Getting rid of Palmetto Bugs -- what else can I do?

If any of you live in or have ever frequented the Southeast US, you know what a Palmetto Bug is. For those of you that aren’t familiar, they are big, flying roaches on steroids that come out during the Summer mostly, when the weather changes or it rains, or really whenever they feel like it. They aren’t roaches that invade your house or come in because you keep a dirty home, leave food out, etc. They come in seeking water, cool air, or come in accidentally.

Now, I know that these things don’t sting or bite and, according to my sources, they’re more scared of me than I am of them (not likely), but I have a huge irrational fear of these things. I’ve never killed one because I refuse to get close enough to do that. They fly, they’re fast, and they gross me out. I can kill a spider or a beetle, but these things have me up on the couch screaming for someone to come kill this thing before I have a panic attack. It’s BAD.

I live with my boyfriend and since Summer weather has come in, we have been seeing them in our house. In the past month, we’ve seen about 7 live ones and 1 dead one. So, before I’m forced to move out becaue of bugs, I have to do something to get rid of them. Since they aren’t like regular roaches, this process is difficult.

I went out and bought the inside/outside pesticide and lined the perimeter of our house and the doors and the perimeter of the inside of the house. I also bought this powder that contains Boric acid and lined the baseboards and threw some under the stove and fridge. I haven’t seen a bug in the house since I did this last night (so far, so good), but I want to cover all of my bases.

I didn’t put the powder or pesticide in the rooms with carpet because I wasn’t sure if I could. Is there something I can use on the carpet to kill these disgusting things? I don’t want to use roach motels or sticky paper or anything like that, so I’m looking for alternatives. Also, is there anything we can put outside (other than spraying that stuff along the perimeter and entry ways), like maybe on the grass, that might keep these things away?

We’re working on covering all cracks that they could get through, but we aren’t finding any. We’ve seen them in every room of the house, so I have no clue how so many have gotten in. Has anyone successfully eliminated these bugs from their house? If so, please share your secret! I don’t get it…I know people that aren’t having an issue with them, but they seem to be swarming to our house this summer.