I am pathetic!

[baratron]

I just went to the bathroom, and on the way, saw a beetle.

irc log from #soc.bi:
astra:      ewww, there is a beetle in our house. it is a long, narrow beetle, about 2cm long x 0.7cm wide. it is black. it has 6 legs, like all beetles, which finish fairly far up its body.
astra:      do i need to panic? :D
HoopyCat:   i bet it's crunchy and yummy
RedWine:    astra: dunno. do you have any pets smaller than the beetle?
astra:      richard was talking about seeing a beetle shaped like that in the street yesterday, and he thought it was a cockroach - that's why i'm now panicking a bit
astra:      but, uh, it doesn't look like the cockroaches in the sims or in animal crossing, so i'm guessing it probably isn't
RedWine:     roaches are brown.
RedWine:    at least, all the roaches I've seen are brown.
Otterylexa: astra: cockroaches are quite variable.
astra:      yeah - in the games, they are brown, and they have long whip-like antennae that come out of their heads and go for most of the length of their bodies
astra:      ewww, so it might be a cockroach? eeek!
Otterylexa: I wouldn't worry if it's an isolated incident, but if they become common, that might be a problem
astra:      i'm not amazingly bug-phobic, but i just prefer not to have them in the house
SamBC:      panicking isn't a good way to deal with roaches
SamBC:      it might not be a cockroach, anyway
SamBC:      it just might be
astra:      (she says, having screamed at the caterpillar on the clothes horse the other day)
astra:      it was okay until i saw the legs. *then* it triggered my millipede/centipede phobia
* Rhialto found a cockroach in the toilets at work, recently.
Rhialto:    I reported it but there is still no signs of exterminators or even removal of the body.
astra:      i just went out with the camera to try to take a photo of it, but it's disappeared. so now, of course, i'm prowling around glaring at all the black fluff on the carpet, in case it moves

and from #cuppajoe:
Cherie:   I *don't* like bugs at all.
baratron: but, uh, it doesn't look like the cockroaches in the sims or in animal crossing, so i'm guessing it probably isn't
Cherie:   LOL
Cherie:   You can always google cockroach images....
Pegasys:  in our first house we had cockroaches but my hubby refused to believe that - he said "Oh, they're just waterbugs."
Cherie:   I did to find out how to get rid of some. Ewww
Pegasys:  http://asl.epfl.ch/research/projects/Leurre/Pictures/HQ/cockroach.jpg
baratron: google cockroach images?! you *have* to be joking!!
baratron: one of my friends posted a photo of _ladybird_ (ladybug) larvae yesterday, and i screamed at them!
Pegasys:  ewww
baratron: and adult ladybirds are adorable, and harmless, and useful
baratron: but their larvae are just... like bug larvae
baratron: icky
Pegasys:  well, they're bugs, right?

Comments

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Hehe, no. Like you say, that's a common black beetle, and I've seen enough of those.

The diagram was useful though, because it reminded me that just about every beetle I've ever seen has been, uh, (scrabbling for words) - basically the same shape as a ladybird, or an old-style Volkswagen Beetle. Oval. Even a stag beetle is basically the same shape as a ladybird, just a lot bigger and blacker and with the antler-like pincers on the top. This beetle wasn't oval at all - it was rectangular, with slightly rounded corners. Like the shape of a pallisade cell in diagrams of the leaf. I've never seen a rectangular beetle before.

I'm just amused by my own patheticness. I mean, honestly, I'm not particularly scared of arthropods, with the exception of the ones with too many legs or stings. So why did seeing a strange beetle trigger some sort of "oh my God, it must be something sinister, argh, d00m" feeling rather than curiosity? The only thing I can think of is that Richard mentioned seeing what he thought was a cockroach in the street the other day, so the thought of the house being invaded by such beasties was fresh in my mind. Or something.