What Is This? - Meriden,CT

alien spore preparing to riddle your house with egg sacs.
run!
khairete
S.

Tis the season for bugs. Bugs have a tendency to come into homes looking for refuge from extreme temperatures outside. I don't know where you live, but here it's been way too hot. It's been 90+ degrees here for weeks and that's not normal, since we're in the mountains. There are a lot of different kinds of bugs that are oval. Just being oval means it's probably part of the beetle family. Cockroaches are part of the beetle family, but they will come out at night. You'll want to check your kitchen at night when it's dark with a flashlight to catch them. If they are cockroaches, I have found raid's roach bate works great. They are little black plastic thingys you can put under the fridge and dark corners. (Cockroaches love the dark.) You can use a search engine to look up the bugs by typing in "common beetles for ______" and insert your state. You'll want to look up water bugs too. I just killed 2 bugs in my kitchen this morning, but they weren't roaches. They were just plain old water beetles. If it rains a lot where you are, then go to a local hardware/homecenter/feed store and purchase "ant granules," but tell the store clerk you need one for beetle type bugs. Home Depot has them. They come in a big bag around 5-10 lbs. for around $8.00-$16.00. When you get home, you just sprinkle the granules around the parimeter of your house just before it rains so you don't have to wet them yourself. (I cheat.) If you're having a "dry spell" where you are, you get the spray and spray your foundation. The bugs should be gone in just a few weeks. I would use an exterminator as a last resort. Other things to keep in mind for bug prevention:
1. Don't ever put mulch in the flower bed next to your house. - I discovered that cave crickets like decomposing things like mulch.
2. Keep flower next to your house trimmed and neat. Foget the ornimental grass or rug juniper, because bugs love them since they are so low to the ground. Plants should never touch your foundation, because bugs love plants and plants can crack your foundation making an open door for the little buggers to come in and party.
3. Lay down "ant granules" as early as you can in the spring.
4. Make sure all openings in your foundation are sealed.
5. A dry basement is a happy basement.
6. Keep the kitchen floor as clean as possible. If you have to...clean the floor either every night or every other night in the summer and once a week in the winter.
7. Keep the counter tops clean. Sometimes my MIL spills sugar or 7-up on my counter top and doesn't notice, since it's just a minute amount. The problem is that all the bugs in town can smell it, so I've been wiping my counter top down every night after I'm done with the dishes. I even wipe it before I use it.
8. Put every snack in plastic containers or zip loc bags. Bugs can't smell through plastic.

Hope this helps.

It's time to call Orkin...

It really sounds like a cockroach and unfortunately there is seldom just one.
Call an exterminator asap.
Roaches are gross.

Could be a number of things...as beetles tend to be oval...however, cockroaches are oval too.

Cockroach
Beetle
could be many different things.

It would help if you said how big "big" is...1" , 2", what?

If it didn't scurry too fast - I don't think it's a cockroach - those little suckers can MOVE!!!

Sorry - if I had more information, i might be able to help you!

How huge is huge? We have some huge beetles - about 3 inches long. Way big enough to startle you but harmless. Not sure how yours got in the fridge.

We don't usually have the super large cockroaches up north, but with climate change and all the heat, and with goods coming by truck from the south, who knows? If it's a cockroach as others have suggested, there's probably not just one. Sometimes roach eggs come in with the groceries - there are bugs in food stores even though we like to think otherwise. One way to check is to leave the lights off at night for an extended period of time, then go in the kitchen and flip on the light and see if you see anything scurry away and head for a dark place. Occasionally that involves pulling out the fridge or the stove to see the inaccessible places. There are non-toxic home remedies which don't always work, or you can call an exterminator.

Sounds like an American cockroach. They are huge and quite disturbing. Good news is that these are seldom the infestation type. You'll see one or two that are coming in from the outside to look for water sources. Spraying doesn't really help unless you find the place where they are coming in. Find that spot and plug it up.