The first time I went to Georgia, I stepped out of the car, walked to the porch, immediately had a fat fucking roach scuttle past my foot, said “This place has roaches.” only for my father to respond “Nah. It’s just a palmetto bug. 😌” and that was how I found out about the costal southeastern cultural tradition of lying to yourself by pretending all the roaches are native wildlife and not visibly a winged cockroach of the pest variety.
Florida scared the shit out of me for this exact reason.
I’m from North Carolina so I’m used to bugs but I was not ready for Georgia and Florida bugs. Bugs 2.0. Advanced bugs. You’re constantly reminded that humans are drastically outnumbered by insects and they could have the upper hand if they really wanted to.
















