Glad to hear you calling them that. I was staying with friends one time who lived outside of Charleston, S.C. I woke up in the middle of night by something crawling in my hair. It was a giant cockroach. I caught it and flushed it down the toilet. I told the friend's wife what had happened, and she said: "Oh, that was just a Palmetto bug." I laughed and told her that in New York State, we call them cockroaches.
There were shoes in New York called Puerto Rican cockaroach killers in the 50s
We still called them roaches in FL. Even if they were Palmetto bugs. Is there a difference?
Well, maybe there is. Even a bazooka and TNT wouldn’t kill the roaches I grew up with. Geez, they’re the size of a mouse! It’s the truth!