Dang that sucks, here's a list of Florida
'usual suspects' that may be munched on your plants. Here's
page two
It's a good reference as it has lots of pictures to best identify the nuisance insects.
PS, I think your probably seeing Palmetto bugs aka the American cockroach, They're the largest cockroach in North America. They
love to eat plant shoots, but they will eat anything from wallpaper paste to soap, but they seem to love munching on plant shoots more than anything else.
If you have them in your abode, first try to seal any cracks in the home with expanding foam, then seek out in all the nooks and crevices of your grow room for a 1/2" x 1/4" long brown
*sack. This is their egg sack. Just scrape it off the surface its clinging to and crush it. Very hard to keep them out of your Florida house, since they often come up the sinks plumbing and even from the toilet. Indoor grow rooms provide the Palmetto bugs an ideal habitat (Warm & moist) Palmetto bugs also don't fear the light like other cockroaches.
There's plenty of ways to kill them organically and via chemical means. I'm fortunate as my cat utterly hates Palmetto bugs, she will catch them and tear them apart leg by leg, once it's down to a stump, she cries while holding the stump down with her paw, then I come and flush it down the kamode. A friend of mine with a veggie garden was having a nightmare with Palmetto bugs and other insect nuisances on his lanai. He put out roach traps and we put a couple whole skinned Garlic chunks in a processor, once chopped into a paste, we mixed the garlic with petroleum jelly, then we covered a small band around the stem (about 2" in a circle around the stem with this mix, bugs don't like petroleum jelly, they like it even less if it has garlic in it. This provides a barrier for many Florida nuisance insects, and it sticks to the plants stem well, and is less prone to be washed away when it rains. Also a very thin band of vaseline (with no garlic) will also stop fire ants and sweet ants in their tracks. Fire ants will not walk across a very thin layer of vaseline. Since vaseline isn't water soluble, it won't easily be washed away by rain.
* I walked next door to my neighbors garage and took a picture of a Palmetto cockroach egg sack. If you see any of these, scape it off the wall or crevice, then shmoosh it. Resist the urge to set it on fire, as they stink, and then the Palmetto bug has the last laugh ![Mr. Green :mrgreen: :mrgreen:](/styles/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)