# What kinda bug is this?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 16, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983 "2013-09-16T16:32:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/1 "2013-09-16T16:32:05Z")
I’ve been spending time going through various online “insect identification” websites and haven’t found a match yet.
Location - SF Bay Area.
We’ve started to see a few of these little critters around/outside the house - I’ve smashed a couple in the kitchen and several on the front porch.
I don’t have a good photo but they are small (between 1/8" and 1/4" long), no wings that I can see. Tan with dark brown stripe(s) running **lengthwise** along the body (the cockroaches that I’ve seen in the bug websites have stripes running **across** the body, not along it).
Antenna appear to be small and forward-facing.
Smash them and there’s some blue guts.
They don’t seem to be scared of the light. I have an extremely blurry photo of one on the outside doorframe that I took this morning - it was quite happy there even with a bright porch light and the flash on my cellphone.
I try to keep the kitchen clean and dry but with a relatively new dog and family (incl. 9-yo stepson) it’s harder than when it was just me, but there’s minimal food waste sitting around (clean up crumbs, empty the garbage, don’t leave puddles of water around, etc).
I’m hoping it’s some kind of beetle. Never had roaches and the idea utterly squicks me out.
Any ideas or good places to look 'em up?
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### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/2 "2013-09-16T16:46:52Z")
There’s something like a million species of beetle, so odds are in your favor. 🙂
Without a pic, it’s going to be hard to say much. Try using bright diffuse light, and if your camera has a macro setting, use it.
another option is to step back, and then zoom in, then crop as needed. This often gets a good image.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/3 "2013-09-16T16:47:37Z")
Need photo!
[Silverfish](http://lancaster.unl.edu/enviro/images/insects/firebrat.jpg)?
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### Author:  [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/4 "2013-09-16T16:51:53Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> Need photo!
>
> [Silverfish](http://lancaster.unl.edu/enviro/images/insects/firebrat.jpg)?
I don’t think it’s that, I’ve seen those before and they are pretty distinctive due to the really long antenna.
I’ll try uploading the photo that I took, it’s just not very good.
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### Author:  [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/5 "2013-09-16T17:40:05Z")
Here we go, see if these are of any use:
[http://s24.postimg.org/f4f604xep/bug\_1.jpg](http://postimg.org/image/f4f604xep/)
[http://s24.postimg.org/463why8td/bug\_2.jpg](http://postimg.org/image/463why8td/)
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/6 "2013-09-16T17:44:21Z")
Could be an [immature roach](http://www.whatsthatbug.com/images/roach_immature_jennifer.jpg).
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### Author:  [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/7 "2013-09-16T17:56:15Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> Could be an [immature roach](http://www.whatsthatbug.com/images/roach_immature_jennifer.jpg).
Yeah, I saw some critters like that online, it doesn’t look much like that. Definite two-tone color scheme with stripes, as opposed to a sort of “multiple shades of brown”.
I specifically googled the “blue guts” part, only found one reference from someone else who had what sounded like the same kinda bug, they didn’t get any definite answer.
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### Author:  [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/8 "2013-09-16T18:00:24Z")
I have found some beetles like that too, and I also live in the bay area. I find them outside, or inside within a few feet of the front door where they seem to die. They don’t seem to be actually living in the house, they just occasionally wander in. The ones I find have a surprisingly tough shell. They don’t seem cockroach like at all.
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### Author:  [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/9 "2013-09-16T18:25:02Z")
Some kind of ‘Rolly Polly’?
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### Author:  [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/10 "2013-09-16T18:28:06Z")
> [@RedSwinglineOne](#):
>
> I have found some beetles like that too, and I also live in the bay area. I find them outside, or inside within a few feet of the front door where they seem to die. They don’t seem to be actually living in the house, they just occasionally wander in. The ones I find have a surprisingly tough shell. They don’t seem cockroach like at all.
When I was going to work this morning I saw one or two outside the door (thus the photo) and I checked the metal threshold at the bottom and found a couple of dead ones tucked in there…“doorbugs”?
**GusNSpot** I don’t think they are those - we call them pillbugs around here, they have that segmented grey shell, these look to be built more like your standard beetle (non-flexible body).
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### Author:  [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/11 "2013-09-17T02:32:12Z")
aint that a caterpillar of something else?
nymph stage.
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### Author:  [@sentrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sentrix)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/12 "2013-09-17T02:41:16Z")
live and let live unless they are alien beetles casing your house for an attack.
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### Author:  [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/13 "2013-09-17T03:44:23Z")
OK, here’s a good shot of one of the little critters.
[http://postimg.org/image/g0wdb7i2h/](http://postimg.org/image/g0wdb7i2h/)
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/14 "2013-09-17T03:53:41Z")
> [@Valgard](#):
>
> OK, here’s a good shot of one of the little critters.
>
> [http://postimg.org/image/g0wdb7i2h/](http://postimg.org/image/g0wdb7i2h/)
Definitely a cockroach.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/15 "2013-09-17T04:12:02Z")
It turns out to be an unusual one: [_Luridiblatta trivittata_](http://bugguide.net/node/view/299900), evidently originally from the Mediterranean and only recently found in California.
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### Author:  [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/16 "2013-09-17T14:14:43Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> It turns out to be an unusual one: [_Luridiblatta trivittata_](http://bugguide.net/node/view/299900), evidently originally from the Mediterranean and only recently found in California.
Well crap. Time to clean the bejeesus out of everything and bust out the diatomaceous earth.
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### Author:  [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-bug-is-this/668983/17 "2013-09-17T14:26:39Z")
And thanks **Colibri**. I spent some time on that site earlier scrolling through the cockroaches and beetles section but didn’t see that one (or it didn’t look quite like our visitor). I posted a link in that thread to see what others think…maybe what we’ve got is an earlier stage of them?