Wiktionary
palmetto bug
n. The American cockroach, (taxlink Periplaneta americana species noshow=1). See cockroach.
Usage examples of "palmetto bug".
As he tied up to a rotted piling, a green chameleon scampered off the porch to munch a palmetto bug in the shadows.
What he, himself, felt was the same sensation he'd got one time when he'd stepped on a palmetto bug in his bare feet in the dark.
Even James had had a horrid glittering beauty like a great palmetto bug or a fly.