Yes, I lived in fear of cockroaches for three years, but you’d think that after going EIGHT months without seeing one I’d calm down a bit. It’s not like an eight-legged creature (although really, I swear some of them had easily a dozen hairy, spiny legs) jumped out at my every time I opened a cupboard, but it happened enough that I learned to be on my guard.
Most of the time they were the smaller ones — less than an inch long — and I’d thwap them off the door with a hand towel. (Sanitary, right?) Then I’d scoot them off the back deck for the neighbors down below to deal with OR, if I was feeling adventurous, I’d smush it with my flip flop. Yum. But every now and then a behemoth would scurry across the edge of the cabinet, claiming it and everything in it as his own.
THAT’S why I still flinch.
Have you ever paid attention to the inside of a cupboard door? Most have a little metal thing near the edge that secures it when shut. Well that, my friends, is roughly the same size as the baby cockroaches, and that’s what makes me jump. Every time.
Maybe I need to start keeping everything on the counter?
Do you have an unreasonable fear of something that in actuality isn’t a threat?
Also, have you seen my new blog header?
Yeah.
In the first house we lived in, we had one cupboard that I would. Not. Open.
Ever.
The geckos lived there. And by geckos, I mean they had condos, a health spa, a sports club, restaurants, bars…
Ha!
The geckos never bothered me. Sure, they scared the bejeezus out of me more times than I could count, but it was more being startled. And once I cut the tail off the one in my sink I figured he deserved a place to live.
Ha ha! Yes, I open everything carefully … face away from the door, opened slowly so as not to scare anything that’s inside. And we have two brooms. One for sweeping the house; one for killing roaches. Thanks a lot, South Florida.
I’m so glad you understand. 🙂 Although I always flung the doors open violently because I wanted them to get OUT.
I didn’t have a special broom. Now I wish I did.
*shudders* No cockroaches in the camper, thank goodness!!!
Ants crawling on me while I sleep. Oh wait, that still happens. Not as much as summertime. Now there’s a nibbling sound at night, and I can’t wait to find out what that is.
It gives me a strange sense of satisfaction that someone else understands the ants now. Have you eaten any yet? 😛
The nibbling sounds would scare me half to death!
I don’t have to live in fear or roaches like you did, though we do have our share of bugs in the boonies where I live. I did kill about 15 flies yesterday and we fight ants every summer. But nope.
Most of my irrational fears have to do with locking the door before bed (Did I? Am I sure? Maybe I should check it again) and those weird noises in the house when I’m there alone.
I know I’ve given FB status updates on the creep-tastic noises in my house and may have even shared to story of the man who lived there before. Yes. He’s long-dead. But in the back of my mind, I’m always sure I’m going to run into him on the basement steps.
Flies drive me crazy! We were lucky to be on the 4th floor so we didn’t get many up there.
Locking the doors… yes, I’m compulsive about that as well. As for the ghosties, maybe you better call in Stacey.
I’d be the same way with the roaches!
I’m on the phone, so the mobile version shows your title and part if your elbow. Your elbow looks great!! 😉
It doesn’t scroll over? Well at least my elbow looks nice. 😛
Love the new header!!!
I lived in peace with a hoard of cockroaches when I did a semester at Northeastern Univ in college, and lived on the Fenway. I would just close my eyes when I went into the bathroom, so they would have time to scurry out of sight. Then I went back to Penn, saw a cockroach and freaked out. Jumped on a chair and screamed bloody murder. Go figure.
Robin, I’ve done the eye closed when you turn on the light thing. Not fun!
Those brown mutant crickets. I am irrationally, insanely grossed out by them. There was one downstairs tonight that the Architect tried to catch before I flipped out. It got away. I walked like there was a minefield in my living room until one of the kitties got it about an hour ago. God bless the kitties.
Love the header. You’re very photogenic.
You’re so lucky the kitties can catch them. Owen caught a couple cockroaches before I moved but part of me didn’t want him near them since they’re so nasty. Fortunately his presence kept most of them in hiding.
And thanks. 🙂
Spiders.
There are no dangerous spiders in the UK, and they’re tiny for the most part. Still, EEEEEEP!!!
Adam
EEEEEEEEEEP!
Eek! I hate roaches. Our current place doesn’t have the same roach problem our last place did, but we still get a few here and there. And I reached up to grab a towel the other day and one ran down my arm. I screamed (basically bloody murder) and when Matt found out it was only a cockroach, he got upset, saying that I freak out over nothing.
A cockroach running down my arm (from up high, towards my face) is definitely not nothing.
Gah! I’ve been in that exact same position. WHY don’t they understand that a cockroach coming into contact WITH YOUR BODY is a perfectly reasonable time to scream bloody murder?
Boys.
Seriously. *shakes head*
🙂