A small beetle has been slowly entering my consciousness for a few years. At first, it was just one of thousands of anonymous insects. But it struck me as something I hadn’t noticed before.
I began to see them more frequently, especially around my porch light.
Then one day at an outdoor eatery, one meandered slowly across my table. It looked like a miniature cockroach, with six spikey legs and two long antennae.
I’m a big nature lover, but I’m still grossed out by cockroaches in buildings. I lived in the tropics for a while. The largest roach I ever encountered there was an inch and a half long--and flew! One roach is not that scary. But several flying around in a dark room?!
This little cockroach, however, wandering across my picnic table was much less alarming. Only about a third of an inch long and pale tan.
I wondered if it was Michigan’s native wood cockroach. I’d heard about them, but never seen one.
I didn’t give it a lot more thought until a few found their way into my house. They didn’t seem to be trying to set up housekeeping, but just in case I was wrong, I wanted to know for sure what they were.
Nate Walton of MSU Extension identified it for me as a spotted Mediterranean cockroach. They were first seen in the U.S. about 75 years ago, in Massachusetts, but not found in Grand Traverse County until 2008.
So they really are the new kid on the block and might be coming soon to your backyard. But don’t worry, they don’t really want to move into your house. You can just escort them back outside.
Read more about the spotted Mediterranean cockroach from Michigan State University.