There appears to be a whole nest of them. The big, Texas roaches, not the little ones. The deeper I dig down into my pile, the more there are. What should I do to get rid of them? And to keep this from happening again?

Keep the compost pile active, hot, and constantly moisturized.

If you keep a balanced amount of carbon and nitrogen materials in the pile, you shouldn't see roaches. You need at least 2-3 times more carbon materials than nitrogen materials, and far more plant matter than animal matter in your compost pile.

Sprinkle a little dry molasses on pile to speed up compost microbes for faster decomposition, and to heat up the pile.

Happy Gardening!

Roaches, ants, fly maggots, worms, and mosquitoes are common in compost. They all contribute to the decomposition of the "feedstuffs" that go into the pile.