Four reasons we hate (but respect) roaches

It is a rare human that doesn’t get the heebie-jeebies when faced with a cockroach - like this dude who sleeps with 200,000 of them and this guy who gorges his hissing little pets on apple slices, then serves it up for a pretty penny.

These oddballs are exceptions, though. The general population goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid encountering these damnable critters; and if encountered, won’t rest until they’re reduced to a puff of allergenic dust or a grease spot.

This dramatic abhorrence would be justified if you had an inch-long roach crawl into your ear - like one unfortunate man in Australia recently - and it had to be surgically removed after efforts to suck it out with a vacuum cleaner failed.  Or if like one former Olympian, you had one crawl so far up your nose it had to come out through your mouth.

For most of us though, encounters with these winged invertebrates are not nearly as traumatic. So what have roaches done to earn them this collective hate?

We asked the question to a few roach phobes.

Why do you hate cockroaches so much?
 
Phobia: I hate their alien-looking legs. And that they have so many of them.
– Joan Chiam, Financial Analyst

Fun fact: Well Joan, they actually only have three pairs. But when running at top speed - a freakish 27 steps and 50 body lengths per second - it certainly seems like they have a hundred. All six units work seamlessly together to make sure they can propel themselves at terrifying speeds over all manner of uneven terrain, up walls, across ceilings, and of course, up your exposed limbs. 

And here’s another bit of juicy roach trivia – when sprinting, roaches can rear their ugly bodies up and run on their two back legs. Now that’s a truly awful sight to have hurtling towards you.

Phobia: They have this nauseating smell that causes my face to twist involuntarily
– Adeline Eng, Talent and Change Management Consultant.

Fun fact: You may think roaches stink so bad because they hang out in sewers all day, but the real reasons are much, much worse. The musky, oily smell pervading your nostrils are actually pheromones wafting from their poop and scent glands. The smell is gag-worthy to you and me, but roaches in heat find it incredibly sexy. With each mated female producing 150 babies, you can be sure the colony is never short of roachlings.

More good news: roaches also spurt out pheromones when they find a particularly desirable piece of real estate that they’re keen to share with the rest of roachdom. It’s an invitation to aggregate.

Their smelliness doesn’t even stop after they’re dead. A study found that decomposing roach bodies release a unique ‘death stench’ to warn its brothers of lurking predators, viruses or poisons. 

Phobia: I hate their feelers.
- Jill Ling, Medical doctor

Fun fact: You may feel like the sole purpose of these hellish creatures’ antenna is to freak you out by virtue of being incredibly gross, but they’re also used to taste, smell and feel things with deadly accuracy. During flights to freedom, scientists found that roaches whose antenna had been chopped off didn’t quite know what to do with obstacles, choosing to ram repeatedly into them rather than climb over.

Their feelers are impressively adapted to their job. Each has 140 segments, densely packed with sensitive hairs, and five muscles to make sure they twitch just right. These vain pots spend a great deal of time grooming their antenna to keep them in perfect working order.

Phobia: It’s the hair on their legs. They’re disgusting.
- Justin Lim, University student

Fun fact: Hairy legs may be hot on your boyfriend, but on a cockroach, they’re decidedly unsexy.  If you’ve ever tried to shake a roach off your clothes, or felt its legs on your skin, you’ll realize these hairs are far from soft and silky. They’re rigid, prickly and can grip the hell on to any surface they fancy. Each hair is precisely engineered to provide optimal traction for negotiating tight escape routes.

Roaches have two special spines on their butt called cerci which are also covered with hairs. These can detect the tiniest puffs of wind, enabling them to scamper merrily away from threats, eg a rolled up newspaper.

They even have specially evolved hairs on their back legs act that as grappling hooks, allowing them to flip their ugly bodies under a ledge and continue running upside down without breaking a stride.