Why do women absolutely hate cockroaches?

While some fears are inherent; I feel women are conditioned to fear more than men.

Be it thieves, murderers, molesters, psycho-stalkers or snakes, bears, wolves, or the pest in question — a cockroach.

Women are conditioned to fear and hide while men to face their fears and diminish them. Men are conditioned not to yell and flee the scene once they spot a roach, but stomp it with pride.

Another reason why Katsaridaphobia or more commonly the fear of cockroaches haunt women more than men is probably because — hygiene.

Women want to maintain hygiene

Women, again, because of years of conditioning tend to take up the hygiene of a household; as their sole responsibility.

So, when these creepy roaches come roaming with their dirty, spiky appendages it’s nothing less than a vital threat.

Here are some other brilliant reasons as to why both men and women might loathe cockroaches:

They are sneaky:

They don’t come with a warning; they most often creep up on you and leave scarring memories.

Once, I pooped with my legs hinged up the entire time, only because a roach was leisurely pacing right under my foot. (I’m sure it had many life goals to worry about)

I was traumatized that it would pounce on me, I didn’t mind the other-wise numbing pain in the legs.

There was another incident, I distinctly remember from childhood.

I was innocently lined up in the front row of my dance class. As you may know, Bengali kids have to enroll in every possible artistic hobby, whether they like it or not.

Suddenly something slid into my freshly starched pajamas. At first, it felt like a breeze, but soon enough, I was shrieking and slapping myself all over.

Those spiky appendages running amuck on my skin brought out the squealer in me.

The harrowing incident had me sent home with my pajamas in my hand, thank God I was still a child.

Although it happened only for a few seconds, it left a permanent scar on my mind.

Havoc spreaders

More than diseases, (Mosquitoes and rats are far more dangerous disease-wise) roaches spread havoc.

I’ll explain.

While in college, my boyfriend and I decided to get serious, I put my foot down basically.

We liked to spend a lot of time bunking classes at the canteen.

Once, we went overboard and decided to share a sandwich; like bite into it together at the same time.

While he got cucumber and cheese, I got cucumber, cheese, and cockroach.

The sheer horror of having bitten into something as vile, made me almost break down into tears.

So, as you can see, there are many reasons why we/I hate this specific breed of pests so much.

Pest control in Kolkata is always a challenge and I hope we get some respite soon.

Although there were many other horror stories to be shared, this certainly made for the choicest ones.