[Alphaman]

Originally Posted by Blondie621

I remember living in South Beach years ago in an apt. on a canal. Many times I had to get my landlord in the apt. to exterminate those HUGE FLYING ROACHES! THEY ARE DISGUSTING AND THEY DO FLY AROUND YOUR HEAD! THEY WERE SOOOO BIG I HAD A TERIBLE FEAR OF THEM! I am now living in North central Florida and they are not around here! I could never live amoungst those huge monster bugs! Even when you exterminate, they do not die. You have to hit them with a hammer if you can catch them!

They taste good on toast with grape jelly.

[yuckinvegas]

This must be what I have just found in my house. I have been watiching TV late at night for the last couple of days and saw something flying towards the TV. My cat went nuts. I finally caught the thing and it looked sort of like a roach...eeewww. In Vegas we always have roaches (or as we call them, water bugs ) outside, but to see one fly accross my living room, UGH! Anyone have anything (pet safe) that they use to eliminate them from the house? I do have something that I use outside for the "regular, non-flying roaches" ...but have never needed anything in the house before.

[mquintana]

YES! They are called Palmetto's and they are GI-NORMOUS! They are so nasty and disgusting! But really I haven't seen them here in Tampa, but I always saw them when I lived in Miami as well as Broward county...

Same with those GI-NORMOUS locusts. EWWW! They all gross me out!

[tallrick]

One of my cats likes to kill them. Bugs are the least of my worries. Yesterday I had to fish a rotting dead possum out of my vegetable garden and bury it.

[Kathleen1971]

Originally Posted by mquintana

YES! They are called Palmetto's and they are GI-NORMOUS! They are so nasty and disgusting! But really I haven't seen them here in Tampa, but I always saw them when I lived in Miami as well as Broward county...

Same with those GI-NORMOUS locusts. EWWW! They all gross me out!

I haven't seen the Palmetto Bugs here in Brandon/Valrico thank the Lord but I sure remember them growing up in Miami. The funniest thing was the only homes I saw them in were in the Pinecrest/Palmetto area which for those familiar know are higher income areas. The crappier places I have lived? Never saw a one lol. In fact, when I was little, I thought the Palmetto schools were named after the bug and did not want to go to any of those schools even though they were among the best in Miami!

[EnjoyTheSilence]

They're not as bad as waterbugs -- waterbugs lurk in pools and worst of all, they deliver a nasty bite!

[tallrick]

Palmetto roaches can bite as well. You should see how they chew up paper.

[ItalianMale]

Ok, I feel inclined to contribute now that you all have confirmed what I encountered last night. While watching TV in a condo in Houston, Texas I look up to our vaulted ceiling area above and see this 2 inch long bug on the wall ever close to the ceiling. I look around for shoe, paper, etc. and determine my weapon of choice to be a full length bathroom towel. While walking up the loft steps I begin winding the towel up just like a hundred times before when snapping a towel at my sister. (oh, umm...scratch that) The bug is about 2 feet away from me and 1 foot above me as I determine the length of the towel is adequate to complete my mission. I snap the towel at it, and miss of course. This in turn pisses of the winged aircraft who makes a bee-line straight for the center of my forehead. Two steps back before losing all feeling in my legs which causes me to crumple to the floor in a heap. Rubbing my hair I determine he's missed me but, the thing is nowhere to be found. I return downstairs and surf the internet trying to determine what the heck this flying thing was. With left hand manipulating the mouse, I feel something crawl on my right hand. It's THE bug!!! I quickly jump from the couch and find the closest phone book. Throwing a couch pillow on the floor with phone book in hand the culprit runs across the floor and up the wall. I swung, with great vigor (Ted Williams would be proud) and pound this thing with the phone book. Hard enough that I was shocked he didn't go completely through the wall. Do these things have an attitude? Did I **** him off? Will they, against all odds, kamikaze at your forehead on purpose? Or, was this coincidence? By the way, my wife heard the apparently huge booming sound of my body crumpling to the ground in the loft from her room and thought I may have had a heart attack. Understandably, the thing is high up on the wall but, we in Ohio have never witnessed a flying roach/palmetto bug so that was the least of my worries. Talk about freaking out!!! In prayer now..."May no other human being have to encounter such a circumstance, or at least be prepared for the thing to take flight directly at their forehead. Amen."

[bethylane]

I am so horrified!!!!! In reading this while at work, my palms are sweaty. I've seen TWO of these in my apt in Austin TX in the last 5 days, and I am so horrified!! Mortified!! I have a SERIOUS phobia of these things, thank God I've never seen one fly! TX is in a drought so they're looking for water... either way, I am seriously f*ing mortified. I live by myself and don't have any big man to kill the bug for me, so I'm on my own!! I could barely sleep last night for terror, I was all coccooned in my bed despite the heat.

[SuburbanGuy]

I am a new South Florida resident living in West Palm Beach. I just saw a roach in my apartment. It was rather small, but it did fly. It kinda surprised me. It flew from the hallway into the bathroom. I quickly disabled it with some Lysol spray that I grabbed. This knocked it to the ground and I was able to get some tissue paper to grab it, throwing it into the toilet. Assuming it's still alive, it's now exploring the sewer system of WPB, lol.