Straight Dope Message Board

[hogarth]

Originally Posted by Sampsiceramos

Another vote for "Screw Roaches"-crowd here, but mostly because spiders are cute. Seriously. Look at this little guy:

http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/ar...8/2478.jpg?v=1 (picture of spider; only NFSW if spiders will make you yelp loudly)

He's puppy-dogging you with all FOUR of his front eyes, he's making cutesy-wutesy gestures at you with his wubbly widdle mandibles, and you want to kill him and his entire family. What the hell is wrong with you?

That's relatively cute. I thought this thing was less cute when it was a few inches away from colliding with my face:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ne...orsal-side.jpg 51

[Sampsiceramos]

Originally Posted by hogarth

That's relatively cute. I thought this thing was less cute when it was a few inches away from colliding with my face:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ne...orsal-side.jpg

A'ight, I'll concede that there are quite a few spiders out there that look like they come straight out of H.P. Lovecraft-territory. Like orb-weavers. Orb-weavers are icky bastards. Those need to die. Quickly, and preferably in a big heap together with horseshoe crabs and all breeds of mite.

But jumping spiders, tarantulas and other such somewhat ovally shaped spiders? *squee*

(Oh, and remember, kids: Racism is okay, so long as it's confined to the really icky arthropods ) 52

[Spookaloo]

Cockroaches are disgusting insects. Spiders eat disgusting insects. 'Nuff said. 53

[divemaster]

I like spiders a lot. I find them interesting and attractive. One in the house? I usually just let it be unless my wife sees it. Then I just scoop it up and toss it outside. Barehanded even. I don't think I've ever killed a spider on purpose. Except for a black widow. Those got flushed.

But cockroaches. Ugh. Just thinking about them and typing this out gives me the creeps. Nasty, nasty creatures. I can't imagine any circumstance where I would touch a roach. It is a strong visceral reaction that I can't explain. Nothing else even comes close. (I like snakes even more than spiders.) 54

[JLRogers]

Most spiders are harmless. Cockroaches are disgusting.

Neither compares to these things. 55

[ralph124c]

Thanks for spiders-without them, we would be inundated with insect pests.
Do spiders commonly feed on roaches? It is pretty hard to trap roaches in webs, as they don't fly.
In any event, I once lived in downtown L.A.-the building had been sprayed several times, but it was full of roaches-gross! 56

[Inigo Montoya]

Originally Posted by JLRogers

Neither compares to these things.

WTF? It looks like a centipede but I see 4 legs / segment (milipede). What gives? Or did I just mislearn that trait? But yeah, if that's one of the big ones that slips into your house that might give me the creepies. 57

[divemaster]

Originally Posted by ralph124c

It is pretty hard to trap roaches in webs, as they don't fly.

I hope you never come across one of those big Palmetto bug roaches down south. Not only is the disgusting thing two inches long, but the bastard can fly, too. 58

[Dob]

You gotta hate the cock-a-roach (watched "Scarface" last night). If I sit down in a resturant and see a spider on the floor I would be "huh, little guy looking for food" but if a cock-a-roach ("Scarface") crawls on the same floor in front of me I would be all, "check please!" 59

[Khadaji]

Cockroaches are disgusting. 60

[Ulfreida]

Originally Posted by Balance

Maybe you'll like this one better? (Warning: you almost certainly won't. In fact, I imagine many will find it even creepier.)

I'm wary of spiders, likely out of proportion to the probability and severity of a bite. I don't like having them in my immediate vicinity because I might accidentally squish one and get an unpleasant bite in the interval between "pressure" and "squish". If they get close, I usually try catch them and put them outside, but if they keep their distance, I mostly let them do their thing. They're not disgusting.

Cockroaches, on the other hand, are the hated enemies of my people. Nasty, persistent, stinky wretches they are, and we hates them, my precious. I grew up in a TV repair shop, and sets came in from infested houses. You could tell from the reek that they were full of roaches, living on piles of their own dead. (Yes, literally. Opening up a machine and seeing an avalanche of roach corpses cascading out onto your workbench as their living relative scurry for cover is pretty revolting.) We had an ongoing infestation in the shop, no matter how much we sprayed or cleaned, because new waves came in every day. The war went on for years; there were lulls, and we found tactics that slowed down the invaders, but we didn't manage to clear the place until the ultimate weapon dropped into our laps: a bunch of geckos moved in.

Of course, we then had lizard crap to deal with, but that was an acceptable price to pay. Better to wield the world's tiniest pooper-scooper than deal with roaches every day.

This was too much information. I kind of threw up. 61

[Gagundathar]

Cockroaches are inherently disgusting because they carry pathogens as well as tropomyosin in their carapaces. They also creep me out much more than do other insects.

Spiders, on the other hand, are my friends.
Feast well on the creepy cockroaches, my lovelies. 62

[Really Not All That Bright]

I'm not exactly a fan of spiders, but I don't kill them unless forced to. Cockroaches I shall seek out and 'ere I spy them lurking, for they are fucking nasty. It's almost enough to make me leave Florida.

Apropos of nothing, I watched an albino lizard catch a cockroach that was practically his size while out smoking on the porch the other night. I wanted to throw him a party. 63

[koeeoaddi]

Until just this morning, when our dog alerted us to a tarantula the size of my coffee mug in the corner of our living room, I would have said cockroach. 64

[WOOKINPANUB]

Originally Posted by Really Not All That Bright

I'm not exactly a fan of spiders, but I don't kill them unless forced to. Cockroaches I shall seek out and 'ere I spy them lurking, for they are fucking nasty. It's almost enough to make me leave Florida.

Apropos of nothing, I watched an albino lizard catch a cockroach that was practically his size while out smoking on the porch the other night. I wanted to throw him a party.

Too funny. Almost the exact same thing happened to me recently, only the lizard wasn't albino. I have since made an effort to sweep the dead roaches I find in the garage and the house onto the back patio, thus sort of throwing a party for my lizard friends. 65

[Mosier]

Originally Posted by koeeoaddi

Until just this morning, when our dog alerted us to a tarantula the size of my coffee mug in the corner of our living room, I would have said cockroach.

What did you do with him? 66

[Colophon]

Originally Posted by Spookaloo

Cockroaches are disgusting insects. Spiders eat disgusting insects. 'Nuff said.

I agree with this on an objective level, but cockroaches just aren't creepy in the way spiders are. I'd happily pick a cockroach up and fling it out of the window, or squish it into the ground, but a big hairy house spider? No way am I touching that. I'll get rid of it, but I'm using the "pint glass and piece of paper" method. And I'll still flinch like a little girl as it crawls up the inside of the glass. I don't tend to kill spiders, either, both because I know they're beneficial and also because, well, they're creepy enough that one day they might have their revenge.

However, small and friendly-looking spiders are welcome to stay in the corner of the ceiling out of harm's way, where they might catch flies. Any size of cockroach would not enjoy that privilege. 67

[koeeoaddi]

Originally Posted by Mosier

What did you do with him?

Mr. Ko trapped him under a big glass bowl, slipped cardboard under it and dumped him outside. I'm still shuddering, dancing around in circles and shaking my hands like a six year old. 68

[Colophon]

I know we're very fortunate in the UK not to have any poisonous spiders (or any poisonous critters to speak of, really, barring adders), but I do find giant house spiders singularly revolting. I was sitting watching TV at about 1am a couple of nights ago and saw a movement out of the corner of my eye, and one of these was marching towards my foot. I see we've exported them to the Pacific NW. You're welcome. 69

[Nadnerb]

Originally Posted by Freddy the Pig

Has there ever been a superhero called The Amazing Cockroach-Man? No, and there never will be. Because cockroaches are the most sickening creatures on earth.

Word up my man, and yet there is a superhero with a spider motif and that's Spider-Man. 70

[Nadnerb]

Which are more disgusting? Definitely cockroaches, but that's just to speak for the pest species, such the American, German, Oriental, and brown banded. As you know not all roach species are pests, and I can tolerate the non-pest species.

As for spiders they are clearly a winner in the creepy crawly world. 71