I was just thinking about why exactly we consider insects to be gross. And I think I’ve decided it’s mostly because we hate thinking about how it would feel if they were crawling all over us. Bugs have weird and oddly-shaped appendages that are small and often covered with fine protrusions - the idea of these things making contact with our body, and the imagined sensation of how it would feel, gives most people that visceral reaction when they see an insect.
Is this a reasonable assumption? Is there anyone here who feels the same way?
I don’t know - I think it might be partly that, but I think there’s a strong association between bugs and spoiled food, or destroyed crops, or decay and death.
I still can’t quite understand why I find the idea of tucking into a plate of fried locusts icks me out a fair bit, whereas I would happily devour a big bowl of prawns.
I understand what you’re saying, and I share the physical revulsion of bug legs touching me, but why would it be so? Is it merely that some bugs (mosquitoes, fleas) can carry disease and others (some spiders - yes, I know they’re not insects. Shut up. - ticks, lice, biting bees, chiggers, scabies, etc) can hurt or itch and those bites can get infected? That is, is it an unconscious ooginess for health’s sake? Did our ancestors who weren’t icked out by bugs have a reproductive disadvantage?
Given how many children love bugs, I have to think it’s a more carefully taught fear. I think “mothers” (meaning primary caregivers of any gender) associate bugs with dirt and filth and discourage kids from playing with them. We give them (kids, not bugs) a strong learned revulsion, and they soon learn that bugs are gross, just like feces and boogers.
I don’t really have any problems with insects crawling on me. I spent a lot of hours in the summer as a kid playing with bugs.
I do have a problem with the dirt and disease aspect of them. Granted, not all insects are plague-ridden disease carriers, but some of them are, and that’s enough for me.
There are plenty of people, past and present, who don’t think of bugs as gross at all. I refer you to the chapter on insect eating in Marvin Harris’ book Good to Eat/The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig and to David G. Gordon’s website and his Eat-A-Bug Cookbook ( http://www.davidgeorgegordon.com/index.htm ), and to similar stuff elsewhere. Many people eat and have eaten insects, including John the Baptist and Aristotle. Our current anti-bug feeling isn’t inevitable. We have the luxury of other food sources and can afford to be squeamish about tiny livestock. In these circumstances, I think the factors that Mangetout brought up hold. The difference between us and our ancestors is that we have other food supplies to exploit if any crops get eaten or spoiled by insects. Our ancestors often had no recourse except to eat the locusts who despoiled the crops.
I watch my 2-year old daughter and she shows no revulsion for bugs. And she isn’t going to be learning it from me, either, I love most bugs. I have no problem with them crawling on me (tickles!). It’s only cockroaches, wasps/hornets and centipedes that freak me out, and I think that’s a learned reaction.
I don’t think the widespread revulsion toward insects is based on the sense of touch. The sensation of having a butterfly walk across your hand is, I think, rather similar to the sensation of having a cockroach walk across your hand. But the emotional response is likely to be very different.
I’m rather fond of insects and spiders, but I feel all ooky about flies and roaches, since I associate them with disease and decay.
My money’s on this theory. An instinctive fear of insects may slightly (since not everyone’s afraid of insects) increase your odds of survival since you would be more likely to avoid the stuff Mangetout mentioned. Plus some of them can bite/sting you and be poisonous.