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.
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.