# Cockroaches



## bikerchicspain (Jun 18, 2011)

Ok so i have this terrible fear of cockroaches, At work they find it funny because i will handle every animal and insect going,

But i see a roach and i run and stand as far away as possible ready to run again if need be. My heart speeds up and i get panic attacks if i see a live one, i cross the street if there is a dead one on the same walkway as me.

Does anyone else have a fear of something?:shy:


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## John (Jun 18, 2011)

I have an uncontrllable fear of tortoises.


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## dmmj (Jun 18, 2011)

Talking on the phone, either landline or cell. and if you have a fear of cockroaches don't ever visit toms place he raises them for food (for his animals).


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## Yvonne G (Jun 18, 2011)

Hm-m-m. That's a good question. I don't believe I have an actual "fear" of anything. I don't LIKE a lot of things, though. Water in my face is one of those. And, like David, I absolutely HATE talking on the phone.


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## October (Jun 18, 2011)

Coulrophobia- Fear of clowns


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## bikerchicspain (Jun 19, 2011)

squamata said:


> I have an uncontrllable fear of tortoises.



There is always one, and it had to be you.


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## John (Jun 19, 2011)

bikerchicspain said:


> squamata said:
> 
> 
> > I have an uncontrllable fear of tortoises.
> ...


Its always me.....Haven't ya ever heard all the little johnny jokes, I'm the guy they were talkin about.


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## bikerchicspain (Jun 19, 2011)

I have heard of people with a fear of clowns,
Unfortunately it's no laughing matter,

We get a lot of roaches here in Spain and to me they look like the size of rats..


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## GeoTerraTestudo (Jun 19, 2011)

dmmj said:


> Talking on the phone, either landline or cell. and if you have a fear of cockroaches don't ever visit toms place he raises them for food (for his animals).



That's amazing. I thought roaches tasted bad, and that few animals could eat them. Maybe this is different for some reason.

Anyway, to answer the question in this thread, I don't have any phobias. However, despite being an animal lover, there are a few animals, namely arthropods, that I don't like and would never keep as pets:

- Tarantulas
- Scorpions
- Malagasy hissing cockroaches

I really don't understand why some people keep bugs as pets. I could never do that. I once kept a freshwater crayfish in an aquarium with minnows, but I released him again after a few days. He was interesting, but I am really not a big fan of arthropods. I also don't eat shrimp, lobster, or crab; they just look like big, aquatic bugs to me. I can appreciate arthropods for their important role in nature, but I am definitely not into them.

I would never keep venomous snakes as pets, either, but not because they are creepy, only because they are deadly dangerous!


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## Stazz (Jun 19, 2011)

Hahaha I love this thread. Just because i don't have Tallula or a tort anymore doesnt mean i wont chime in here and there 
I have a massive fear of most flying bugs, including cockroaches. We get teeny ones here in Dubai, but my little pug, Leia the grub eats them, so Im all good. If I squeal and point, she goes charging for it. Lucky me !

My biggest fear is being in the dark on my own. I cannot have a bed with a big gap underneath, it has to be a gap small enough for a person not to be able to crawl under ! And no, no the boogyman!! A person!


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## Tom (Jun 19, 2011)

I have an irrational fear of being alone in water, even a pool. I just won't do it. Yet I'm advance scuba certified and even love night dives. I'll be the SECOND person off the boat, just not the first.

I used to be squeamish of cockroaches when I was a kid, but through gradual desensitization, I FORCED myself to get over my irrational fear of a harmless insect. The species at my childhood home was Blatta orientalis. I now have a captive colony of them and feed them to my beardies, tarantulas and other insectivores. 

Stazz, Aren't dogs just the best thing ever? My little Jack Russel takes care of pest ground squirrels and rabbits for me the same way. I just point and say "get 'em", the same way as you. Come to think of it, my Malinois and Dutch Shepards do the same thing with "pesky" humans.  I LOVE dogs.

GTT, we finally stumbled onto an area of ignorance for you. I was starting to doubt that would ever happen. (I mean this in a fun, friendly way. )

John, you've ruined my perceptions. I always thought the "little Johnny" jokes were thinly veiled jabs at ME.

So Yvonne (BCS), I suppose that means you sending me a local roach pic for an ID is out of the question then, huh?


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## October (Jun 19, 2011)

Roaches give me the willies for sure, but we have so many of those German outdoor (I think) roaches here that we've just gotten used to them and now step on them barefooted (Sorry Tom). Watering my composter disturbs them and so many come pouring out that I do have to walk away or I'll be certain they're crawling all over me. Ick!


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## Maggie Cummings (Jun 19, 2011)

GeoTerraTestudo said:


> dmmj said:
> 
> 
> > Talking on the phone, either landline or cell. and if you have a fear of cockroaches don't ever visit toms place he raises them for food (for his animals).
> ...




Tom has a picture of his daughter about 3 years old I think at the time with a gigantic cockroach on her chest! it blew me out...They creep me out yet here is this little girl with one on her...Post it again would you Tom?


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## wrmitchell22 (Jun 19, 2011)

I do not like cockroaches at all! I never saw one until I was about 29 and was raised thinking only dirty houses have them, I now know that is not true it has a lot to do with the climate you live in. We get them in our garage and had them at my old house. But growing up in CT I never saw them. To answer the question I have an irrational fear of drowning, I panic very easily in water and don't like people to be around me when I am in water. I will not play on water slides or anything like that. I don't think water is for playing! My husband thinks I am crazy 



wrmitchell22 said:


> I do not like cockroaches at all! I never saw one until I was about 29 and was raised thinking only dirty houses have them, I now know that is not true it has a lot to do with the climate you live in. We get them in our garage and had them at my old house. But growing up in CT I never saw them. To answer the question I have an irrational fear of drowning, I panic very easily in water and don't like people to be around me when I am in water. I will not play on water slides or anything like that. I don't think water is for playing! My husband thinks I am crazy



Strangely enough I love the beach, I just don't go very far into the water, lol!


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## Tom (Jun 19, 2011)




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## wrmitchell22 (Jun 19, 2011)

Tom said:


>



EEEEWWWW


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## Tom (Jun 19, 2011)

{Scarface, Al Pacino voice} "Say hello to Archimandrita tesselata!"


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## wrmitchell22 (Jun 19, 2011)

Tom said:


> {Scarface, Al Pacino voice} "Say hello to Archimandrita tesselata!"



LOL, doesn't really roll off the tongue very easily though does it


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## Tom (Jun 19, 2011)

You just need to practice it a few hundred times. I'll bet you're going to get right on that, huh?


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## GeoTerraTestudo (Jun 19, 2011)

wrmitchell22 said:


> Tom said:
> 
> 
> > {Scarface, Al Pacino voice} "Say hello to Archimandrita tesselata!"
> ...



Let's not talk about cockroaches and tongues in the same thread, okay? 






Tom said:


> GTT, we finally stumbled onto an area of ignorance for you. I was starting to doubt that would ever happen. (I mean this in a fun, friendly way. )



Yep, I'm quite perplexed. Do you guys think they're cute or handsome or something? Because to me, they just look creepy. As for that picture of your daughter with a bug on her, let me just say, you would never catch me doing that. My wife and I recently went on vacation, and my wife actually volunteered to let the tour guide put a whiptail scorpion on her cheek. They're harmless to people, and my wife was fine with it, but again, despite the fact that I love to muck about in nature, you would never catch me doing that.


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## Mao Senpai (Jun 19, 2011)

I.. have a fear of almost all bugs. I just flat out do not like them. The other night I saw a spider dash across the carpet and scared me so bad I was up on a chair since I had no idea what the heck it was


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## dmmj (Jun 19, 2011)

Geo you must be quite the contradiction loves to muck in nature but hates bugs?


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## wrmitchell22 (Jun 19, 2011)

GeoTerraTestudo said:


> wrmitchell22 said:
> 
> 
> > Tom said:
> ...





My mom put a boa constrictor on me when I was 5 at a reptile show, lol! I still always volunteer to hold anything that any zoo or museum has


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## GeoTerraTestudo (Jun 19, 2011)

dmmj said:


> Geo you must be quite the contradiction loves to muck in nature but hates bugs?



Yeah, it is kind of a contradiction, isn't it? Well, I don't have a phobia of them, and when I find a spider in the house I usually leave it alone, since I realize it is probably doing me a favor by eating insects. Mosquitoes, however, are a bother and potentially dangerous, as are venomous bugs like tarantulas and scorpions. Bees and butterflies are kind of neat, but I'm still not fascinated by them the way I am by vertebrates. So I don't hate bugs, but I don't really like them, either.

Still, I guess it is kind of funny that to my mind, it's fun to play with fish, frogs, reptiles, birds, and mammals, but not bugs. Oh well. I guess contradictions are part of the human experience.


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jun 20, 2011)

Can't think any creature that I've a phobia of, but my wife's terror of spiders and lizards, my daughter's fear of centipedes and my son's fear of high winds keeps things plenty exciting.

My only real fear is the IRS...


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## dmarcus (Jun 20, 2011)

Terry Allan Hall said:


> My only real fear is the IRS...



I guess they can be look at as pest...


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## Fernando (Jun 20, 2011)

You won't catch me near spiders...


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## dmmj (Jun 20, 2011)

dalano73 said:


> Terry Allan Hall said:
> 
> 
> > My only real fear is the IRS...
> ...


I don't think common spray will work on them though. Remember the I.R.S has plans to collect taxes after a nuclear war, just like cockroaches they will survive


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jun 20, 2011)

dalano73 said:


> Terry Allan Hall said:
> 
> 
> > My only real fear is the IRS...
> ...



Can they be looked upon as anything else? 



dmmj said:


> I don't think common spray will work on them though. Remember the I.R.S has plans to collect taxes after a nuclear war, just like cockroaches they will survive



Flame-thrower?


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## Tom (Jun 20, 2011)

Terry Allan Hall said:


> dalano73 said:
> 
> 
> > Terry Allan Hall said:
> ...



Flame throwers won't work on the IRS pests. They use the money we give them to buy flame proof suits.


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## GeoTerraTestudo (Jun 20, 2011)

Yeah, the IRS is a very dangerous pest all right. Very tricky to get rid of. I think they can smell fear.


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jun 20, 2011)

Tom said:


> Terry Allan Hall said:
> 
> 
> > Can they be looked upon as anything else?
> ...





GeoTerraTestudo said:


> Yeah, the IRS is a very dangerous pest all right. Very tricky to get rid of. I think they can smell fear.




Alternative (admittedly messy) idea:





Naturally, it's a Texan solution...


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## dmmj (Jun 20, 2011)

Looks like we have gone a little off topic LOL back to the thread I am also afraid of dying but not death, it is hard sometimes for people to differentiate between the two.


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## Jacqui (Jun 20, 2011)

I have several fears, what can I say, I am just an old scaredy cat. I am afraid of snakes, but have worked on that, so now I am okay with ball pythons and also snakes handed to me. Just something to do with reaching into a box/tank and catching one that still bothers me. Still don't like to come uon them without warning outside.

I have a thing with roaches, but since I want to start trying to feed them to my tortoises, I need to work on that.


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## Angi (Jun 20, 2011)

I had a horrible fear of snakes from the time I was really little until about five years ago. My grandma would freak out every time she saw a snake on TV and basicly brain washed my sister, dad, uncle and I to hate them. I used to have nightmares about them and would panic,scream and cry if I saw someone with one. I could not even go to pet stores. It was awful. Ten years ago I moved to a place that is full of snakes. I had to get over my fear. They were in my yard. I still don't like to see captive snakes, it is creepy to me but I enjoy seeing them in their natural habitat. I don't want a pet snake, but I feel that I have over come an unreasonable phobia that had haunted me for nearly 40 years. Roaches creep me out, and I have to say I am not fond of clowns. Another fear I have is being really poor. I was as a kid and the idea of not being able to pay my electric bill or having to sign my kids up for free lunch scares me. I know they don't humiliate kids anymore like they did when I was a kid but still.....


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## Cameron (Jun 21, 2011)

I can't think of anything that I'm scared of, much less any animals. I keep and breed roaches also, as well as tarantulas, scorpions and snakes (including venomous). I used to be scared of heights, but then one day I said "this is stupid, just get over it." and I did. Since then, I have had no issues with it.


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## Stazz (Jun 22, 2011)

Hahaha before dogs I had my husband to do it all for me, but he's not the hugest of roach fans either, he just acts big and scary hahaha meanwhile he's a softy! The pugs go insane for any bugs, and I'm sure its not the healthiest for them to eat them, but rather they get some good ole prtein than me screaming and hiding!




Tom said:


> I have an irrational fear of being alone in water, even a pool. I just won't do it. Yet I'm advance scuba certified and even love night dives. I'll be the SECOND person off the boat, just not the first.
> 
> I used to be squeamish of cockroaches when I was a kid, but through gradual desensitization, I FORCED myself to get over my irrational fear of a harmless insect. The species at my childhood home was Blatta orientalis. I now have a captive colony of them and feed them to my beardies, tarantulas and other insectivores.
> 
> ...


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