars pick up hitchhikers from bags, boxes and second-hand items. Photograph it, clear out food wrappers and drink bottles, vacuum the seats and footwells, and put a trap under a seat for a week. Our answer on cockroaches in a car has the rest.