my roommates have fairly large american cockroaches (I googled)

is this because the house is dirty? What can we do about it? I just movd in with them last month and its creeping me out, I've never lived with a lot of big cockroaches before. Only maybe once in a great while seen a small one randomly

Ewww, they are known to spread disease as well.

Clean... clean... clean. Do not leave any food or dirty dishes out.

Let the landlord know so that he/she will get an exterminator.

My roomies own their house. The house seems clean. The only thing that isn't very clean is the flooring that he is re-doing, took all the tile out and its just concrete now, and is putting those foam 'puzzle mat' flooring down.

Then he is going to have to call an exterminator. Roaches aren't easy to get rid of without one.

OK thanks hon ill talk to them about it in the morning.

The American cockroach is a peridomestic species, that is, it lives with people but generally outdoors in the yard, garage, basement, or sewer, etc. They are more often found in restaurants and bakeries, where there are outdoor areas nearby, especially unkempt dumpsters or alleys for them to live in. They are opportunistic feeders on a wide variety of foodstuffs from meat, grease, paper, rotting fruit, paper, or leather, etc. A clean home can become infested, too. They like to hide in cracks and crevices. They avoid light, like to be near other cockroaches, like high humdity, and like tight spaces. Look for and treat their colonies with an insecticide, with some residual activity. Seal up your house to prevent their entry.

American cockroach - Periplaneta americana (Linnaeus) (http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/roaches/american_cockroach.htm)

American cockroach (http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/aimg22.html)

American Cockroach - Virginia Cooperative Extension (http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/444/444-288/444-288.html)