Is this a cockroach?

[fairplay]

Just found this by the back door (outside). Is it a cockroach?? It looks like it’s dying. Do I need to be calling in pest control?

Can’t tell much with the glass - any chance of better photo? But from first view I would say no… too dark in colour, skinny and looks more like a normal beetle

Looks like a normal beetle to me.

Looks like a stag beetle

Does this show it better? It was quivering and twitching so looked like it was dying. I’ve now placed it in the field behind my house. I’m more than a bit panicked at the idea of it being a cockroach

It's a beetle

Stag beetle

Stag beetle - female, by the looks of it. Perfectly harmless and now, sadly, like most insects, in decline. Another consequence of Homo sapiens putting themselves above all other living things and destroying, poisoning and desecrating the natural world

It's not a cockroach. They are brown not black.

And flatter.

This is a cockroach

Thank you all for confirming it isn’t a cockroach. If it had been poisoned it wasn’t by me and I carefully placed it in the field behind the house. I’m happy with beetles generally but the idea of a cockroach invasion was too much to handle this morning.

It looks like a stag beetle. They used to be very common but are much more scarce nowadays. They are a protected species and do valuable work for the biodiversity of our gardens, breaking down dead wood and garden waste so the nutrients can be easily absorbed into the soil.

That looks like an American Cockroach, (Periplaneta americana), @MrsOwainGlyndŵr , which do occur in the UK, but are not common. Our more common species are the German Cockroach (Blatta germanica)and the Oriental Cockroach, (Blatta orientalis).

Anyway, the OP's beautiful specimen is a female Stag Beetle

@fairplay , I hope you didn't feel that I was suggesting that you had poisoned it - I wasn't! I was just speaking in general terms about the widespread use of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides etc, and the consequences of so doing

They all look fairly similar though. Flat and brown. Just an example to show the OP why her beetle isn't a cockroach.

It’s a beetle. I bet you’re relieved 😆

Cockroaches are beetles

Cockroaches are brown and they live indoors.

A top view would be helpful but this looks like a ground beetle. Very common and totally harmless. Probably Violet Ground Beetle, hard to be certain.

It's 100% not a stag beetle, male or female (antennae are wrong).