The struggle is real Steemians!

I saw this article pop up on my news feed:

This poor 61 year old woman crashed her car in Singapore as there was a cockroach in her car.

This got me thinking, ‘what would I have done if I were behind the wheel?’

I’m absolutely terrified of cockroaches, their horrid scent, the possibility that they can fly right at me, their hairy legs, everything about them disgusts me. Yuck!

Whilst what the woman did was extremely dangerous as she could have rammed some pedestrians, I empathise with her. I think I would’ve completely freaked out if a cockroach crawled by whilst I was behind the wheel.

Katsaridaphobia = fear of cockroaches

I’m terrified of these creatures as they never die. Ever. They’ve been around millions of years and whilst other creatures have died off, these little critters managed to survive through it all.

Worse was when I was in high school, a half-squashed roach proceeded to ‘army crawl’ towards my feet whilst pulling the rest of its body and guts along with it. That deep-settled memory has instilled fear in me every time I see any coackroach.

Do people even like cockroaches?

In Western culture we see roaches as pests and disease-ridden, dirty critters. I was surprised to find that:

• Some cultures eat cockroaches as a delicacy (Thailand, Burma, China, Mexico..)

• Cockroaches have been used in medicine. Either boiled and placed on wounds, crushed into medicine or eaten for various medicinal purposes such as ear aches, indigestion, help with heart, liver and stomach diseases

• They have been sent to space by Russian scientists

• Cockroaches have inspired robotics where researchers have built robot roaches to help with future disasters. Because of the way they move and their ability to get through tight spaces, these creatures have inspired potentially our future saviours.

None-the-less, these creatures still gives me the creeps.

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