Just back- Cockroach in my room!

[Kitster]

I lived in Orlando for 8 years and while I was attending college the 'palmetto bugs' loved to re-arrange the furniture in my apartment........at least that was the joke at the apartment complex. No matter how clean you keep your house, apartment, or hotel these critters are a fact of life in the Sunshine State

I hate and despise roaches of any size. I can even remember abandoning my bedroom one night......imagine the horror of hearing one of these monsters hit the wall above your head and then hearing a 'plop' on the mattress next to you :eek I got out of the room, slammed the door and stuffed towels in the crack to keep that THING away from me. Next morning it was gone

So, in answer to your question I scream and then attack it with anything that's handy.......hoping that the blasted bug doesn't attack ME while I'm chasing it.

Did I mention that I hate roaches?!?!?!? I think I did

 

[Castillo Mom]

Oh no! You've all confirmed my worst fear! My husband who has been to Florida many times has been teasing me ever since I booked our vacation (first time at WDW) and I kept telling him that there couldn't be any there since I'd never head anyone on the boards mention them. We're heading for Miami for a few days after WDW and I've heard the stories about them there. I HATE the thought of those bugs. Some of your posts have been hilarious yet terrifying! If I see one I'll run screaming down the hall and won't go back in the room until I know it's gone. Maybe we'll have to rethink the Miami thing!

 

[lalapodip]

....saying "PLEASE don't let it be AKL" when I saw the topic....I hope that I can be BRAVE but I am the SCREAMER type.... ....good thing DH will be there to save the day if necessary!!!

 

[ILOVEDVC]

Ok, now don't get mad at me. Promise???? When I read the OP, I thought it was a joke that the bug was brought to the front desk in a jar!!! Yup, if I was the CM, I probably would have said the same thing. But that's me....I'm a sarcastic sort. He shouldn't have been, tho, it's his job to be professional, and THEN laugh when you're not looking..LOL...All seriousness aside, they are definitely nasty critters. But I would honestly rather have one of them in my room than to be subjected to pesticides.....which Disney uses plenty of already.

 

[shopgirl72]

This thread has me laughing! For one thing I cannot believe I've sat here and read 3 pages on cockroaches!!! And now I too am sitting here writing on this thread!

 

[Maridw]

Phamton,
When we moved onto military housing in Florida, we had a shed that had a ceiling in it. My husband bombed it twice with bug bombs and when he went to pull the celing down, they were everywhere. I am talking the ones shown in plate 5 & plate 8 of the second page in your post. Some were still moving, not completely dead. This was after TWO bombs and the shed was only 6 by 9. They were even in any cracks between the door jam trying to get out.

I would not go into the shed at night if the light was off. We usually kept it on all the time. Once I went to move something and there was one on the wall right behind it. This bug was about 2" long and it just looked at me as if to say "what do you want?" My DH used to tease me that I would wake the neighbors if I saw one.

We no longer live on base but have our own home and thankfully have not seen any palmetto-cockroaches here. I still hate them, but have learned that it isn't a sign of a dirty house, it is just a fact of life in FL.

 

[epcotfan]

I too returned to my room at AKL one day to find a large dragon fly buzzing in the lamps above our beds. Now we didn't use the balcony and the maid had been out there since the chairs were moved. I would hope that if housekeeping has to do anything with the balcony they would close the screen behind them when doing so. It wasn't fun trying to kill this thing at midnight.

As for palmetto bugs versus cockroaches I was at one of the observation areas on Kudu trail one night when I saw one scurrying across the floor. It was definitely not a palmetto bug or chicada. It was a cockroach. Yuck. I always expect bugs in Florida I just don't want them in my room.

 

[nicurnc]

That is so funny, shopgirl! At first, I was like some of the other posters (please don' t let this be negative about AKL-just booked there for Oct.) but now I can't believe I'm posting, too

I agree, the little roaches are the ones to worry about. True story:
We lived in public housing in Queens, NY when I was a kid. My mom was asked if she would allow our apartment to be shown to a group of visiting city officials (they felt she was a "superior" housekeeper ). Mom thought okay, what the heck. Well, first off walking into our apartment, some lady in her little business suit says "Gee, some people can keep a clean apartment, why are there so many complaints about bugs?"
That made my mom a little crazy, she let them exterminate about once a month and we still had roaches. She asked everyone to step out of the kitchen, she shut off the lights and asked everyone back in, then turned on the lights again. Roaches scurried for cover everywhere and the little lady almost fainted!

But I digress, while Palmetto bugs are a fact of life in the south, I think the CM should have shown a bit more tact and diplomacy. I expect courtesy should win out over the urge to be witty or sarcastic. They have visitors from all over the world, not everyone knows about Palmettos...But I guess we all do LOL!

Loretta

 

[mitros]

We have been living in Florida for the last 6 years. When we had our house built, we were advised to have " tubes in the walls" installed. These are vinyl pipes imbedded in the walls that can be filled with insecticide from the outside of the home at different input ports. This has to be done every three months along with regular exterior spraying and insect granules all around the base of the house and on the lanai. My point is, that this is Florida, and even Disney magic cannot eliminate every single bug. And you would be suprised what comes creeping in when you have the patio doors open even for a minute. Just be glad you haven't spotted a Florida scorpion. Now those suckers are not easy to kill with insecticides! Sorry if I made anyone uncomfortable, but the buggies are a part of Florida.

 

[PatriciaH]

Uggg...yuck. I have never seen a roach at WDW! I have seen the little ones in NY in my High School (on Park Ave. no less.) Roaches there are a fact of life. If they get into one building they pass to the whole block-yuck. My mother always made us shake out our bags and clothing so we could not bring any into our house in Queens. It worked-we never had one. There were also giant ones in Baltimore in the summer. I went to college there. Bugs are one bad thing about living in Florida, but I would still put up with them to never have to see snow again and swim in the ocean whenever I want.

 

[hookedup]

A couple of years ago a co-worker and I attended a conference held at the Contemporary.
He was the epitomy of the annoying conference/convention attendee - drank too much and drove me nuts. ANYWAY one night he left the sliding glass door open and the light on in his room - we returned from an evening function and he called me up to come check out his room (okay - not like it sounds!) his room was COVERED in bugs - flying, crawling and otherwise. The wall and ceiling around the lamp that was on was litterally moving!!!
I took one look and ran out. The next day I asked him what he did and he said he just turned off the light passed out - only a 23 year old guy could do that! What an idiot!

 

[gumdrop]

Originally posted by melindaandrob
Bugs Happen.

Couldn't have said it better

 

[Harambe]

Love the reference to Sully - that's my favorite part of the movie!!!!!!! Play it in slow motion for an even better laugh!

I would kill it and stay in the room - but only after an extensive search! I'd have to be sure to convince myself that the "big Bug" was a fluke.

I agree with what everyone said about accepting things native to the area. And if it has to be a cockroach . . . bring it on!

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

Wow I've learned so much!! I never knew palmetto bugs and cockroaches were the same . . .hmmmmm maybe I just assumed calling it palmetto instead of cockroach sounded less disgusting?

The most terrifying thought of all is that Florida cockroaches (palmetto, etc) FLY??

Imagine one of those things coming at ya . . .

 

[Pammy_from_WI]

Mitros-
Florida scorpions, those are yucky too. Learned to always shake out my shoes while living on N. Miami Beach. Lucky I've only seen them a few times and only once in a hotel room. The hotel was not on WDW property, it was a GA/FL boarder hotel. We opened the door, just at check-in, and it was right there. I quickly shut the door, went back to the front desk and told them we wanted a refund. There was NO WAY in heck we were staying there. The guy at the front desk said he couldn't issue a refund because he didn't know if we used the room or not. Now keep in mind this guy checked us in not more then 5 min. before. He had to send the maid down to check the room to make sure it was still unused. I can laugh about it now but it wasn't funny at the time. He said there was no way a scorpion was in the room FL didn't have them, the maid had to confirm there was one in the room and FL did have them. Now that's lousy service and this wasn't a cheap hotel.

Pammy

 

[jgates]

Originally posted by Elk34
I go to my Minnesota relatives to visit and am amazed that they can live with mousquitos the size of a canada goose. But if I was staying at a hotel there and captured a really big one and took it to the front desk they would likely snicker too.

Well, in Wisconsin they are the size of cows! Why do you think they call us the dairy state? We aren't milking cows-we're milking mosquitoes...........

 

[Eeyore2003]

Being a naive "youngster", just married with one baby, and being from Wisconsin, where these bugs "die out" in the winter and at least stay fairly small comparatively speaking, I was totally shocked when we moved to Fayetteville, NC, and I found a couple small cockroaches on the kitchen counter. You just can't imagine my disgust when the exterminator came and they were literally falling in hundreds from the line of woodwork along the ceiling!!! YUCK!!! After being a couple places in the south for the next few years, I 'kind of " got used to the huge bugs, but I'll tell you it was not something I missed when we moved back to Wisconsin!!!

This is totally gross---we were at Adventureland in Des Moines and when we got back to the motel we ordered a pizza from the Pizza Hut across the street. I was just about to take a bite when I looked down and there was a cockroach lying feet up right on the pizza. That STILL grosses me out. When I took it back she offered me ANOTHER PIZZA!!! I took the money and we had Subway!!!

In all sympathy, even though I understand the huge bugs and problems in the South, I would have been pretty grossed out too!!! And yes, we have our Japanese Beetles, mosquitos, horseflies and ants which are also out in herds every summer.

 

[Sammie]

Not only do they happen, many you can't even see.

I really would be interested in where people live that they never have not even one bug in their house.

Believe me it's not in the south.

People sit their luggage down, bugs ride in. People open the door to the balcony bugs come in. As stated it happens. Kill it, and go on. Or if you are tender hearted, catch and release it.

 

[giggles221]

Originally posted by Wish Upon A Star


Imagine one of those things coming at ya . . .

This actually happened to me on Splash Mountain!!!! Right before the big drop a huge one flew right at me, and I freaked out. My fiance brushed it off me, but neither of us saw where the critter went. Needless to say, I definitely did not enjoy the rest of the ride after that. At least now I know what the bug was! I had never seen one like it before, but now I am at least educated to know they are common in FL.

 

[msteddom]

I can't belive that I too, am posting to the cockroach thread! I'm not used to large bugs, so seeing one would no doubt turn me in to a hysterical maniac. I would never hold it against Disney, but I have no doubt that I would totally freak. I just hope I don't have any unwanted guests in my room in August!