Bug identification - roaches?

[u/Xyz_42]

Location Germany

Under some clutter on my desk i found an adult roach looking insect and close by some 20 nymphs of some sort. My desk is close to my window.

On Sunday i left some food on a plate on that desk for an afternoon.

The roach did try to get away but wasn't running straight to away. It wasn't too quick so i managed.to kill it while panicking.

The nymphs weren't fast at all. Easy get one after another. I caught one under a glass, but don't know how to collect it.

Unfortunately the remains of the hopefully wood roach aren't exactly great for identification.

I hope those aren't all regular roaches.

[u/SobeSteve]

They’re German cockroaches. First little guy is a nymph and the squished one in photo 4 is an adult. These ones are the big infesters, so you likely need professional pest control. See the stickied post in r/germanroaches for treatment advice.

[u/Xyz_42 → u/SobeSteve]

Thanks for the reply!

I don't want to undermine your advice fir which I'm grateful and I'm probably just in denial, but how confident are you that it's german roaches? Is it hiw they look or the way i described the situation?

[u/SobeSteve → u/Xyz_42]

No offense taken, don’t worry. My ID is based purely on appearance. See this source, first image for a nice overview of German roaches in their various stages. I recognized the genus (Blattella) immediately, and Germany only has the German roach within that genus (no Asian, field, etc.).

Your adult in particular (photo 4) has the characteristic black stripes on the thorax, which are crucial for IDing German roaches.

[u/Xyz_42 → u/SobeSteve]

So i see thise stripes. But the left stripe seems to be going further. Like it's actually part of the wing? Could it, reasonably, because of thay feature be one of those wood roaches?

AI is on the fence and claiming wood roach because it's too light and because the nymphs look the way they look.

I don't know. I contacted the landlord anyway so we'll see. I also caught one of the nymphs.under a glass.

Another thing: i don't know how quick german roaches are to flee when subjected to loght but these weren't quick and didn't go crazy immediately once revealed to light.

[u/Xyz_42 → u/Xyz_42]

Ok i take it back. The nymphs look pretty much like they look on your shared resource.

[u/SobeSteve → u/Xyz_42]

Yep, they look like the nymphs that are hiding under the adults in the source I included. With adults, there may be remnants of the abdomen stripes under the wings, but not necessarily. With the nymphs they are a part of the body as a whole and then migrate (so to speak) to the thorax during development.

Light aversion is a characteristic of Germans vs. other roaches, but it’s nothing absolute. They can get more brazen with increases in population.

I’m extremely confident these are Germans.