New to Florida - what's the deal with cockroaches?

Hi all,

I've just moved into a house in Florida. We visited a month ago, and there were 4-5 dead cockroaches in various corners around the home. We sprayed the exterior perimeter, placed some poison bait things around the house, and left for a month. When we returned, there were again 4-5 dead cockroaches found. Then a HUGE live one snuck up on me when I was moving a box. Coming from the midwest, this is new to me and I am not feeling good about it!

My question is - is this just how its going to be? Will I always live in fear of cockroaches around every turn? Will I find them in my bed? Every time I move an object, take out the trash, etc?

Right now I am waiting for the moving company to come and finish unpacking my boxes, then I'm going to do a thorough cleaning of the house. I am generally very clean and tidy, definitely no food mess around the house. The messiest area is the bird cage, stray seeds do make their way to the floor - is that going to be a roach hotspot? Is there a safe interior perimeter spray I can consider? Help!

Thanks!
-Mad

I have never been to Florida but I read a lot.
There is a book I have read many times that takes place in Florida called "Alas Babylon".
It's a bit dated but there is one place in the book that one character says "what else IS Florida but bugs and snakes"

I have called on a friend that lives in Florida and they might be able to help.

Hello and welcome to Florida
And o would love to hear more about your quaker too

So Florida has these giant roaches called palmetto bugs so we don't nuke Florida....... they can be 3 inches long , they fly abd tgey are smart , and you think you s.ashed one only to see it crawling away....ugh!

What I use that seems to help and is less risky to the parrots. Is to take comet powder and sprinkle it behind the stove, under around the fridge, behind the dishwasher, under the sink in the pantry. What I think happens is that they walk over it, the powder sticks to their feet they groom that off and die, or get sick enough to wander out and get smashed abd flushed. Everyone in Florida dill have one if those big ones sneak in once snd a while.

Comet powder seems to work great against ants to.

I don't hsve any bug issues lol but o hsve had to deal with before.

Also you want go store your birds seed in a storage container i like glass. You might piprvery new bag in the free when you get home. I have had bugs in the burds seed, pellets all the time.....

My Parents had been Snow Birds for years and my dear Mother would grumble about cleaning out all the dead "palmetto bugs" every late Fall as they arrived for the Winter. They had used a number of local tricks to reduce the infiltration over the Summer months, but also found that Comet worked. Every few years they would have their place "tented" to kill everything off. Commonly, a month prior to their arrival.

With a mix of her humor, she would state that the locals called the cockroaches "palmetto bugs" as to not scare-off the Snow Birds. As Northerners know, cockroaches get big up North also. Very common in Cities, less so in the countryside, where in Florida, they are everywhere. Or so it seems!

My dear wife's first encounter with a palmetto bug had her stating: I do not care how cold it gets, we are not becoming snow birds! So, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Unofficial state bird of Florida!

SailBoat said:

My Parents had been Snow Birds for years and my dear Mother would grumble about cleaning out all the dead "palmetto bugs" every late Fall as they arrived for the Winter. They had used a number of local tricks to reduce the infiltration over the Summer months, but also found that Comet worked. Every few years they would have their place "tented" to kill everything off. Commonly, a month prior to their arrival.

With a mix of her humor, she would state that the locals called the cockroaches "palmetto bugs" as to not scare-off the Snow Birds. As Northerners know, cockroaches get big up North also. Very common in Cities, less so in the countryside, where in Florida, they are everywhere. Or so it seems!

My dear wife's first encounter with a palmetto bug had her stating: I do not care how cold it gets, we are not becoming snow birds! So, that my story and I'm sticking with it.

Click to expand...

Sailboat! This is the first timei heard someone else use comet!! I had an abt trail into the house one time so I tried comet powder, it worked so I tried when I saw one of the horrors known as palmetto bugs.so great to hear someone had sucess with comet to.

I use salt outside if I hsve fire ants, I put salt on the nest , it works abd I feel better for environment. But the best way to never have fire ants is to allow armadillo to live around you. An armadillo keeps me fire ant free. My neighbor a few houses down was having a huge problem and asked what I use cuz i never have fire any nests. I said armadillo! By the way tgey are protected in Florida! They do t just randomly dug up your yard, if you see them work your yard its bec you have bugs, if you let them be they will clear out your bugs and then won't bother your yard. They do not bother my garden , tgey are insect eaters

Laurasea said:

SailBoat said:

My Parents had been Snow Birds for years and my dear Mother would grumble about cleaning out all the dead "palmetto bugs" every late Fall as they arrived for the Winter. They had used a number of local tricks to reduce the infiltration over the Summer months, but also found that Comet worked. Every few years they would have their place "tented" to kill everything off. Commonly, a month prior to their arrival.

With a mix of her humor, she would state that the locals called the cockroaches "palmetto bugs" as to not scare-off the Snow Birds. As Northerners know, cockroaches get big up North also. Very common in Cities, less so in the countryside, where in Florida, they are everywhere. Or so it seems!

My dear wife's first encounter with a palmetto bug had her stating: I do not care how cold it gets, we are not becoming snow birds! So, that my story and I'm sticking with it.

Click to expand...

Sailboat! This is the first timei heard someone else use comet!! I had an abt trail into the house one time so I tried comet powder, it worked so I tried when I saw one of the horrors known as palmetto bugs.so great to hear someone had sucess with comet to.

I use salt outside if I hsve fire ants, I put salt on the nest , it works abd I feel better for environment. But the best way to never have fire ants is to allow armadillo to live around you. An armadillo keeps me fire ant free. My neighbor a few houses down was having a huge problem and asked what I use cuz i never have fire any nests. I said armadillo! By the way tgey are protected in Florida! They do t just randomly dug up your yard, if you see them work your yard its bec you have bugs, if you let them be they will clear out your bugs and then won't bother your yard. They do not bother my garden , tgey are insect eaters

Click to expand...

Had not heard that armadillos where so good at keeping the yard bugs away.

My parents wintered North and a bit East of Tampa and they had gone down to visit friends for a couple of weeks and ended up buying. The next year when they went down for the full Winter is when they learned from a neighbor about comet and a few other 'local' cures.

What other local cure?!,! We need to know

If you wear a mask when you apply it, FOOD GRADE diatomaceous earth, (again FOOD GRADE) can be sprinkled around the outside of the house, and under sinks along the cracks/edges (places it won't get kicked up)--you don't want to breath it in-- it's non toxic to ingest, but can get in your lungs and cause major issues because it's so fine and the crystals get embedded there (so a decent mask is a good idea-- obv don't put it in the bird room, as sweeping etc could disturb it and cause the tiny particles to become airborne). It will wash away if it rains, so you would have to reapply unless you could get it so close to the house that it didn't come in contact w/water. Peppermint oil supposedly is a repellent that you can place around the perimeter...There is a super toxic roach paste that comes in a putty tube (like calk), but I used it around Noodles (in places she couldn't get to, like in the cracks under the sink, in bathroom closet etc) and she was fine. It smells like something rotten, but only right up close. You cannot smell it unless you are an inch from it, but the roaches can..the biggest issue with that is that it poisons them and then they sometimes die very publicly--- if your bird would eat a roach, I would worry about what could happen. The "super toxic" part has more to do with ingestion and touching it than anything else I believe.

Laurasea said:

What other local cure?!,! We need to know

Click to expand...

The other stuff was more like heavy chemical based that would have been dangerous to Birds and likely Humans. The tenting seem to be their go to when everything else was not keeping up. With the place sitting empty for 2/3 of the year, it was like starting over every year.

Most of the gulf coast states have a cockroach problem, the short answer is yes, as long as you choose to live in the area, you will be sharing your residence with our creepy crawly little neighbors, I expect that you'll get an introduction to love bugs at some point as well, and a junebug infestation, and probably others that escape my mind at the moment.