# A solitary cockroach?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 20, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311 "2005-07-20T16:23:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311/1 "2005-07-20T16:23:53Z")
I’ve been living in my apt for two years and I had never seen a cockroach until last night. The sucker was huge, at least 3 inches long and muddy brown colored. Anyway, I didn’t have any bug spray so I sprayed it with my most toxic smelling household product, resolve carpet stain remover, which smells like it’s composed mostly of turpentine. He didn’t seem to like it but scurried out of sight before I could get him again. I found him dead this morning.
My question is, do I need to hire an exterminator? Could this one guy have wandered into my apt from elsewhere in the building, or is there a good chance I have a family of these things somewhere in here?
Gross man.
---
### Author:  [@pasunejen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pasunejen)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311/2 "2005-07-20T16:31:38Z")
I had the same thing happen a month or so ago, and haven’t seen any since (and believe me, I was looking really hard for a long while after the initial scare). My guess is that as long as your apartment stays clean and you don’t notice any others in the next few days, you’re fine.
---
### Author:  [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311/3 "2005-07-20T16:38:39Z")
Isolated mature cockroaches do not mean that you’re infested. Be viligant about killing and removing them when you see them, though.
---
### Author:  [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311/4 "2005-07-20T16:42:51Z")
When I lived in an apartment, the only times I ever saw a roach was when an adjacent apartment was visited by the exterminator.
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311/5 "2005-07-20T18:17:19Z")
> [@cainxinth](#):
>
> The sucker was huge, at least 3 inches long and muddy brown colored.
It was most likely an [American cockroach](http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2096.html), which is much larger than the German and Chinese varieties.
They are generally much less common in homes than the smaller kinds. As the site says, they tend to live in basements, sewers, and other moist places. The one you found probably wandered in from elsewhere. Keep vigilant, but as **awldune** says, a single adult does not mean you are infested. Start worrying if you begin to see little ones.
---
### Author:  [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311/6 "2005-07-20T18:32:32Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> It was most likely an [American cockroach](http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2096.html), which is much larger than the German and Chinese varieties.
When I was vacationing in Florida and complained about roaches, I was told, “Naw, them’s palmetto bugs”. ☹
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311/7 "2005-07-20T18:36:15Z")
> [@vetbridge](#):
>
> When I was vacationing in Florida and complained about roaches, I was told, “Naw, them’s palmetto bugs”. ☹
In New York, they are often called “water bugs” rather than cockroaches.
---
### Author:  [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311/8 "2005-07-20T18:40:58Z")
Yep, as a kid growing up in Pittsburgh we had “water bugs” in our basement. If you told my parents they were roaches they woulda been shocked/offended.
---
### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-solitary-cockroach/313311/9 "2005-07-20T18:41:58Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> It was most likely an [American cockroach](http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2096.html), which is much larger than the German and Chinese varieties.
>
> They are generally much less common in homes than the smaller kinds. As the site says, they tend to live in basements, sewers, and other moist places. The one you found probably wandered in from elsewhere.
Oh, it feels good to laugh. 🙂 Evidently, we have some rare house-dwelling cockroaches here in South Carolina; we have the good ole American Cockroach, _Periplaneta americana_, and man are they huge and is it ever nasty when they try to fly. They are definately common in homes here; maybe not in the OP’s location.
I second whoever said don’t get all excited about the big ones; they come in from elsewhere. Call the exterminator when you see the little ones. They were born where you live.