# cockroaches vs spiders, which is more disgusting to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 13, 2012, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356 "2012-08-13T07:39:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/21 "2012-08-13T17:09:12Z")
Not a debate, more of an opinion question. Moving to IMHO from Great Debates. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/22 "2012-08-13T17:13:17Z")
Cockroaches, easy. They’re so dirty and don’t even have any cool or unique body structure, unlike spiders. Spiders are awesome. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/23 "2012-08-13T17:18:19Z")
Spiders are scary. Particularly the big black widows that live near me. EEEeeeeeekkkk! We also have wolf spiders. The freak me out like a MeanOldLady. Cockroaches are just mildly unpleasant by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/24 "2012-08-13T17:25:07Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Has there ever been a superhero called The Amazing Cockroach-Man? No, and there never will be. Well, there was at [least one](http://www.cereb.us/wiki/index.php?title=Cockroach). But I admit it was parody. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/25 "2012-08-13T18:51:48Z")
I’ve never actually seen a cockroach in person. I find them more disgusting because of their affinity for trash. Spiders still creep me out pretty bad (because I’ve seen jumping spiders, so I worry that every spider I see is going to jump on me/bite me/run into my ear), but they’re less disgusting than roaches. I run into spiders pretty often though, so I am trying to learn to make my peace with them. I kind of have a spider buddy right now, he keeps building his house on my car’s driver side mirror. The web gets torn all to shit when I drive to work (the first time I saw him, he was clinging to his guide thread for dear life at 55mph), but he just rebuilds it every night. I admire his persistence! I named him Spidey the Retarded. But he’s kind of cute in his bumbling idiocy, and he hasn’t jumped on me or made any attempt to enter the vehicle proper, so I let him live. Yesterday, I watched him tenderly wrap up a bird feather that landed on his web and drag it into his house, behind the mirror. I don’t know if he thought it was food, or if he wanted a pillow. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/26 "2012-08-13T18:53:35Z")
cockroaches win, hands-down. dirty, nasty, icky, disgusting!!! ew ew ew ew!! i actually prefer to have one or two spiders in the house. unfortunately, they don’t last very long, thanks to three active cats, but while they survive, they do reduce any potential bug population such as mosqitoes, etc., to zero. i admit wolf spiders do freak me out a bit, but as long as they leave me alone, i leave them alone. i think i’ve seen _ **maybe** _ four of them in sixteen years of living in this condo. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/27 "2012-08-13T19:14:06Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > I like spiders. I think they are pretty, and many are quite cute to me. They are cool to watch, and they are smart, and Charlotte was a spider and she saved Wilbur so there you go. > > Cockroaches are the embodiment of evil disgustingness. They are the ugliest color in the world. Their legs are horrible. They have ugly faces. They WILL crawl on you, and they can **FLY!!!** which is just… oh my god so awful, and they make that awful sound when they fly. They are THE WORST except maybe house centipedes, but I’ve never seen one of those in person (THANK GOD) so for me cockroaches win. > > Ugh. > > * * * > > FUCK COCKROACHES\*\*\*\* Thank you, that was well-written. Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby submit **miss elizabeth** ’s post as my answer as well. Gawd, I hate those shiny brown wings. It’s a visceral reaction; I know they can’t actually hurt me. Shiny brown cat = “awwww, pretty kitteh! I will pet you and hug you and squeeze you and …” Shiny brown roach = “AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!” ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/28 "2012-08-13T19:49:00Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Too many fucking eyes - what do they need with so many, anymay ? I could understand if they were at weird angles, but they’re all facing the same way. Staring. _Judging_. Maybe you’ll like [this one](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48610283/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/matter-fact-eyeless-spider-does-live-cave/) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/29 "2012-08-13T20:56:56Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > I like spiders. I think they are pretty, and many are quite cute to me. They are cool to watch, and they are smart, and Charlotte was a spider and she saved Wilbur so there you go. > > Cockroaches are the embodiment of evil disgustingness. They are the ugliest color in the world. Their legs are horrible. They have ugly faces. They WILL crawl on you, and they can **FLY!!!** which is just… oh my god so awful, and they make that awful sound when they fly. They are THE WORST except maybe house centipedes, but I’ve never seen one of those in person (THANK GOD) so for me cockroaches win. > > Ugh. > > * * * > > FUCK COCKROACHES\*\*\*\* This expresses my sentiments pretty exactly. I find spiders fascinating and roaches disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![baka420](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@baka420](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/baka420)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/30 "2012-08-13T21:19:16Z")
Most common spiders don’t really annoy or scare me, if I saw a tarantula or a black widow though I would certainly be freaked out! I lived in Spain for 3 months and when I first moved into my room there were crazy cockroaches everywhere, some between 3/4 inches long, so I have to say cockroaches. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/31 "2012-08-13T21:29:23Z")
I have spiders around all the time. They don’t bother me, and if one is in a bad spot, I’ll often try to move it outside. Last summer we had some sort of spider that spun a web between two trees in our backyard. The cool part? The trees are 25 feet apart. Roaches? They get no mercy, and if found in the house, will be vacuumed, squashed and gassed until they are dead dead dead! ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/32 "2012-08-13T21:36:59Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Which is weird because I don’t have a problem with crabs, which are pretty much your overgrown, battle-ready version of the average spider. But they don’t have eight fricking eyes, either, so maybe that’s it. A lot of people say that. But they are generally people who aren’t aware that there’s a species of crab that’s three feet wide, has similar leg/body proportions to a spider, can climb walls and is known for climbing into people’s houses via open windows. No, really. * * * But to the OP; there’s a difference between disgust and anxiety. A turd is disgusting but not particularly scary. Something sharp hanging just above my head would make me nervous but isn’t disgusting. So my answer is: I find cockroaches more disgusting. But that doesn’t mean I’m fine with spiders. * * * _The coconut crab_ ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/33 "2012-08-13T21:50:15Z")
Cockroaches are just too fucking fast. I know there are fast spiders but all roaches are way too fast and sneaky. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/34 "2012-08-13T22:24:56Z")
To me, cockroaches are just bugs. Mercifully, I haven’t had to deal with them for almost 20 years. Never had 'em apart from when I was in an apartment in Georgia, but even then I just took them as a sign that I needed to live cleaner and keep the food sealed up better. They’re little opportunistic thieves (hominid versions of which also plagued the aparment complex), but nothing more. Spiders scare the living shit out of me when I’m not ready for them. I can look at them in a web or whatever with no general feelings at all apart from wonder and some kind of respect. But when they get in my bed or on me because they built a web on my stuff or in my path–little girl city. It’s the bank of eyes (what else on this planet has more than 2 eye-things?), the extra pair of legs, the violence and intimacy of their predation that sets them apart from the fly or even the hornet that bumps into me while going about its business. They’re just _wrong_, like the mocking and hateful creation of one of God’s adversaries, the bulk of whose creations are in a parallel universe. ---
**Author:** ![scootergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@scootergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scootergirl)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/35 "2012-08-13T23:50:20Z")
I think that many spiders are interesting and even beautiful, and most don’t bother me at all. Cockroaches, however, I absolutely detest. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/36 "2012-08-14T00:17:38Z")
Spiders bite and poison you and make you itch, but roaches are nasty and gross, so my answer is both. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/37 "2012-08-14T00:18:55Z")
Cockroaches. Spiders are pretty and they eat the crap you don’t want flying around your house, anyway. I’m not superstitious, but I was taught from a very early age to never ever kill a spider (something about bad luck or another) and, as far as I know, I never have. At worst, I’d capture it and let it outside. Usually, though, I’d just leave it be. Spiders are cool by me. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/38 "2012-08-14T01:08:33Z")
Cockroaches are ICK! Gross and disgusting. I don’t like spiders, I’ve been bitten way too many times. I lived in a house infested with spiders (along with a snake and a toad). I could never live in a house infested with cockroaches. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/39 "2012-08-14T02:03:24Z")
Another one for cockroaches, because they are dirty and much more likely to contaminate food and be pests than spiders; you might come across a spider from time to time but with roaches you can end up with hundreds. Although finding a bunch of spider webs on something in the basement or closet, under furniture, etc, is also gross (not the spiders, the webs, which for the most part never have any spiders in sight). Oh yeah, a semi-personal experience (before I was born) - when my parents first moved into their house, it was infested with roaches, something apparently not disclosed at the time (although I never saw more than an occasional roach - yay for pest control). The house I’m in now has had (still has?) mice in it, but nothing serious, don’t remember the last time I saw a roach but saw a spider on the wall just the other day (I left it alone). ---
**Author:** ![azraiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356/40 "2012-08-14T03:13:58Z")
With most insects/arachnids, my general rule is live and let live. They do their thing, I do mine. For spiders, the exception is twofold. First, don’t be venomous. Second, not in my bed. I actually kill most of the spiders I find in the house, because most are [brown recluses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_recluse) and thus violate the venomous rule. Otherwise they’re left alone to eat mosquitoes, but they end up et by kitteh eventually. Roaches die on sight, whether German or American. Luckily, I’ve never lived in a place that had any kind of roach problem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockroaches-vs-spiders-which-is-more-disgusting-to-you/631356.md?page=3)