Garden Cockroach
Scientific name: Ectobius vittiventris (Costa, 1847)
Overview
Ectobius vittiventris, the amber wood cockroach, amber forest cockroach or garden cockroach, is a species belonging to the order Blattodea and is a type of wood cockroach originally from southern Europe. It is completely harmless to humans and is not a storage pest, as it only feeds on decomposing plant material and perishes within a few days in human dwellings due to a lack of food. Its original range was south of the Alps, but is now permanently established north of the Alps and in southern Germany.
From the Wikipedia article “Ectobius vittiventris”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where it lives
The Catalogue of Life records it in: AM; GE; LI; PL; GB; RUS; BUL; COR; GER; GRB; ITA; HUN; ROM; SWI; TUR; CZE-SL; TCS-AZ; YUG-BH; YUG-CR; YUG-MA; YUG-MN; YUG-SL.
Common names
Names in other languages (2)
- German
- Bernstein-Waldschabe
- Russian
- Таракан Бернштейна
Related animals
Sources
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Catalogue of Life — scientific name, classification, common names and range.
Version 2026-09-11, CC BY 4.0.
This species in the Catalogue of Life.
Citation
Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Aedo, C., Aescht, E., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (Version 2026-09-11). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgz5n Source database: Blattodea Species File.
- GBIF — species page and recorded occurrences.
- Wikidata — names in other languages. Q826792, CC0 1.0.
- Wikipedia — overview, from the article “Ectobius vittiventris”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo — Eric Steinert, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
Last updated: 4 October 2026