What is a Palmetto bug?
Cockroaches can be terrifying, especially when they are as large as the palmetto bug. If you live in Florida or the surrounding coastal area, you will be used to seeing palmetto bugs crawling out of cupboards or walking on the kitchen floor.
If you have identified an infestation of these bugs in your home, don’t panic. Learn about these bugs. Explore what they love and learn how they are different from ordinary roaches. This will help you to fight them off effectively.
- 1 Misconceptions: Palmetto Bug vs Cockroaches – The Difference
- 2 Types of roaches
- 3 How to identify the American Cockroach?
- 4 What do Cockroaches eat?
- 5 Do Palmetto Bugs Bite?
- 6 How to identify a Palmetto bug infestation in your home
- 7 How to get rid of palmetto bugs
- 8 Best Roach Killer – Advion Syngenta Cockroach Gel Bait
- 9 Preventions: How to avoid Palmetto Bugs
- 10 Palmetto Bug – Conclusion
Misconceptions: Palmetto Bug vs Cockroaches – The Difference
Many people have misconceptions when it comes to palmetto bug vs cockroaches. It’s important to understand the difference so that you can take the right course of action to get rid of these bugs.
The phrase “palmetto bug” has been thrown around in popular culture. Also named a water bug, this misconception originates from most people naming roaches and beetles Palmetto Bugs in southern U.S states such as Florida.
A palmetto bug is known as the American Cockroach. Some people mistake these roaches with other German and Oriental roaches, which make it difficult to understand, let alone keep your home clear of these pests.
Palmetto bugs are domestic roaches and can fly, but hardly do. They can grow up to 1.6 inches in length.
Types of roaches
Below, you can learn more about the common types of roaches so that you don’t confuse them with Palmetto bugs.
How to identify the American Cockroach?
American roaches are as common as German roaches. Like other roaches, they love damp and dark places. They prefer living in a warmer climate. Palmetto bugs have six legs, and their flat-oval bodies can grow to 2 inches in length in favorable conditions. They have reddish brown wings.
The American Roach typically run out of sight when you enter a room, hiding under a furniture or through small cracks and crevices. You would often see this as a small little insect darting across the room when the light is switched on. Despite, it size the American Cockroach is amongst the fastest running insects.
Their eggs are inside a case, which has a dark brown color. The case is roughly 15mm long. Each case contains 20-25 eggs. Females usually stay closer to the egg case and emit a foul smelling secretion when they spot an intruder.
Palmetto bugs usually live for a year or two after their nymph stage. A female roach can lay over hundred eggs during her adulthood.
What do Cockroaches eat?
Wondering if they don’t bite humans or suck their blood like many other pests, what do these palmetto bugs eat?
They don’t eat anything you can even remotely think of eating.
These bugs are omnivorous in nature. They can eat pretty much anything they can find in their favorite places to live. As you already know, they love sewers and other damp and dark places.
American roaches can eat sugar, cheese, bread, fish, and everything else you often leave in the kitchen thinking no one is going to eat them. They also eat other dead roaches!
These roaches are a tough species. They can survive without food for up to 3 months. If you deprive them of water, they will manage to live for four to five weeks.
Do Palmetto Bugs Bite?
Palmetto bugs don’t bite. But that doesn’t mean they won’t bit, these bugs are capable of biting a human.
During an extreme pest infestation, these bugs have been reported to bite humans, especially when the food for bugs is scarce. When they bite, they don’t cause your skin much harm. They only leave a small mark, similar to a flea bite. But remember, their bite can cause infections.
Since these bugs live in damp, filthy sewers and they eat in places where decaying food is abundant, they are prone to carry disease. If they bite or come in contact with your food, they can contaminate the food with bacteria and spread the disease.
These bugs can become a major cause for an allergic reaction. They can cause skin rashes and trigger an asthma attack. Some people have also reported increased sneezing when their homes are infested with these Florida bugs.
How to identify a Palmetto bug infestation in your home
If you live in warmer climate, you could spot a palmetto bug infestation in your home. Below, you can read the signs of their infestation. If you can tick any of the following, be sure to explore how to get rid of palmetto bugs with the best roach killer.
• You have spotted these roaches in your home.
• Egg shells, nymphs, and dead adults are everywhere when you get up in the morning.
• You notice a strong musty smell coming from dark and damp areas in your home.
• Finding shed skin is a sign that you have a lot of immature palmetto bugs in your home.
• You have seen fecal matter along the routes of these bugs – usually black, looking like small sandy grains.
If you can tick any of these signs, you may have a palmetto infestation in your home. Take action NOW to avoid getting allergies, skin rashes, and another disease that these roaches can transmit.
How to get rid of palmetto bugs
Getting rid of Palmetto bugs is easy, especially when you take action before the roach problem grows into a massive colony with hundreds of roaches roaming all over your floors.
Our favorite way to get rid of the American Cockroach is to use gel baits. This method not only kills the roaches that come in contact with the bait but it also helps clear their entire population. Roaches take the bait back to their population to share it with others. They all eat it and die within a few hours.
Explore the best gel bait below and then learn about ways to prevent an infestation in the future. This will solve your problem forever.
Advion Syngenta Cockroach Gel Bait is a high-performing product to help you get rid of Palmetto bugs. This bait can target various species of roaches and other pests.
This bait works even against bait-averse roaches and pests. You can control even the toughest population of roaches using this bait.
If you have pets in your home, you can use this bait without causing them any harm. It’s pet-safe when used as directed.
This product is effective for two years from the date of production. You can buy this bait if you are facing minor or serious manifestation of the American Cockroach or other roaches. It works against all of them – the reason it’s our favorite home roach killer.
How does It work?
This product has both speed and spectrum. It offers superior control over roaches, whether you have spotted a few or an entire colony of these pests.
To fight a heavy infestation, you will need 3-5 spots of gel baits for every 10 feet area. If the infestation is moderate, 1-3 gel baits will do the trick for the same sized area.
The good news is that Palmetto bugs eat the gel bait even when it’s dried out, which extends its effectiveness.
If you have a major infestation in your home, be prepared to clean your floors with hundreds of dead roaches on the floor after applying the bait.
Preventions: How to avoid Palmetto Bugs
When you get rid of Palmetto bugs using chemical bait or another method, it’s important to follow it up with future prevention measures to keep these roaches from starting a manifestation again.
Below, you will learn about some of the most practical and useful tips to stop these roaches from living in your home. Using these tips, you are going to turn your home into an unpleasant and unsafe place for roaches and other pests. You are going to learn to deprive Palmetto bugs of everything they love.
Palmetto Bug – Conclusion
We hope we haven’t scared you off. The Palmetto bug is another name for the American Cockroach Species. This species of roaches prefer living outdoors under the leaves of palm trees, but they can also infest indoors when they find food and humid, dark places inside a house. They can spread disease, contaminate your food, and sometimes bite on your skin when they are low on food.
Finally, If you have spotted these roaches in your home, use gel baits to get rid of them. Be sure to take preventive measures to avoid seeing an infestation of these bugs again in your home.