General Question

Yellowdog's avatar

Gross for some question: Why do cockroaches and waterbugs have that satisfying pop or snap when you kill them?

Asked by Yellowdog (12216points) September 28th, 2019

I live and let live with most insects and even a few pests, like raccoons—unless something actually scares me or can breed out of control, as is the case with cockroaches, which can cause an infestation so devastating that you have to actually get rid of everything in your home that you can’t scrub clean of their spawn and poop

So I NEVER suffer a cockroach to live. I pull them rabbit-ear antennas off and squish them roaches ‘till they pop.

But what is that snap, or pop they make when squooshed? Other insects don’t snap or pop when stepped on.

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20 Answers

stanleybmanly's avatar

Exoskeleton. some insects have harder shells.

filmfann's avatar

They are natures pop-paper.
If they could breed them sterile, they would make wonderful packing foam.

kritiper's avatar

Exoskeletons. Like popping a paper bag once filled with air.

anniereborn's avatar

I hate that pop it makes me cringe. Same with June Bugs.Oh how I hate June Bugs.

snowberry's avatar

The idea of it being “satisfying” to squish a bug until it pops is absolutely not true for me, because once they’re dead, then I have to clean the mess off of the floor and my shoe! Ick, ick, ick. Do you find that satisfying too?

Squashing them is usually the only nontoxic way to kill them. (Ugh)

stanleybmanly's avatar

Bubble wrap would be a damned sight less icky.

kritiper's avatar

The same satisfaction might be had by wearing tap shoes. Just sayin’ ...

MrGrimm888's avatar

I respect ALL life. Roaches, are just following their “program.”

It’s just what they do.

They have no capability, of hurting you. They are simply an inconvenience. I typically sweep them up, and throw them outside. It hurts my fellings, to kill them. I’ve read that they are unfortunately very hearty. If you crush them. The head lives, for like a week. It essentially starves, to death, while it’s body is wrecked by pain.

I’m not saying that I hate you, for killing them. But think about it. What if someone crushed you, and you had to lay there in immense pain, for a week, before you died.

It isn’t their fault, that they were born a roach, anymore than why you were a white human.

That “satisfying pop,” you get, is hurting a life.

I live in Charleston, SC. The damn things, are everywhere. So. I totally understand dealing with them. But. I implore you, to think about the pain, and suffering , you bring on your “God’s” creatures. I catch them in cups, or sweep them out. The world, is full of misery. Why contribute?

Your have a good heart @Yellowdog . Give some mercy, to these things…

Peace n love.

Yellowdog's avatar

Well, I DO make sure they’re dead. I don’t know where this lying around comes from.

They can’t hurt you. But they will overtake your home, and will find them scurrying every time you move anything. They will destroy electronics and papers. and food.

I have befriended an apartment complex for the disabled, and cockroach infestations have been so bad that people have been evicted for being unable to keep the problem at bay, and others have had to get rid of everything in the apartment (clothes and all) except for the hard table and chairs.

Cockroaches, like rats and mice, spread disease and breed expodentially. and will destroy your home.

Mimishu1995's avatar

Pop or snap: I agree with the others that it’s their exoskeletons cracking.

Satisfying: As you see, not many people think it’s satisfying. Either you’re happy that they are no longer running around your house or you’re a sadist ~

I understand your sentiment toward those little devils destroying your home, but if it were me I wouldn’t find it “satisfying” to kill them. It’s like saying you feel satisfied killing an enemy’s soldier because they are invading your country. I don’t find joy in killing them, I just kill them out of necessity.

MrGrimm888's avatar

@Yellowdog . I have never lived I the southeast of the US, without having them everywhere. You are religious, correct?

These are God’s creatures. I personally hate them. And they are definitely invasive, but can’t you just capture them, in a cup, and throw them out?

When I moved in to my new place. They were everywhere. I used a few fogger insecticides, and some gell, in corners. The fuckers, can definitely get in to my house. But I try to take them outside. When I see them .

Have some understanding, that they are just like us . They are just doing what your “God,“created them to do.

I know that you owe me nothing . But please don’t just kill them…. They are simple. They can’t even back up. Use that big heart of yours, and put some effort into catching them, and putting them outside.

Killing, is wrong, unless you are eating them…

I know, it’s hard to catch some of them. But please try…

Peace n love

snowberry's avatar

@MrGrimm A friend of mine was a social worker. He had been working with a family who meant well, loved their kids, but they lacked the skills to run their home and care for the children. In a final last effort to allow the parents to keep the children, the social worker asked my team to come in and deep clean their home while he taught them parenting skills. (This was all volunteer by the way.)

Their house was so full of cockroaches that it would have been declared uninhabitable by the health department- if they had known. I went in with a team, and together we killed a few million roaches (not exaggerating)! It wasn’t satisfying. It was just really hard work! I tackled the worst room- the bathroom, and without store-bought bug killer. I knew the that borax kills cockroaches on contact, so I filled a 5 gallon bucket with warm water and dumped in a couple of cups of borax, and started mopping down the walls and ceiling with it.

We cleaned the whole house. It worked, and we filled dustpan after dustpan with dead roaches.

More often than not, it IS necessary to kill them. They breed too fast otherwise.

MrGrimm888's avatar

^I do not disagree with you. I just think killing things, anythings, is wrong…...

This is from an athiest…

Yellowdog's avatar

The “snap” means they’er dead and gone, No suffering. No oppression, No feelings hurt.

Be it cockroaches, termites, or lice, these creatures are complex enough to have a knowledge to survive and reproduce but that’s it. There is no suffering. And if you’ve ever dealt with an infestatiion, it IS satisfying to kill them.

Most Jewish and Christian sources just say to make it quick or painless and humane, to kill something.

snowberry's avatar

@MrGrimm888 by the way, are you also vegetarian, or vegan?

raum's avatar

The only pop I find satisfying is a flea or mosquito that’s bitten me. Seeing my own blood makes me feel avenged.

MrGrimm888's avatar

@snowberry . No. I’m not. That’s a logical assumption, given my responses. But no. Just like the roach, not asking to be born a roach, I didn’t ask to be born an omnivore.

I will say this though. I don’t fish with live bait anymore. It seems cruel. But I have been a terrible fisherman, since I made that change…

As you know, I am an atheist, but I do have a code of ethics…

Mimishu1995's avatar

@Yellowdog I think a lot of people here don’t have any problem with you killing bugs, violently or not. It’s the “satisfying” part that is questionable.

anniereborn's avatar

@MrGrimm888 How is putting live bait on a hook worse than what animals go through in slaughter houses?

MrGrimm888's avatar

^It’s not. But I’m personally impaling minnows, and crickets, with a hook. When I use I’ve bait.

I absolutely hate, what animals go through, At process plants. But , I have to pick my hills to die on. I know they are tortured. But. I can’t define my life, by every injustice, to others. I am fully aware of the bad things creatures go though, to become our meals. I’ll tell you about a conversation I had , with a vegan.

I read an article once, suggestingthat vegan diets, were destructive, as any other agricultural designs. I mentioned this to her. She told me “Chris, you destroy the environment, the way you do, and and I’ll do it MY way.”

The byproduct, of any of our needs, has impact on the environment. Period.

So. I choose to make as little a footstep, as possible.

Otherwise, I am just following a “program,” like roaches. I need protein, fats, oils etc, to survive. The things I eat, are all stealing from the Sun. The plants steal the energy from the Sun. Plant eaters steal the energy from the Sun, and get eaten by things like me. I will eat whater, has stolen energy from the Sun. It’s a cycle, I did not create, or wish for. The is all…..

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