Most people would probably hate to have any of the above infesting their homes, but which vermin do you hate the most? For the purposes of this poll, none of the options are poisonous, and any bites from snakes or spiders would leave minimal damage. Rodents include rats and mice as the two main animals, but if you truly fear, say, a chinchilla invasion, it covers them as well. And when I say spiders, I’m not talking about daddy longlegs - think more along the lines of the common house spider.
When I say “infestation,” I don’t mean a couple mice in the wall, or a few snakes in the basement. Think Biblical proportions - swarms of cockroaches, hordes of rats.
For me, personally, I’d have to go with cockroaches, though spiders are a close second. I don’t know why I’m so afraid of cockroaches, but even the thought of them freaks me out like nothing else. Something about their scuttling little legs . . .
For bonus points, include your least-hated pest in your post - mine would be rodents, although I would still be in a panic.
Oh, and for the “other” option, try to keep it at least semi-realistic. Sure, hundreds of lions in your house would be unwelcome, but they’re not exactly known as vermin (although if you live in a place where lion invasions are a common thing, please share [and yes, I realize I’m contradicting myself with the chinchilla example above, but chinchillas are at least kind of plausible]).
Ants. You can seal your food from larger animals but if you’ve got ants in your sugar you have to throw it all away. In particular if you use ant poison or insecticides, you can’t tell which ants are poisoned and which are not.
Not too many years ago, cockroaches were pretty rare where I live: I grew up believing that if you *did *have cockroaches, your level of domestic cleanliness left much to be desired.
But they’re freakin’ everywhere now, and nothing squicks me out more than seeing a scuttling, brown, crunchy thing wiggling across the floor (or heaven forbid, the BENCH). It makes me physically ill.
Groundhogs. Besides messing up vegetable gardens and flowerbeds, they like to make burrows under barns and houses. They seem to delight in causing the collapse of expensive structures.
I’m no fan of rats. I’ve had a few rat problems in the past… However, I voted “snakes” because I really have an irrational fear of them. I know a little snake in the back yard is not a problem , but it freaks me out more than an actual rat in the house. (Which, of course, is a problem).
I’m going with the roaches. Snakes are no problem by me, and I’d like to have more spiders. Rodents can at least in principle be pets, and most other insects mostly mind their own business. But roaches mean filth, and they’re almost impossible to get rid of once you have them.
To be vermin, in my book, they have to either be quasi-parasitic (pigeons, rats) or actively destructive (gophers, wild pigs). Snakes, spiders, and insects accidentally trapped in your house are not vermin at all.
I totally vote roaches. They aren’t mere irritating nuisances, they make my gorge rise. Ugh. Luckily I live too far in the country to be in danger of them, but when I lived in San Francisco this was not the case.
Having spent some formative years in NYC it is cockroaches, with nothing else close. Nothing like getting a big ( 2" ) flying American Cockroach in your hair on a warm summer night :eek:. This happened more than once.
It’s not even that I dislike bugs generally. I’ve taken two college classes in entomology, I understand their biology, I appreciate them for the ancient survivors they are. I’m fine with spiders, scorpions, ants ( invading Argentine Ants are slightly annoying ) and, well, I hate mosquitoes, but they don’t make my skin crawl. I am wary of the major stingers and biters ( especially big horseflies ), but just respectfully so.
But man, I just have a visceral dislike of urban cockroaches. Thankfully they’re relatively uncommon in my area and I haven’t seen one in a home I lived in for 25 years. But my memories of the little scuttling bastards is strong.
I like mice. They eat the roaches. My dogs then eat the mice and poop in secret places in the house. Then the roaches eat the dog poop and the Circle of Life is complete.
But I hate roaches. My dogs hate coyotes, but they don’t come in the house yet.
I once stayed in a friend’s brownstone apartment in Brooklyn - the place was so beautiful, really classic . . . except, as I found out one day, they had American cockroaches. They were disgusting enough to watch crawling up the wall, but when they started to fly, we all basically said, “Flying cockroaches? Mother Nature, no fair!”
That actually reminds me of another friend’s story. She was staying in her friend’s house, and she noticed there was a strange visual “static” whenever she turned off the lights. She was confused, and thought maybe something was going on with her eyes. When she mentioned it to her friends, she was told they had an infestation of waterbugs - and, sure enough, whenever you flickered the light quickly so they couldn’t hide, you saw the whole floor and portions of the walls were coated in them.
When she got back home, she basically burned all her luggage in fear that some would start a colony at her place. If we had a puking emoticon, I’d put it right here, but I’ll settle for :eek: instead.
Rats. We’ve had our share of cockroaches over the years and I used to completely freak out at them (still not a huge fan of the flying bastids and screech when I see them) but we had a rat in our house two winters ago and it completely unhinged me. None of the baits/poisons/repellants I tried did anything and I think it eventually went away when the warmer weather returned.
Last winter, repeat of former situation. I didn’t muck around with diy rodent treatments and got in the professionals. This year, even though it’s still quite warm and only early in autumn, I have my beady eyes peeled. First sign, I’m on the phone to my trusty rodent murderer.
I like snakes. Rodents don’t bother me except that their droppings are unsanitary, so they have to go. I sometimes get bats in the house, they get gently captured and released outdoors. Spiders and centipedes live mostly unmolested at my house. I’ve seen a lot of insects in my house, they get relocated outdoors or left alone. Even the giant slugs I sometimes find in my basement get relocated outdoors.
I draw the line at flies and parasites such as fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. They die.
I’m alarmingly OK with most pests.
However, rodents are not only destructive, they are incontinent. They poop and pee constantly and indiscrimitately. Just, no.
I voted other, for bats. Twice I’ve had a bat get in, and the hassle of having the cat racing around after it(and even catching one once) is a royal pain.
All the other vermin are nasty, but the bats were the most trouble.
Other: possums. They’re the only mammals I hate, and for the past two years they’ve been hanging around my house. Nothing makes me scream as fast as one of those things darting down the stairs at me.