Pull back the mulch in a Citrus Park flower bed and you might find a roach that doesn’t immediately run for cover – it’s holding its ground, and if you push it, it’ll let you know with a smell you won’t forget. That’s not a German cockroach, and it’s not a palmetto bug you’re used to seeing dart across a garage. It’s a completely different roach, and Citrus Park’s history of groves, gardens, and heavily planted landscaping gives it exactly the environment it wants.
The Roach That Doesn’t Run
It’s the Florida wood cockroach, though most people who’ve met one give it a less polite name – stink roach, skunk roach, take your pick. It’s one of the largest roaches native to the state, dark reddish-brown to black, with short wing pads that don’t allow it to fly. Rather than bolting when disturbed, it can spray a foul-smelling defensive fluid up to a few feet, which is the entire reason for the nicknames.
This roach has little interest in your kitchen. It lives outdoors – in rotting stumps, under woodpiles, in leaf litter, and especially in mulch beds, which is where Citrus Park’s landscaping – heavy yards and gardens come in. It rarely established itself indoors and usually only ends up inside by accident, often carried in with a load of firewood. Finding one on a porch or in a garage isn’t a sign of an infestation the way a kitchen full of German roaches would be – it’s a sign that your yard has the leaf litter and damp organic materials this species is looking for.
