You won't see the roaches or rats unless
you're outside during the wee small hours of the night.
The rats nest at the top and the bugs are in the dead
and dried out parts along the trunk, usually high up also.

The rustling of the leaves in a tree make the same sound
as the palm fronds when there's a breeze.

I guess you haven't been here long enough to want shade --
to keep both you and your house cooler :thumbup:, or else
it just doesn't matter to you.

The bugs which are attracted to palm trees
is not an old wives' tale or a myth.
It is also not a debate;
my comments are based on cold, hard facts.


Scale

If you found a lot of little circular, brown colored scales on your palm tree you are in trouble. It’s called “palm leaf scales”. You would never guess but palm leaf scales are actually a mature female small insect. They literally are just a small headless, legless bump and once the female has matured, it is unable to move from where it has planted itself.

Mealybugs

They belong to a family of unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm climates. Mealybug females feed on plant sap, normally in roots or other crevices. They attach themselves to the plant and secrete a powdery wax layer (therefore the name mealybug) used for protection while they suck the plant juices. The males on the other hand, are short-lived as they do not feed at all as adults and only live to fertilize the females.

Cabbage Palm Caterpillar

Cabbage palm caterpillars, found throughout Florida, target the cabbage palmetto almost exclusively. They rarely kill palm trees but the insects do destroy the trees' blossoms. They are a nuisance to humans as well because they often enter homes looking for suitable places to pupate. Control by insecticides is possible under certain circumstances if carefully managed.

Giant Palm Borer

The borer is a large and quite ugly beetle whose larvae have a taste for the wood of the Washingtonia and Phoenix varieties. Borer grubs can live inside a palm trunk for up to nine years before exiting as beetles through quarter-sized holes.

Palm Budworm

The budworm is a beetle whose larvae feed on the flowers of a range of fan palms. The caterpillars are about an inch long and a pinky-green in color.


Palmetto Weevil

The Palmetto Weevil can be found throughout Florida, as far west as southern Texas and as far north as South Carolina. It is North America's largest weevil. This pest has a taste primarily for the Cabbage Palm (sabal palmetto) although it will infest Saw Palmettos (serrenoa repens) and, occasionally, Canary Island Date Palms (phoenix canariensis), Washington Palms (washingtonia), Royal Palms (roystonea), and some coconut palms.


Royal Palm Bug

The Royal Palm Bug is an unusual insect. It feeds on only one plant, the royal palm, and the female lays one egg a day during the spring, a little like a chicken. The bugs rarely kill the host tree but the damage they do can be unsightly and they are difficult to control given the height of mature royal palms. These insects are the only North American members of the Thaumastocoridae family.

The above is just a small synopsis of some of the pests which invade palms. There are, however, plenty more critters.