Florida Residence... please settle a BUG disagreement.

This may give people the creeps, but I need help settling a disagreement. Even as I am typing I am getting the creeps.

I grew up in Florida in the panhandle (Fort Walton Beach area) and our house was crawling with Palmentto Bugs (if you don't know what these are don't Google unless you can handle creepy things). To this day both my brother and I have nightmares from them. At times when I visited my Grandmother in St. Petersburg there would be a few large ones in her condo.

I have been thinking about moving to Florida and my mom says that anywhere I go there will be these bugs and I will hate it. I tell her I can't believe people would put up with them and they can't be in every house. I mean if there were everywhere how come I've never seen one at WDW??

So my question is who is right? Are Palmentto bugs really in every house in Florida? Are some areas worse than others? Is inland more bug free than the coast? Help me out here please! I might have to head to Florida (St. Pete) next month and I need to prepare myself.

I googled it, you are right it is creepy, but when I lived in Florida I never saw these in my house or even noticed them anywhere else.

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Originally Posted by envypeterpan

I googled it, you are right it is creepy, but when I lived in Florida I never saw these in my house or even noticed them anywhere else.

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What part of Florida were you in?

About five minutes off Disney property

I live in north central florida (about 80 miles from wdw) and yes, palmetto bugs are pretty ubiquitis. I keep a very clean house and have roach traps in all the dark corners and I still get the occasional bug or two. I think you just get desensitized to it. I don't think the bugs are bad enough to put a damper on living in florida!

I live 80 miles south of Walt Disney World and I grew up in Fort Lauderdale. I am EXTREMELY scared of palmetto bugs too! They majorly creep me out. But, they are here everywhere, and I HAVE seen them in Disney World too. In fact I just saw some on the boardwalk at the Beach Club on Sunday! Of course I walked WAY around them! haha!
The best way to deal with them is to keep a clean house, leave traps etc. around, get a pest service to regularly come to your house. But even with all of that you will still get the occational one or two in your house.
At least when you do see one you can run outside(in your shorts) and NOT be in snow! haha!
You have to make friends with a neighbor who will come in and get kill them for you, I make my teenagers kill them, because I just can't get that close to them.
Make a list of pros and cons about living here and there, and it will help you with your decision. Good luck!

I used to live in Pensacola and exterminator vistis were monthly due to those bugs.

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Originally Posted by Stitch

This may give people the creeps, but I need help settling a disagreement. Even as I am typing I am getting the creeps.

I grew up in Florida in the panhandle (Fort Walton Beach area) and our house was crawling with Palmentto Bugs (if you don't know what these are don't Google unless you can handle creepy things). To this day both my brother and I have nightmares from them. At times when I visited my Grandmother in St. Petersburg there would be a few large ones in her condo.

I have been thinking about moving to Florida and my mom says that anywhere I go there will be these bugs and I will hate it. I tell her I can't believe people would put up with them and they can't be in every house. I mean if there were everywhere how come I've never seen one at WDW??

So my question is who is right? Are Palmentto bugs really in every house in Florida? Are some areas worse than others? Is inland more bug free than the coast? Help me out here please! I might have to head to Florida (St. Pete) next month and I need to prepare myself.

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I live in East Central FL, about an hour East of WDW. I see the occasional palmetto bug (essentially a flying cockroach), but not very often. They seem to come in waves, and are probably seasonal. This is the third place I've lived in FL, all in the same town, and I've seen them at all three places. You see them a lot outdoors too, they're just a natural part of the environment.

We stayed at Port Orleans the year it opened. In February my DD was 2 months old. I got up in the middle of the night to heat a bottle and an old bottle was sitting on the small table with one of those Roaches crawling on the nipple. I pulled a zip-lock bag over the whole thing, bug and all and appeared at the front desk with it. The manager asked me where I was from! and followed-up with that explains it. He gave me a CM in the morning to watch my DD while DH & DS went to the parks, I packed up and moved to a different room, in a different building. I was given a lovely Cajun food basket for my trouble and DD a stuffed Minnie with an autographed card for her first trip.

Last August we were at POFC and I saw roaches by the pool bar, near the hot tub and by the food court. I was so creep-ed out, but at least they were outside.

When my son returned from the college program, winter, everything packed was put in the garage. I unpacked it out there and took to Laundromat. Golf clubs/bag lived in garage for months. He said they were a problem at Disney College Housing as were the mice you could hear in the walls at night. Didn't share that with me 'till he was home a while. Ewe.

http://www.disneyworldtrivia.com/for...tml#post770750

I am not a fan of Palmetto bugs but I think I would happily trade this arctic weather for having to fling a few bugs out of my house. No question! I used to cringe about my mouse problem, now I don't even bat an eyelash when I find one in the trap or hear one scurrying in the attic. I think I would probably get used to them.