<p>Are there palmetto bugs in Tuscaloosa? </p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>I’m no bug expert, but when we were in Tuscaloosa for Bama Bound I saw a couple big old roaches just walking down the street, so I’m going to guess that they’re there. Mercifully, I didn’t see any indoors.</p>
<p>Bug spray, check.</p>
<p>While we have never had a bug issue (other than occasional ants), I’m a big believer in preventive spraying.</p>
<p>My husband and son are afraid of large bugs. They throw shoes, whack at them with towels, and attack them with anything else they deem deadly until it falls off the wall, and skitters towards them, forcing them to run screaming from the room, yelling for reinforcements. I then grab a tissue, squish and dispose. (Florida girl.) Now it seems my boy must find a bug squishing, brownie making angel who desperately needs computer help. Sigh. Any takers?</p>
<p>My kids never saw any big bugs in their dorms. Bama must spray, I guess. </p>
<p>The one odd bug that I occasionally see in Alabama that I wasn’t used to is a long bug with a gazillion legs. It doesn’t seem to hurt anything, but it has so many legs it almost seems like fur coming out the sides. Maybe it’s a milliped?</p>
<p>Palmetto bug=marketing genius</p>
<p>I call those things millipedes. Grossest bug ever, IMO.</p>
<p>^^ House centipedes, UGH! And they bite. (not me though, Florida girl.)</p>
<p>Nrdmom- sons reaction to a stupid beetle last night was the reason for the post. He has not seen a palmetto big, he may need to be medicated the first time one flys out of a cabinet at him.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>I only saw palmetto bugs outside when I lived in Florida.</p>
<p>NRDMom, my D’s brownie making skills are subpar, but she will have a tub of chocolate chip cookie dough in her refrigerator and has no problems with bugs. In fact, she and a high school classmate spent 10 minutes relocating a beetle that had managed to get itself stuck upside down inside Shelby during BB. They wanted to find just the right spot outside to insure the little guy’s survival. She will be happy to trade her services for any needed assistance with getting her computer, printer and electronic devices up and running.</p>
<p>I think palmetto bugs ( think giant flying cockroach for anyone who might not have encountered them) are mostly confined to the coastal south. I grew up on the coast of NC, so in my own personal opinion they are the grossest things ever – the night before my wedding one fell out of the air conditioner vent and crawled across my bed and I ended up sleeping with my mom after I finished screaming. In Atlanta we do have some big ole cockroaches so I bet they do in Tuscaloosa as well. But at least they don’t fly. I’m kind of wigged out by this conversation.</p>
<p>I’ve never seen a palmetto bug.</p>
<p>I have seen what we called “June bugs” in Calif. These are flying beetles that are mostly only in the month of June.</p>
<p>In Alabama, we do get “Japanese beetles” that fly. They are about the size and color of a coffee bean. They’re only here in June/July…they eat roses and flowers, then they’re gone. </p>
<p>the only thing I’ve ever had come fly out of cabinet are the dreaded food moths! I do keep some of those “pantry pest” boxes in my pantry in case rice or other staples come home from the store with some. </p>
<p>The other issue can be little fruit flies that can come with bananas or other fruit. Ugh. A little wine in a dish often catches them and drowns them.</p>
<p>I grew up in Miami and now live in Wisconsin, so I know bugs.</p>
<p>Palmetto bugs are not a “marketing” invention. WhitLo’s description is correct (and her story, unfortunately, not uncommon–I have some that are too awful to recount). YES, they get into houses. YES, they are nasty. YES, they fly, sometimes indiscriminately (which might mean AT you). Spraying or whacking them as you see them works, but they are big and move fast. My first question when I visit my parents’ house in Florida is always “Am I going to see a roach?” One never knows, but a good trick that works at night is to turn on a light to a room and wait a minute before going in. They prefer the dark. </p>
<p>After years of living in the midwest I now know the difference between centipedes and millipedes (and no, I haven’t had to count legs). Millipedes are small–about 1.5 inches long–with a thick black body and lots of short legs. There was a plague of them in my town last summer, with some homes being more infested than others. One friend had to vacuum up literally hundreds of them in her basement every day for several weeks. They move slowly but they are also unpleasant and when they die curl up into a “C” shape. Centipedes are the giant things that scurry fast along walls and floors. There’s nothing to them except lightweight bodies and endless long legs. On a wall at night, one can cast a shadow that makes you think it is twice the size it really is. For some reason these bother me the least, although I can’t say I like them. My son is terrified of them. In fact, according to him, the only time he used his ACT prep book was to smash one in his room.</p>
<p>In Wisconsin we identify Japanese or Asian beetles as things that look exactly like lady bugs. They tend to get in the house in the fall, before winter. They don’t cause much trouble indoors but I think they are bad for garden plants.</p>
<p>And yes, the food moths are something to dread. They can ruin a pantry’s worth of food. And they leave a nasty black smear on the cabinet door when you smash them.</p>
<p>Palmetto bugs are huge. I remember in FL we would smash them with a shoe multiple times (yes they get indoors) and when we stopped they would walk away! Darwinian survival at its best (or worst).</p>
<p>This subject reminds me of the time my H took me to his hometown in northern Indiana and it was the Year of the Cicada bugs (sp??). </p>
<p>It was like biblical locusts descending on the region. These are large winged things that literally covered every post, flower bed, tree trunk, etc. Imagine tree trunks and porch posts that are so covered, that you can’t see the trunks or posts. Or flower beds, where all the dirt is “wall to wall” bugs. And sweeping your walkways so you don’t crunch when you walk. Ugh!!</p>
<p>Each one is about the size of your thumb!!!</p>
<p>I think they come about every 17 years. Awful!!!</p>
<p>My palmetto bug=marketing genius was referring to someone coming up with a pleasant sounding name for what this Iowa girl thought looked liked a huge cockroache. My first encounter was in Florida while house hunting; we were standing outside and one flew at me and landed on my shoulder. I was so proud of myself for not screaming.</p>
<p>In the Midwest, we called cicadas locusts, but I don’t know whether the names are really interchangeable. They are gross in the years where they are so abundant, but otherwise, I like their songs in the evenings.</p>
<p>not a real size palmetto bug…but I may have to find this shirt for my son…</p>
<p>[palmetto</a> bugs - Bing Images](<a href=“palmetto bugs - Bing images”>palmetto bugs - Bing images)</p>
<p>I freaked the first time a Palmetto bug flew at me when I lived in SC. I hate roaches, so roaches 5x the size of the basic household roach that can fly …way grossed out.</p>
<p>I hate millipeds too. And silverfish…</p>
<p>Vlines, I always enjoy your posts, but you and I will be of no help to each other because we both dislike the same bugs.</p>
<p>Oh, and I think that was the size of the one that landed on me.</p>
<p>LOL MD Mom! The first few that fly at you DEFINITELY look like they are that size!! And you do not become desensitized to them. Gives me the shivers…</p>