This always makes me think. Cockroaches don’t bite, are not venomous, basically can’t do us any harm. I’m not afraid of wild dogs, spiders, tarantulas, scorpions, snakes, wolves, hyenas, wild hogs, bears (encountered them all) but I might actually scream if I get surprised by a cockroach.
I think this collective fear of cockroaches that we have cannot be without reason and must have an evolutionary reason.
This, and cockroaches are associated with allergies and respiratory issues. I can 100% confirm this because whenever I go in to a restaurant, if I start sneezing, I know they’re there. Then I go looking, and I will find them because I can also smell them. 🤢
Also, I was reading this a few weeks ago: The Cockroach and Allergic Diseases.
Living in Australia, they are unavoidable, so yes, they do come inside the house sometimes. The American and German ones are the ones that reproduce very fast and can take over very quickly.
I came here for this post. I’ve worked a lot with cockroaches as an extension of working with animals to which cockroaches are a great source of nutrition and food… Actually dealing with the cockroaches required facial masks, because you do not want to breathe in the crap that ends up in their enclosure when cleaning. As said in your post, allergies and respiratory issues can happen.
Everything about cockroaches is bad - sheddings, poop, eggs, everything. Same with rodents! When I see rodent droppings in restaurants and storage sheds, and I always warn the staff to wear a mask and gloves, and to give the poop a good spritz of water before doing a bleach sanitise. Aersolised rodent droppings = hantavirus. I think we’ve had enough of that this year in the news already, let’s not add to it.
Especially the ones with botched, blond hair transplants that keep getting elected by an army of doofuses.
Heeeey, this one you don’t get to blame on us. *empörte Kartoffel-Geräusche*
Haha, true, Drumpf is only a 2nd-gen immigrant… not so German anymore.
Bonus points for learning about “potato noises!”
What do they smell like? I’ve heard about people being able to smell ants. Can you smell them, too?
Good question. I’m not sure about the smell of ants because in public health, we don’t consider them to be a concern because the ones that we find in restaurants and such don’t carry diseases that concern us. (AFAIK, anyway.) They act as indicators that they’ve found unprotected (spilled, spoiled, etc.) food. I haven’t encountered such a huge population of ants that I can smell them, so refer to the other person’s comment.
Cockroach smell: It’s really hard to explain well because it’s so unique. I liken them to the smell of a grease trap (old oil mixed with detergents, spoiled food, sewage-y kind of smell. This does not bother me whatsoever), except with a distinct meaty, animal kind of smell that makes it horrible. It doesn’t smell like spoiled chicken, beef, pork that’s been in the fridge for too long, kind of meat.
The words that come to mind are: Heaving, warmth, animal and spoiled… I can usually sense them when I walk in, but when I can smell them, the place is infested = massive heebie jeebies.
I can definitely smell ants if there’s enough of them. Sugar ants are common in my area and it’s a kind of earthy, sickly-sweet scent.