Inspired by this post, I was watching gruesome videos of parasitoid insects, when I realized that I am plenty ignorant about entomological matters. Help dispel some insecty ignorance, please.
Why are we particularly repelled/disgusted by insects, as opposed to, say, birds and mammals? It appears that fear/disgust of insects is inborn in human babies (using my toddler neice as evidence here).
Do dead insects stink as a result of natural decomposition? I have never noticed foul smelling insect dead bodies and I have killed plenty of the little fuckers, especially roaches.
My morbidly curious mind would like to know how a roach dies when sprayed upon with a commercial roach-killer liquid. Do its innards liquefy? Does it suffocate to death? Does it suffer pain?
Speaking of roaches, I once dealt with a little infestation at my sister’s place: there were plenty of tiny little roach-babies (which we happily killed, of course), but the mama and papa were nowhere to be found. How can this be? We were pretty thorough in exterminating the little bastards and we never found egg-laying adults. Might there still be a reservoir somewhere? :eek:
#1. I do not think we are born with a disgust or fear of insects. My mother was completely phobic about them; I am just a little less phobic but still cannot stand most bugs (even a grasshopper) to land on me.
Knowing this, I purposely encouraged my daughter to be interested in bugs and not fear them. At two she was playing with doodle bugs (one of the few I am not the least afraid of or squicked by). By five she was pointing out insects I didn’t even know about, like the Spiny orb-weaver spider. She now has a wealth of knowledge on insects, bugs and spiders and will pick up ANY of them. And yes, she understands about black widows, asps, and other harmful ones.
So it’s my opinion that we learn to be repelled by bugs from the reactions of others.
#2. Stink bugs DO stink when killed.
#3. Spray isn’t enough. Here’s how I kill a cockroach: First saturate it with the first spray can you can lay your hands on (hair spray works). Second, drop a Sears catalog on it. Third, jump up and down on the catalog. Fourth, after a week remove the bottom page and discard. Mind you, these are Texas giant flying wood roaches…
There are always more roaches than you can find. The only way to get rid of them is to completely eliminate their food source, and even then, they’ll come back if the food comes back.
#1. Partly because we are taught to fear them, but perhaps, like snakes, there is an inherent fear. I know that most people are afraid of big hairy spiders.
#2. Animal decomposition generally generates an odor, but one dead bug isn’t going to have a noticeable odor to us. Your dog might be able to smell it though.
#3. Depends on the poison. Some cause suffocation, some break down internal metabolic processes. Think how many different ways poisons work on humans.
#4. The adults may be in hiding, or they may have moved off to someplace else. I would put down traps and check them frequently to see if they ever show up again.
They are more alien than mammals. Even the weirdest mammal (Aye-aye) has fur and such. I don’t know if our unwillingness to cuddle one is innate, but that might be a factor. But outright phobias are likely learned, especially when coupled with the right brain predisposed to that.
Diatomaceous earth sucks up their protective lipid layer, and they dry to death. :eek:. It looks like Raid is several chemicals, most of which are neurotoxins.
Maybe they died. I’d be more concerned with the babies you missed. To help you sleep at night, some species might go through parthenogenesis. No males needed!
I’m not aware that there is any evidence that fear of insects or spiders is innate in humans. (There is for snakes, at least that such fear is learned very easily.) A toddler may be afraid of various unfamiliar objects. In any case, a toddler is plenty old enough to have picked up a fear of insects from other family members.
There isn’t enough flesh or other soft parts on a single insect to give off much odor of decomposition. Often they may dry out before they decompose. If you get very close to one that has actually rotted, or there are enough of them, there is an odor.
Different insecticides have different modes of action. However, popular ones like Raid use pyrethriods, which are nerve toxins. That’s why the little suckers twitch so much as they die.
Roaches lay egg cases from which the babies hatch. The female that laid it could be long gone or dead by the time they hatch out. [However, in some species an egg case can take up to 300 days to hatch, and some species carry the egg case until the eggs hatch.](However, in some species an egg case can take up to 300 days to hatch.) If you actually got all the babies before they matured and laid eggs there shouldn’t be a reservoir unless there are some unhatched cases around.
I’ve well aware of stink bugs and their odor. The question was with regard to odor produced by decomposition, not chemical odors like that produced by stink bugs.
Actually, DE is like tiny glass shards to a bug. It slices up their exoskeleton and the bug’s juicy innards dry out from the cuts. So it’s not really a poison, which is why it’s pretty safe around pets and people. Don’t accidentally inhale it though.
Colibri “I’m not aware that there is any evidence that fear of insects or spiders is innate in humans. (There is for snakes, at least that such fear is learned very easily.) A toddler may be afraid of various unfamiliar objects. In any case, a toddler is plenty old enough to have picked up a fear of insects from other family members.” -
Many years ago at a U of I Psychology 101 lecture, the instructor told us that one theory of fears had to do with Freudian interpretations. “The theory is that for many people, the snake subconsciously reminds them of a penis, and they are repulsed or frightened by that.” Then he added, “Of course, I’ve known some girls who actually *liked *snakes.” True story.
I could only find one reference, in WikiHow, that stated “When stink bugs die in your attic or walls, they continue to stink as they decompose. The smell attracts more stink bugs in addition to other pests that prey on them.”
However, I don’t believe in basing a conclusion on one vague resource, so I will concede to your point about decomposition. Besides, I’m mighty sick of researching stink bugs, especially with all the pictures I’ve been forced to view.
Okay, this isn’t a professional answer as my only cite is personal experience, but we currently have a few small ants, uh, sharing our home, and they do smell when crushed. It’s not a bad smell - sort of chemical-y and citrus-y.
if the dead insects were in volume and where the odor wouldn’t dissipate then they might stink similar to that of the same volume of other animal at least guts wise
The gargantuan tree roaches we have down in Texas stink when you smash a real fat one. But it has to be only a couple feet from your face like on a wall or something. Smells kinda like sour soil to me. Makes a nasty mess too so I usually drown them in spray instead.
If you have ever emptied a fly trap with 2" of dead flies in it you will see that rotting insects smell like other rotting things if they don’t have a chance to dry out.
Having occasionally received a box of crickets (for food for captive animals) that had died in transit, I can attest to that they do smell. However, insects have relatively little muscle and viscera, and also what there is is contained within the exoskeleton. I don’t think they smell as bad as the same volume of decomposing mice, say.
