Wherever it goes, terror follows. Why does this little creature invoke such fear in so many of us?

11 years ago*

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Because it is small and fast. It can go through the smallest of holes. It lives under your bed.

11 years ago
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and and and... sometimes it may fly!!!! AHHHHH!!!

11 years ago
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OH, THE TERROR!!!

11 years ago
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I hate the part where they can freaking fly around.

11 years ago
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There's nothing under my bed!...hopefully.

11 years ago
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That remembers me one time that I woke up in the middle of night hearing a loud plastic sound in my ear, I was a kid and woke my mom to take a look, she looked and removed a live cockroache from my ear. From that day on, I always wash my ears....

10 years ago
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Oh dear. I'm glad that didn't happen to me.

10 years ago
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Because they persist, always. We know, deep in our hearts and minds, that we will lose out to them.

11 years ago
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We need to get in to negotiations with the cockroaches so they may train us in their survival techniques and their body armour technology! That we may survive in the nuclear wasteland after the next World War just like they will!

11 years ago
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What do we give in return?

11 years ago
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Poop? They kinda like it...

11 years ago
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Meh, fruitflies are better at surviving heavy radiations...

10 years ago
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Actually remove heat and they die.

They cant stand the cold.

They only moved north with the advent of indoor heating.

10 years ago
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Umm, remove the heat and WE die.

10 years ago
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Not that level of cold, low level winter cold.

10 years ago
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Why? Because they are fearless motherfuckers who don't give a shit if they get killed as long as they get close to you so you shit on your pants.
Their whole purpose is to break our balls just by sticking around.

11 years ago
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And when it comes to the killing part you have to think twice before stepping on them because you don't want roach splatter all over your new snickers (not to mention the eggs... uhhh...). So you spray poison everywhere which is probably more toxic to you than them since they've built up some resistance... And then you have to pick them up to get rid of their corpse... When they're lying on their back... and you get close... that's when they start moving...

11 years ago
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Many times I lost count of how many times I smashed them before throwing them to the WC.

11 years ago
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Because you are taught to do so. But I am immune to such silly teachings. I am the one who frightens cockroaches!

11 years ago
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Russian ?

11 years ago
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No Greek, but I was born in the USSR. Are Russians particularly unfazed by cockroaches? Also mister, I am mad scientist. It's so cool! Sonofabitch!

11 years ago
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a lot of people say russians are the most badass and unfrigthened white people on earth, cause just look at them, bald, tall, strong, and have that unemotional accent, its terrifying.

11 years ago
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xD

11 years ago
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Well, I might not be a Russian, or bald, or tall, or very muscular but trust me, I can be badass, it is very difficult to scare me, my accent can often be devoid of emotion and I can be eeriengly terrifying at times. My dog can testify.

10 years ago
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I am positive Noctis149 was just referring to the meme, what twisted said is prolly wrong.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-soviet-russia

10 years ago
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From what I could find on the subject in the last ten minutes, you're probably right on the money: fear of cockroaches in humans seems to be utterly culturally based (I would source this, but I can't be arsed to).

11 years ago
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Actually that's not entirely true and it's not just cockroaches. Some "repulsion" towards certain animals, and likewise, some "fondness" of others can have a genetic basis, because these attitudes can be advantageous. For example, a fear of snakes will make you avoid a possibly venomous bite. This has been documented in various animals, think of it as instinct. The same is true for reactions toward the "appearance" of illness in other members of the same species, eg human to human. That is also one of the causes of the uncanny valley.

However, just because there may be a genetic influence to such behaviors doesn't mean that the cultural influence should be underestimated. A lot of the time the latter is far more important and possibly even the only influence. Just think of how you are taught to fear certain things from an early age. At that point you are very susceptible to such suggestions and may accept and cling on to them for the rest of your life without ever questioning why and how this came to be the case. This has implications for more things about culture but let's not get out of topic. This is how you get ridiculous reactions to mice or cockroaches that are far from universal among different cultures.

tldr; some fondness or aversion can be genetically influenced but a lot of it is taught.

11 years ago
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I completely agree. I read somewhere that the reason why the "itch" sensation is being interpreted as an annoying feeling by our brain is that we always needed to understand the presence of a dirty, possibly venomous insect on our skin, and avoid them.

11 years ago
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Yeah, I'm aware of all of that. I was referring strictly to cockroaches, based on the only paper I could find on the subject at a moment's notice. Of course a fear/flight response when faced with potentially dangerous animals is advantageous and would be positively selected, for obvious reasons. :)

11 years ago
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and what about spiders?... you know, big spiders. australian lvl spiders.

11 years ago
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Same thing.

11 years ago
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when I see a spider depending on its size I kill it in a different way,if its small I kill it with paper if its big I use my slippers :D

11 years ago
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For every task, there is a perfect tool.

11 years ago
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for the australian lvl ones we do use a shotgun, or just throw a molotov.

11 years ago
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Considering all the other things that crawl around in that little island, I think nuking it into oblivion would be the way to go. No offense. Unfortunately that would still not take care of the most dangerous animal on this planet. They are all over the place!

10 years ago
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No need to nuke. We've got things under control down here. The danger level of the wildlife has been greatly exaggerated in an attempt to keep Americans from visiting. ;)

10 years ago
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Wildlife to the rescue!

10 years ago
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because they are the living symbol of filth. Living inside the actual outlets, living in food heaters that u would find above deli food in filthy delis. Turn the heater dial and coakroach crumbs come out.

11 years ago
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Found 99.99999% of time in the poor apartment buildings in each room that is not new. Once saw a floor redone, due to fire and its cockroach free compared to other roach infested floors.

fucking hate roaches, they are an infestation ~

11 years ago
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In soviet russia, cockroach fear you!

11 years ago
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lulz

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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lol

11 years ago
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  • awiens
11 years ago
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Because they can eat you while you sleep.

11 years ago
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Mmm, they are not.

11 years ago
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They live in your house without paying rent.

11 years ago
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hehe, nice one

11 years ago
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Because they are the incarnation of our sins and regrets.

11 years ago
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Because you're scared from them, why else?

11 years ago
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Adopt one of those roaches as your pet; it'll probably help you get rid of your fears. Name him Roachie, make a home for him out of something, show him your caress, feed him, love him. And then go kill the others.

11 years ago
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Because.

11 years ago
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They're not frightening, they're so freaking gross I'd move house if I found one here.
Anyway there recently was a similar argument on reddit here.

11 years ago
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Because they are made of cocks? Ba dum tss + ban hammer incoming

11 years ago
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Small, super fast, brown, long antenna, can get into your pants and crawl on your legs and get to your crotch. The only thing more horrible than a cockroach is a flying cockroach.

11 years ago
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Because they can survive the end of the world.

11 years ago
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Because it always knows what you delete from your browser history.

11 years ago
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It has the word cock in it.. anyway they just look scary crawling around and stuff.

11 years ago
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The common cockroach is colored like dung, feeds on dung, poops dung when frightened, and likes to fly into your mouth. It may also remind you of your ex.

11 years ago
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I chuckled, not gonna lie.

11 years ago
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=kILLNcWx78Q (clicky wldnt work for soem reason) cant stop laughin xD and when i was in sri lanka, there were tons of roaches in our house, dad sprays em and i chuck em out >.>" not to scary

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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EEEWWWWWWWWW!

11 years ago
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You went to Sri Lanka? Me to I went for a month. The cockroaches aren't the problem, it's the damn mosquioes, they're HUGE over there.

11 years ago
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true true... btu i was born there is im used to it, australia is dam great cos no roaches or mosquitos around where i live xD

11 years ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

11 years ago
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+1 My thoughts exactly. It's even worse when they fly.

11 years ago
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I've never even seen one in my country (UK), although I hear there's plenty in restaurants.
I have seen some when I've gone abroad, but they were only small and scuttled away when I was in the room.

11 years ago
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Never seen one? How? Wow, you're lucky :D YOu must have something to compensate. You got spiders over there or something?

11 years ago
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I've seen them, just not in the UK, but they DO exist here. We have plenty of spiders, but mostly tiny little ones. We're quite lucky in the UK when it comes to animals as we have very little that is really dangerous (although you really do not want to be assaulted by a badger!)

11 years ago
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Closed 10 years ago by xKomachi.