Extreme fear of cockroaches - a case report

[Natalia]

Today I went to the bathroom and, I don't know from what planet it came, but a giant cockroach tried to climb my legs!

I standed up with my heart wanting to go out from my mouth, tried to run but the door was locked. I screamed in despair, unlocked it and runned from the bathroom as fast as I could while screaming even more! As my pants and panties  were still down, I ended falling on the floor right after the bathroom and I freaked out, imagining the cockroach following me! I almost died.

Then I tried to stand up and came back to the bathroom door half naked...there I spent almost an entire bottle of insect killer, closed and LOCKED the door (I hope the cockroach can't open it!)

Now I am trying to gather courage to open the door and search for the monster...but I am disgusted to think that I'll have to catch it and trow it away somewhere. eeeeew

I always feared cockroachs, but I think HRT made things worse.

If I was still trying to be a man I would be very ashamed of it, but now I am feeling quite proud of my behavior LOL

Anyone else here would react as I did or would you run after the big monster and kill it only with your bare fists?

(I don't know if I posted this on the right place but AAARGH sounds like my reaction after the cockroach, so...)

[Jamie D]

Was it this big?



Did it hiss at you?

Hehehehehehe

[Miss_Bungle1991]

I don't have a fear of them...just EXTREME revulsion of them. I can't even look at a picture of one. It's that intense. The couple of times that I found one in my apartment (they always came from somewhere else. I NEVER attracted those disgusting things....EVER!) I freaked out, screaming "DIE!!" and I killed that revolting insect.

Seriously...I DESPISE those disgusting things.

[Natalia]

Was it this big?

Did it hiss at you?

Hehehehehehe

eeeew it was half this size, but still huge! There is no small cockroach.

I don't have a fear of them...just EXTREME revulsion of them. I can't even look at a picture of one. It's that intense. The couple of times that I found one in my apartment (they always came from somewhere else. I NEVER attracted those disgusting things....EVER!) I freaked out, screaming "DIE!!" and I killed that revolting insect.

Seriously...I DESPISE those disgusting things.

I think I only could try to kill it if I was very well geared, totally covered and with none of my body exposed to the enviroment so the cockroach couldn't touch me.


Finally I gathered enough courage and went in the bathroom searching for the monster from outer space, but it was gone.

I searched for the cockroach very carefully and silently. I couldn't hear anything...

The worse part of finding a cockroach in your bathroom is not being able to recover the corpse after nuking the bathroom with tons of insect killer.

I don't know if it left the bathroom by the window or if it is still there, hiding somewhere, waiting for the moment I am unaware to attack me and eat my brain!

I am seriously thinking on locking the bathroom forever. It is too dangerous for anyone in sane mind.

Just kidding, of course, but I am really fearful of the dammed cockroach still being on the bathroom! I just hate those insects!

[musicofthenight]

A full-grown female American 'roach tips the scales at all of 1800mg.  Not to guess your weight specifically, but perhaps 60,000,000 mg for an adult human, just as a ballpark figure.

60,000,000
------------
  1800

Uh, no, I'd not say fear is something to be proud of.  They don't even have venom.  You outweigh it tens of thousands to one!

(I will however admit that they way they move gives me the shivering creeps.)

[Lo]

When you live in a crappy NYC apartment, you sort of get used to all sorts of weird creepy-crawlies...

But no, I'm not scared of stuff that can't hurt me much. Once I realized that it wasn't fear that was keeping me from killing bugs so much as the ick and pity factor, I started doing catch and release a lot more often.

Human hair is a lot grosser than roaches anyways.

[DriftingCrow]

While I don't scream (because I try to be a manly man  ) I do run away and come back with some spray and a broom.

In FL, they used to crawl out of the vents of my apartment and crawl on the ceiling above my bed. A flying one also entered the apartment once!  That was scary.

Even though I am now roac h free, I still wear shoes in the kitchen because I still fear them crawling out from under the oven while I am cooking.

[Miss_Bungle1991]

While I don't scream (because I try to be a manly man  ) I do run away and come back with some spray and a broom.

In FL, they used to crawl out of the vents of my apartment and crawl on the ceiling above my bed. A flying one also entered the apartment once!  That was scary.

Even though I am now roac h free, I still wear shoes in the kitchen because I still fear them crawling out from under the oven while I am cooking.

I've heard about those flying ones. That sounds freaky.

Even though this isn't about roaches, I wanted to mention this:

There is one guy I know and he has this really intense fear of spiders. It is so bad that one night we saw one in the garage and it was huge. I have no idea what kind it was, but I had never seen one that size around here before. Well, once this guy saw that spider he freaked out, got in his car and SPLIT! over a frickin SPIDER!!

The other thing your post reminded me of was when one of my cousins lived in one of the older houses around here. His house had a basement and I would sleep down there when I would spend the night partying and all that. They would have these slugs that would make their way inside. Big, green slimy ones. The area where the couch was had a bit of a low ceiling so, I would wake up and find these things crawling directly above my head. All I could think was: "Oh, GOD!! I hope these things weren't crawling on me as I slept!"