Written by: A O’Neill, Licensed Pest Management Professional
These pictures of cockroaches will help you identify which species is in your home. There are over 5,500 types worldwide and about 70 of these can be found in the United States. Here, you will find images of the more common roaches that you might find in and around your home.

Below are some cockroach identification pictures of nymphs and adults. There are also images of infestations and cockroach droppings. We’ll start off with the most important and most common cockroach, the German cockroach.
Pictures of German Cockroaches
The German cockroach (Blattella germanica) is the most common and economically important species of roach in North America. In fact, it is actually the most prevalent species of cockroach in the world.
Measuring about 5/8″ (16 mm) in length, it’s one of the smaller-sized roaches and can be confused for other bugs, so the following German roach images show you what they look like. The distinctive two dark stripes on the pronotum will help identify them.
In the following close-up image you can see the two stripes I mentioned above, as well as two long antennae and six spiny legs which enable them to scurry around quickly.

In this photo of two German cockroaches, you can see one from above and underneath the body of the other. You will often find dead cockroaches on their backs.


Can cockroaches climb walls? Yes, they can! In this image, this German roach is crawling up the wall toward the ceiling.


Pictures of Baby Cockroaches
The photo below has most of the German cockroach life stages ranging from baby roach (and various stages of growth) to adult.

This is a zoomed-in image, again with a number of adults and numerous roach babies.

In the next picture, there are numerous German cockroach babies and adults clustered together in the corner of the ceiling eating the gel bait I put down. This species breeds quickly so you will need to get rid of these roaches as soon as you see any signs of them.

The following photo shows various growth stages of the American cockroach nymph.

Photos of Cockroach Poop
Finding cockroach poop is one of the first signs of an infestation. As the infestation grows in size, they will spread out looking for other hiding spots. This photo shows dead roaches and large amounts of cockroach poop on the bottom of the appliance.

In the next image I took, there are two adults and two immature roaches, and lots of frass that have stuck to the sides of the cabinet.

Dead roaches lying on their backs surrounded by large amounts of cockroach droppings.

Another pic of what can happen if you don’t get rid of cockroaches quickly – they leave their droppings everywhere. German roach droppings look like coffee grounds or specks of ground black pepper.


Another zoomed-in picture of a cockroach sealing its fate by feasting on the gel bait. Again, notice all the droppings everywhere.



Pregnant Cockroach Images
While treating a German roach infestation, I took the following pictures of a pregnant cockroach carrying the egg sack, which you can see is protruding from the abdomen.



Pictures of American Cockroaches
The American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) is peridomestic and is often found in sewers. It is the largest of the house infesting cockroaches and is also known as a ‘palmetto bug’.
This large reddish-brown pest can grow to over 2-inches (5cm) in length. In the following photo, you can see the yellowish-colored band on the pronotum and its two long antennae and six spiny legs.



Pictures of Brownbanded Cockroaches
Brownbanded roaches are also known as ‘furniture cockroaches’ because they will infest the furniture in all rooms of your home.
They are small roaches and grow to around 0.5″ (1.2 cm) in length. Brownbanded roaches get mistaken for German roaches but you can tell them apart from their two yellow-brown bands on the center and lower areas of their wings.
They also have two long antennae and the pronotum is dark brown to black and has a bell-shaped pattern and translucent border.




Pictures of Smokybrown Cockroaches
The Smokybrown roach is another peridomestic type of roach but is fairly easy to recognize as it is all one color – mahogany-brown, and it doesn’t have any markings on its pronotum.
This roach grows to about 1.5″ (33 mm) and has fully developed wings so they are capable of flying. It lives in warmer climates that have high levels of humidity.
In the following pictures of smokybrown roaches, you can see the familiar long antennae and six spiny legs.


Oriental Cockroach Pictures
This species of peridomestic roach has a shiny dark red-brown to black-colored body that has banded segments. The female oriental roach grows to 1.25″ (3.2 cm) while the males only grow to around 1 inch (2.5 cm).
This roach is slower than other roaches and their feet do not have the cushioned pad that other roaches have, so climbing walls and other smooth surfaces are nearly impossible.
The following pictures of oriental cockroaches show why they are also called ‘black beetles’ or ‘water bugs.’



White Cockroach Images
Below are some photos I took of a white roach when treating an infestation. White roaches are not a different species of roach, they are white when they are first born and after each molt.



So, there you have it! Numerous pictures of cockroaches that will hopefully help you identify them and tell them apart from other similar-looking bugs that you might find in your home.
However, it’s always best to get an expert opinion, especially if you are still unsure as a cockroach infestation will quickly grow and become harder to treat. Therefore, it is always advisable to get in touch with a professional pest control firm that will be able to tell you which species it is (usually German) and treat the problem for you.