Insect and Spider Identification: Roach or Beetle?, 2 by vm24

vm24 wrote:
So at our last apartment we had a bunch of little bugs running around and I was terrified they were cockroaches. Our landlord assured us they were some kind of beetle and left it at that. Never saw them get any bigger so I took their word for it. We moved, and again, are seeing these small bugs (but not as bad as before so again, wasn\'t too concerned). Today, however, one of these falls out of some clothes I was folding in our bedroom. Obviously it\'s a little squished, but it\'s much bigger than the other bugs and I\'m again concerned it\'s a roach. After doing some digging online, it sure as hell looks like a roach but doesn\'t match all of the descriptions I\'ve read online. For instance, the back is kind of a hard shell covering and the wings are underneath. It looks very much like those little bugs I mentioned, but bigger (about an inch or just under). But damn if it doesn\'t look like a roach to me. But my landlord\'s insistence the small ones were beetles (and we are in a fairly wooded area) has me doubting myself. From the top view, when it\'s not squished, it doesn\'t taper like the underside of the body does. It\'s more a long rounded rectangular shape. Only the body under the wings tapers like roaches do.

The little ones we only see one at a time now, once in a while, ranging from the kitchen to the bathroom to really anywhere in the house. They don\'t seem to be congregating anywhere. I\'ve looked in the cupboards, under the stove and in our extra bathtub, and dark spaces with a flashlight and haven\'t spooked any more of these big ones into moving and haven\'t seen any dead ones. Nor have we noticed any when turning lights on at night. What gives?

Location: mid-Michigan, end of June.