TX Gal wants you to take your bugs back!!

I've got Palmetto bugs. I went to Home Depot today after having my house already exterminated because of this horrible huge bugs!! The man at Home Depot asked if I was from Florida because I called them Palmetto bugs. I got some spray and they are coming out of the woodwork!! Do you all know what these are and how you get them? I have all of my food in containers and keep a clean house. I'm appalled!! Thanks for the help!! Janet

It doesn't mean you aren't clean they call them palmetto bugs cause they love to hang out in palmettos and palm trees. They just come in, sometimes to get out of the weather or just because. They fly and they do bite. Cats love em and will torture them for hours! Just look at it as one of the joys of Florida kinda like hurricanes. On a positive note you are burning calories and getting exercise chasing and stomping on em.

Janet, Welcome to our world!! When I saw my first palmetto bug after moving to FL I thought I would faint! According to the bug man they may be coming into your home if it is very dry or very wet outside. Check your home for cracks around your plumbing or in your foundation. They could be coming in at those locations. If you find cracks or gaps, fill them with that spray foam insulation stuff that comes in a spray can & expands then hardens. Also cut back trees or shrubs that are growing over or against the house b/c that is where they like to hangout. Good luck! Vickie J.

Janet, I had them too! Being a native Floridian who lived in a rural area for many years, though I hated them I was used to them. It got to the point that when I would drive up to my house at night I would see several of them crawling on the wall outside of my house but then I started to see them in my bathroom several a night. I thought it has been a wet year (2yrs ago) and we'll just have to live with it. When I called the exterminator to get rid of a swarm of termites that was devouring the privacy fence and one wall of our house I told him about how bad the palmetto bugs were getting and he went looking for them. Turns out they had made a nice little nest in the wall between the bathtub and the hall closet and that's where they were living. They would go in and out in through small openings that the plumbers left around the pipes when we had our house replumbed. He treated that area and caulked up all the cracks and we haven't had any problem with them since. We hardly ever even see one outside anymore. So what ever he treated with really did the job. Anyway you may have an established nest in or under your house somewhere that you will have to find and have treated directly. They are pretty much a fact of life in Florida! Kat

Hi Janet! Placing little piles of boric acid in the corners of the cupboards is said to help. Those little armoured critters are disgusting! Best of Luck and I hope that you will still visit the sunshine state!