Common shining cockroach
The common shining cockroach is a cockroach from south-east Australia. In the wild it hides under the bark of eucalyptus trees. These days it also likes cosy garden mulch, and sometimes it walks right into people's houses.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
In the late 1990s and 2000s there suddenly were many more of them in Sydney and Melbourne.
During a long dry time, lots of gardeners spread mulch on their gardens, and the cockroaches loved living in it.
It belongs in Australia, unlike some other cockroaches that came there from other places.
Most asked questions about Common shining cockroach
?Is the common shining cockroach dangerous?
No. It is a native Australian cockroach and not the same health risk as cockroaches brought in from other countries.
?Why is the common shining cockroach in my house?
It often lives in garden mulch nearby and can wander indoors.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Drymaplaneta communis
- Group
- Cockroaches and termites
- Family
- Blattidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Blattodea > Blattidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Common shining cockroach (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Stuart Cunningham. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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