[ExI] bees again

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Dave Krieger
Subject: [ExI] bees again

Spike -- Aren't the following more likely reasons for why people like bees
more than cockroaches?

1) ... 2) ...  Dave

_____________________________________________

Thanks Dave, this is related to where I was going, but I can be more
specific.  I grew up in Florida where we have huge cockroaches.  We used to
call the Palmetto bugs, but they were everywhere, not just in the palmetto
bushes.  They can fly, sort of.  They usually don't but I knew they can: I
experimented with it as a child by hurling them into the air and watched
them.  Clumsy beasts are these.

Years went by.  I was at my tenth high school reunion, at a party at the
local park, a fine example of a warm sultry Florida evening.  There were
about a dozen of us sitting around talking and having a fine time when this
big something with a remarkably loud and low pitched buzz came hovering
towards us.  It was impossible to tell what it was.  I knew, but the others
didn't, and recall these were all kids who grew up in Florida.  So there we
sat, curiously watching this unidentified flying object, as it hovered in
and blapped against the wall.  It folded its wings, at which time we
instantly saw it was a big cockroach.  Several of the ladies shrieked in
terror and fled.  Everyone else evacuated, leaving me sitting there
wondering why the hell there was this terror response.

So sure, we don't like them in our homes.  But there is a definite terror
response to the cockroach that isn't seen for beetles which can be nearly as
big and ugly, isn't seen for butterflies which are actually bigger but just
as harmless as the cockroach.  My theory is that their antennae are large
enough to make them resemble a big brown spider.  But that really doesn't
explain why even dogs give cockroaches plenty of space.  That one has me
puzzled.  But many humans are terrified of the lowly beasts, even when not
particularly bothered by other insects.  Horseflies for instance, are
carnivorous and will put a hell of a bite on you to suck your blood.  Yet
people routinely slap them with their hands, no particular revulsion.  But
the same person who slaps at a horsefly will flee in terror from a
cockroach?  And wouldn't dream of picking up a roach in their hands?  Why?

Humans are weird.

spike