Roach Exterminator in Tampa Bay: Palmetto Bugs and German Roaches

If you're here, you've probably got roaches. Maybe the big ones, the kind you could damn near put a saddle on. Maybe the little brown ones in the kitchen. They're two different problems, and the fix for one won't touch the other. Here's how to tell which you've got.

The estimate is free. We come out, look at what you've actually got and where it's getting in, and tell you straight what it'll take.

The big ones: palmetto bugs

Some people call them palmetto bugs. Some call them water bugs. Whatever you call them, they're roaches, and they're large. Here's the thing most people don't know. They don't live in your house. They live outside, in the mulch, the woodpile, the palm trees, the sewer lines. They come in through a gap under a door or a crack around a pipe, usually looking for water.

Seeing one doesn't mean your house is dirty. It means you live in Florida. It also means the fix is mostly on the outside, stopping them before they get in.

The little ones: German roaches

German roaches are a different animal. They don't wander in from the yard. They ride in on something, a grocery bag, a used appliance, a box out of storage, and they live and breed inside. That one takes a real cleanout on your end plus monthly visits on ours until they're gone. Sealing up the outside does a lot for palmetto bugs and almost nothing for German roaches.

Not sure which one you've got? Here's how to tell them apart.

What a regular visit looks like

We treat a band about four to six feet wide around your foundation, up the wall and out onto the ground. Then the eaves, the mulch beds, the shrubs, and around every door and window, because that's where they work their way in. And we look while we're there, because what we find sometimes changes what we do. If you're already seeing them inside, we come in and treat that too.

Related: Palmetto bug or German roach? · Pest control · Ant control