Help me identify this bug

February 18, 2011 9:55 AM

Help me identify this bug.

Here and here. I am moving into a new apartment in Hong Kong and found some dead specimens of this bug in the home. Should I be worried about these?

posted by hgcrpd to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Best answer: That's a cockroach, probably a female blatta orientalis. Hopefully, you're finding dead ones because the apartment was recently treated, but even if you've got live ones, they're not all that big a deal, although they are kind of gross.
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:05 AM on February 18, 2011

I'm no entomologist, but that looks like a cockroach to me.

If so, keep all your food in sealed containers, keep your home as clean and dry as possible, and cover all your drains.

You could also try introducing a couple of these guys.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:13 AM on February 18, 2011

Or a couple of these guys, or one or two of these.
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:17 AM on February 18, 2011

Response by poster: Seems a little light colored, don't you think? Also their rear end seems a bit more rounded, and the things at the end looked more like pincers than the things that cockroaches have.
posted by hgcrpd at 10:21 AM on February 18, 2011

They don't look that light to me; maybe a little less dark and shiny than some of the ones I've seen in California, but darker than American or German cockroaches. While I wouldn't bet the house on the exact species, it's definitely something in the cockroach family (it's actually not the color that diverges most from the typical Oriental cockroach appearance, but rather the length of the antennae). Those pincer-looking things are almost definitely ovipositors.
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:33 AM on February 18, 2011

The colouring is exactly like the cockroaches in Sydney, FWIW.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:37 AM on February 18, 2011

Seems a little light colored, don't you think? Also their rear end seems a bit more rounded, and the things at the end looked more like pincers than the things that cockroaches have.

There are tons of regional variations in cockroaches (in my experience, IANAE).
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 10:50 AM on February 18, 2011

Roach.
Interesting that they were dead. Perhaps the flat was treated before you moved in?
posted by Thorzdad at 11:32 AM on February 18, 2011

Yep, it's a roach. Roaches are an entire order of insects (Blattaria); there is tremendous variation between different species.
posted by brianogilvie at 2:52 PM on February 18, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks folks! Going to treat again before I start living there.
posted by hgcrpd at 4:38 PM on February 18, 2011