# Which bugs are the ickiest to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 3, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731 "2003-03-03T06:48:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marathon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7cd45c/32.png) [@Marathon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marathon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/21 "2003-03-03T19:53:12Z")
Easy one. Cockroaches. I never used to give them a second thought until, in my second year of college, I lived in an apartment that was infested. A couple times I awakened in the morning to find myself sharing the bed, and from then on (even now!), when I get stressed out about something, I dream about huge cockroaches. I haven’t seen a single critter in my new-ish apartment (lived there since December), but it’s still winter. I just hope it stays that way. No roaches, though - and I’m eternally grateful. I would suffer a total mental collapse. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/22 "2003-03-03T20:18:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gallows fodder \* > \*\*I second **scr4** ’s nomination of **the camel cricket.** I was reduced to a sodden whimpering mass the first time I saw one. They look like evil mutant spiders with way too many legs. _shudder_ \*\* I confess that I, too, think that camel crickets (aka cave crickets) are pretty high on the ugly heap. I’d moved into a rental house once years back, and needed to add another phone outlet. To do this, I had to go into the crawl space under the house and do some stuff. At one point I happened to look up at the walls of the crawl space. The walls were covered with came crickets. It was all I could do to stay under there and finish what I needed to do. However, the bugs that TOTALLY creep me out are some kind of centipede-looking thing, with long, curved legs that ripple horribly as they walk. Those are much more squicky than cave crickets to me. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/23 "2003-03-03T20:21:02Z")
Any outdoor centipede, followed by house centipedes. The outdoor ones look… oh I don’t want to think about them! ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/24 "2003-03-03T20:23:09Z")
Roaches, bar none. And I’m not talking about the itty-bitty ones. I’m talking about the giant tree roaches, or water bugs, we get down here on the Gulf Coast. They are about two inches long, have nasty hooky things on their legs…AND THEY FLY!!! You can step on them, hear them crunch, and they will still get up and try to run away. Thank God for Bengal Roach Spray… :: shuddering uncontrollably:: ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/25 "2003-03-03T21:01:25Z")
Another centipede-hater checking in. Actually, I’m quite fond of spiders. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/26 "2003-03-03T21:02:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MSU 1978 \* > \*\*I grew up in western Michigan, and there is a bug native there that I haven’t seen since I left. It is locally called a pinchingbug, a black beetle about an inch long with pincers on the head about 1/2 inch long. Those buggers hurt if you find one in your shoe in the morning! Any entomologists reading who knows the scientific name for this bug, please check in. My wife doesn’t believe they exist. \*\* Sounds like a [stag beetle](http://www.herpafauna.com/pics/inverts/d-p-volscen.jpg) of some kind ---
**Author:** ![Washte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Washte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washte)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/27 "2003-03-03T21:03:41Z")
Bugs :eek: You mean I can only vote for _one_??!?? Please say I can vote for **all** bugs… please?? ::runs off frantically looking for the Raid:: ---
**Author:** ![kirk280980](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c77e96/32.png) [@kirk280980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirk280980)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/28 "2003-03-03T21:55:56Z")
I absolutely detest wasps. Nasty, hateful little creatures, which attack just for the sake of it. On many occasions I’ve been seen running and screaming while they chase me around. Having never been stung before, the fear of finding out what it would be like probably makes it worse for me. While I’m definitely a summer person, wasps really spoil the season for me. Especially when they keep coming in through my bedroom window. Nowadays I just keep the vacuum cleaner permanently plugged in, and suck them up as soon as they come near. There’s no way I can rest easy knowing there’s one in the room. ---
**Author:** ![Astralbovine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Astralbovine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astralbovine)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/29 "2003-03-03T22:26:25Z")
In terms of hatred, I hate wasps with a fiery passion. Especially the super-huge ones that grow somewhere out in the pond-marsh-woodsy-type-area behind our house. These things have a two inch wingspan, and they’re OUT FOR MY BLOOD. Scared the living piss out of me when I was little (and more adventurous). Also high up on my list is the dreaded blackfly. Those are a pain in the ass. In terms of ickiness… well, a climate such as New Hampshire’s doesn’t yield the best living conditions for many bugs, so there’s not a lot of diversity, only multitudes of the especially hardy bugs. If I were to be shown a picture with a close-up of any bug that lives anywhere near me, however, I’d probably recoil farthest at the sight of an earwig… I can’t stand those. Period. ---
**Author:** ![Mariachi\_Kitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@Mariachi\_Kitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariachi_Kitty)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/30 "2003-03-03T22:38:52Z")
Ewwwww. Mole Crickets are gross. I hate those Camel Crickets mentioned above, too. I have a phobia about bees & hornets. (I once had one land on my lip and it wouldn’t get off – I didn’t get stung, but that sure was a nice panic attack!) But the bugs I hate the most? Box Elder Beetles. Ugh. They’re the pointed oval-shaped black & red bugs that swarm on houses & trees in the summer. They’re totally harmless, don’t make noise, don’t smell and don’t do much of anything. They even move slowly most of the time. But there’s something about the sheer numbers of them just sitting there on the house that freaks me out. Ewwwwww. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/31 "2003-03-03T22:44:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Philster \* > \*\*Nothing freaks me out more than the Praying Mantis. \*\* God I hate those things. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/32 "2003-03-03T22:56:54Z")
I hate cockroaches more than anything else because of their capacity to breed rapidly, which means that if you see one in your house their are probably 5 zillion others that you don’t see. And the ones out here have an attitude. If you turn on your kitchen light at night, instead of running away they just look at you like you have no business being in their kitchen. Black widows don’t worry me if they stay under rocks in the yard and mind their own business. The ones that try to come into the house in the winter get weeded out of the gene pool. As far as really creepy stuff goes, we have centipedes and scorpions along with bizarre but harmless critters such as windscorpions: [http://dine.sanjuan.k12.ut.us/heritage/land/animals/bugs/wind\_scorpion.htm](http://dine.sanjuan.k12.ut.us/heritage/land/animals/bugs/wind_scorpion.htm) whipscorpions: [http://www.americanarachnology.org/HiResGallery/mastigoproctus.html](http://www.americanarachnology.org/HiResGallery/mastigoproctus.html) and Jerusalem crickets: [http://www.calacademy.org/science\_now/archive/where\_in\_the\_world/jerusalem\_crickets.html](http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/archive/where_in_the_world/jerusalem_crickets.html) And don’t get me started on the gerbil sized grasshoppers I used to see in Florida. I’ll spare you pictures of them. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/33 "2003-03-03T23:01:23Z")
June bugs. Any other type of bug, I can step on or smash with something but June bugs send me screeching out of the room. ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/34 "2003-03-03T23:01:47Z")
Don’t mind insects, but snails always freak me. Can’t even stand to look at closeup photos of the buggers. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/35 "2003-03-03T23:01:56Z")
I hate cockroaches more than anything else because of their capacity to breed rapidly, which means that if you see one in your house their are probably 5 zillion others that you don’t see. And the ones out here have an attitude. If you turn on your kitchen light at night, instead of running away they just look at you like you have no business being in their kitchen. Black widows don’t worry me if they stay under rocks in the yard and mind their own business. The ones that try to come into the house in the winter get weeded out of the gene pool. As far as really creepy stuff goes, we have centipedes and scorpions along with bizarre but harmless critters such as windscorpions: [http://dine.sanjuan.k12.ut.us/heritage/land/animals/bugs/wind\_scorpion.htm](http://dine.sanjuan.k12.ut.us/heritage/land/animals/bugs/wind_scorpion.htm) whipscorpions: [http://www.americanarachnology.org/HiResGallery/mastigoproctus.html](http://www.americanarachnology.org/HiResGallery/mastigoproctus.html) and Jerusalem crickets: [http://www.calacademy.org/science\_now/archive/where\_in\_the\_world/jerusalem\_crickets.html](http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/archive/where_in_the_world/jerusalem_crickets.html) And don’t get me started on the gerbil sized grasshoppers I used to see in Florida. I’ll spare you pictures of them. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/36 "2003-03-03T23:09:24Z")
Sorry for the double post. More hamster weirdness I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/37 "2003-03-03T23:33:17Z")
I’m pretty bug tolerant, and I never kill spiders. Really large bugs do gross me out, and I don’t like anything that bites or eats my food. I second many of the votes here re: cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes, etc. I once saw a cockroach that was, no kidding, 3" long in a movie theatre, and I had nightmares. But I can’t believe no one has said silverfish. Those bastards run so fast that it’s really hard to kill them, they eat books, and they look like devil spawn. I’m getting the heebie jeebies just thinking about them. [http://www.museums.org.za/bio/insects/fishmoths/](http://www.museums.org.za/bio/insects/fishmoths/) PS–Found out that there actually is a bug called the pissant! And here I thought it was just an insult. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/38 "2003-03-03T23:38:17Z")
I’m pretty bug tolerant, and I never kill spiders. Really large bugs do gross me out, and I don’t like anything that bites or eats my food. I second many of the votes here re: cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes, etc. I once saw a cockroach that was, no kidding, 3" long in a movie theatre, and I had nightmares. But I can’t believe no one has said silverfish. Those bastards run so fast that it’s really hard to kill them, they eat books, and they look like devil spawn. I’m getting the heebie jeebies just thinking about them. [http://www.museums.org.za/bio/insects/fishmoths/](http://www.museums.org.za/bio/insects/fishmoths/) PS–Found out that there actually is a bug called the pissant! And here I thought it was just an insult. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/39 "2003-03-03T23:41:07Z")
I don’t know why that double posted. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Glassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Glassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glassy)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731/40 "2003-03-04T00:05:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dolores Claiborne \* > \*\*Roaches, bar none. And I’m not talking about the itty-bitty ones. I’m talking about the giant tree roaches, or water bugs, we get down here on the Gulf Coast. They are about two inches long, have nasty hooky things on their legs…AND THEY FLY!!! You can step on them, hear them crunch, and they will still get up and try to run away. Thank God for Bengal Roach Spray… > > :: shuddering uncontrollably:: \*\* Check. Palmetto bugs, they’re called - Volkswagon-sized cockroaches with wings. I went into my Florida dorm room and saw one wrapped around my tube of toothpaste, sucking out the minty goodness. I shrieked like a two-year-old and it took to the air, where it bumbled around in a horrifying manner and knocked against the mirror (clack, clack) while I fled in panic. Nightmares. That gets my vote. I think preying mantises are cool. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-bugs-are-the-ickiest-to-you/158731.md?page=3)