OK. People in Florida need to end their denial: I hate to break it to you, but there is no such thing as a Palmetto Beetle. It is simply a tourism marketer’s renaming of a cockroach!
How do I know? Because I’ve killed two of them since arriving in Florida Sunday, and they sure look like cockroaches to me.
I tried to convince myself that they really weren’t that disgusting because – hey – they were palmetto beetles, not roaches. But guess what? I’m not buying it. I tried to calm my nerves by googling “palmetto beetle,” and you be the judge (especially top right and lower center):
And if I’ve killed two of them while staying in a high-end home that was literally just built (we’re only the third people to stay here), I can’t imagine how infested most of the houses down here are. Remind me of this when I decide to retire to Florida when I’m 70.
pithypants 
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