Really Big Bug

It's true, but I had to check: "Palmetto Bug" is southern for "Really Big Roach."
"Palmetto Bug" is a name for the American or the Smokey Brown Cockroach.
Here's a good explanation of why we don't think of them as "roaches."
I've identified the one that drove me out of the house last night. About an inch long, my eye!

Yes, I ran away from a cockroach last night. I'm sitting in my bath doing my puzzles, in other words, minding my own business, when this bug comes walking along the wall. Two inches long, and in profile, with it's little articulated head and rubbing its little antenna, and wings that... well, I'm convinced this thing could carry off the mouse that lives in my building. Full light, right out in the open, no noise or anything I did perturbed it. Until I sprayed it with my powerful cleaning spray, which made it run away. (Although I haven't got official documentation on this, my understanding is that chemicals like this clog up the bug's breathing apparatus, and may break down their exoskeleton.)

*shudder* Understanding this is a French Quarter apartment and I can't possibly seal it against anything getting in that wants to in the physical sense, are there any chemicals that aren't too costly or smelly that will deter large, bold, flying "Palmetto bugs"?

So, of course, I ran away to Fahy's and watched "Mimic II" which is about... what else? Giant cockroaches...