I just made an interesting observation at work. I’m sitting here, and ordinary black houseflies are buzzing around. They’re here because of the heat outside, presumably. I don’t mind the flies; If one lands on me near me, I swat it. Our receptionist, on the other hand, freaks out and opens doors and windows trying to get rid of the flies. When they get too close, she runs away as though they were bees and she is afraid to be stung. No one else seems bothered.
My observation is this: Everyone reacts differently to different insects. I have no problem with flies or mosquitoes, but beetles and spiders freak me out. My father doesn’t mind spiders (he often catches them and releases them outside), but gets jumpy around centipedes or millipedes. One of my friends is fairly placid around most bugs, but he can’t stand worms. None of us knows why we react the way we do.
My question: How do you react to different critters, and do you know why you react that way? Talk about mundane, but there it is.
There’s no rhyme or reason to how I react to certain kinds of bugs.
Spiders don’t bother me unless they’re exceptionally large, like tarantulas and stuff like that.
I’m fine with beetles, grasshoppers, flies, bees, wasps, hornets and pretty much any bug out there. There are only a few that really make me jumpy…
Centipedes. Millipedes and other multi-legged bugs are actually kinda cute, but I can’t stand centipedes where the legs are long and scraggly and stick out to the side. They just give me the willies. I have no idea why.
Large cockroaches. They’re soooooooo gross. The little ones don’t bother me so much, but some of the bigger ones (like the 4-inch sucker I saw scuttling down the sidewalk yesterday) make me skittish. And don’t even get me started about those mutant roaches in Florida that they’ve tried to re-classify as “palmetto bugs.”
Earthworms and slugs. They’re all mucusy and gross. I don’t want them anywhere near me. Snails are fine because they’ll retreat into their shells.
Maggots. I guess I hate them because I associate them with that scene in The Lost Boys.
Praying mantises, walking stick insects and other large bugs that use camoflage to look like leaves of plants. I used to think these bugs were cool, until I let a praying mantis crawl up my arm and the spikes on his legs dug into my skin. These bugs get freaking huge, and that kinda freaks me out too.
Except for ticks. They have to be at the top of my list for Grossest Insect Alive. Attaching themselves to warm-blooded creatures, sucking their blood for DAYS and then going off to make more disgusting copies of themselves. And they transmit horrible diseases.
I’m scared of spiders for two reasons. The first reason is because my brother used to throw grand daddy long leg spiders on me when I was a kid. I know they’re harmless and can’t bite but they still scare me. The second reason is because I was bit by a brown recluse spider 6 years ago and I have three little pits in the back of my shoulder from it. My arm was swollen and it hurt to move it and I had to get a shot, take antibiotics, and apply cream to the area for two weeks. It was awful.
I also don’t like to pick up grasshoppers. The feel of they’re legs sticking to me creeps me out!
Now that I live in an area that’s out in the country, I’ve become familiar with these reddish insects called “wood beetles”. If there’s some lumber or a log laying outside and I move it, they invariably come scrambling out. Since I used to live in a city, they naturally remind me of cockroaches, and I just don’t like them.
Other than that, I don’t mind bugs. If I find a cricket in the house, and I get to it before the cats do, I’ll catch it and let it go outside.
The last apartment I occupied when I was in college was actually a house that had been subdivided into 3 living areas. When the couple that lived in the back moved out, the landlord had to exterminate in their apartment. That merely drove the problem in to MY apartment. Roaches. Bazillions of little brown roaches. They crawled on me in bed. It was disgusting beyond words. I can’t write this without getting the heebie-jeebies… Palmetto bugs ain’t got nothing on them little brown roaches… ick
I’m okay with most insects. I don’t neccesarily like them or anything (especially ticks), but I don’t jump on a chair and scream.
However, I must admit that I am not at all fond of hellgramites. Thankfully the only place I’ve run into these bad boys is inside a plastic tub at a bait store.
Most bugs don’t wig me out too much, except for slimy things like centipedes/millipedes or slugs. Wow, I can’t even describe how much I hate slugs. My backyard becomes a breeding ground for them in early spring since it gets so little sun, and if I accidently brush up against one I dance around screaming like an idiot. Makes my country-born husband nuts, but I can’t help it. I feel dirty for days if I touch a slug.
That’s good, because where I come from, crickets in the house mean good luck.
For me, it’s mashed potato bugs, so named for the way they look when squished. They are actually those stupid beetles that are always flying around (I’m getting creeped out writing this) outside lights. They always seem to fly their way into my hair.
You know, where the guy is going to eat fried rice and Kiefer Sutherland’s character says, “Look again.” or some such and the fried rice has turned into maggots.
Do tell me…how BIG are the bugs in Florida?? You got me worried.[/hijack]
Hmm…I don’t see that many insects, but mostly I have the most respect to bees and wasps. When they are around, either I freeze or I quietly leave the area where they are. I also stay away, very very away from anthills and ants in general. I am allergic of mosquitoes’ bite, ant’s pinch, and I don’t really want to discover if I am also allergic to bees and wasps.
Big enough that you can hear them walking on the sidewalks.
Big enough that I dopped a brick on one and the brick started to crawl away.
Big enough that they get their own special commuter lanes on the highways.
Big enou…
Spiders, ewwwww! I’m currently engaged in Spiders as a Spectator Sport (mentioned on the Do You Love Your Spouse thread). Every night for the past week and a half, an enormous spider has woven his/her web on our back porch. The weaving is beautiful but Charles or Charlotte ain’t. If the angle of the porch light is right, we can see all the munchie mouth parts after we’ve deposited a moth in the web.
<shudder>
I have no fear of bees, flies, beetles, cicadas (and them’s mighty ugly) and most other bugs. Worms, snakes, slugs, eh. Of course I could do without cockroaches but they don’t make me irrational, like spiders do. And here I am encouraging this thing on my porch.
I’m fine with every kind of insect except Miller moths. When I was a kid there was aparently a series of holes in the siding near the bathroom. And for a couple of weeks every summer As soon as I would start taking my shower Moths would crawl their way around the window frame and join me in the shower. It was just really disgusting standing there all nekid and soapy with dirty moths crashing into me. I have since declared war on the nasty little things, and know several hundred way of killing them. (As a quick note when attacked by flying things in the shower you are not defenseless, Just reach over to the sink and grab some hair spray. A quick squirt or two in front of them fouls up there wings and they drop like a Harrier. (For some reason my mom never questioned why I needed two bottles of hair spray a week, even though I never combed, let alone styled, my hair as a kid) :))
Spiders don’t bother me, but centipedes give me the willies. Probably because I know that they have a nasty sting attached to them (or bite, whatever). I’m going to salvage my manhood by saying I’m not afraid of them; I just have a healthy respect for them and stay out of their way.
Besides that, the only time bugs really bother me is if they’re in an enclosed space (like on my side of the window screen) and have the potential to make a lot of noise. I was trying to shoo away a cicada once from a screen and the scene went a lot like this:
I walk up to the screen, magazine in hand
Cicada: BBBRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
(Me running across the room)
Repeat the above about a half donze times until I grabbed an empty jar and placed it over the bug and was able to release it back into the wild.
I know they’re not insects, but crayfish give me the screaming heebie-jeebies. I think it goes back to a couple of years ago, when my parents were de-winterizing the pool. They’d covered it with a thick tarp, as opposed to a mesh leaf cover. As we pulled the tarp back, at least a thousand of the little slimy brown monsters scurried across the concrete, grotesque legs pumping like mad. Ew! The tiny, semi-transparent baby versions are even worse, because you never see them until you’re too close for comfort…
Any species of spider that carries young on it’s abdomen. I once made the mistake of trying to squish one with a paper towel. I missed, but not by far enough. “Why is the carpet moving?” I ask myself, as I see a horde of teeny many-legged things crawling towards me. Flash forward to YthDecay running for the vacuum cleaner.
You got me worried.[/hijack]