I never was afraid of them either but i lived in an Apt when i was younger that had them bad
and after a while i developed a phobia of them.
They are utterly relentless and unbeatable.
The Apt i had been sprayed etc millions of times over many years.. all in vain.
It was often said they would simply move in the walls from one suite to another.
Plus since there was so many generatiosn over the years and sooo many in 200+ suites
they had some variants in there that would obviously get immunity from poisons / treatments.
The ones i dealt with were mostly small.
On VERY rare occasions they would get up to be 3 or 4 inches (MAX)
But most i seen were like half an inch or so..
Thing is, my Apt was infested by what people said was a Vietnamese immigrant
who stored them in a fish tank for fishing ..so i heard.
The story goes they got out !
But the Apt was FULL of 75% Asian immigrants from Laos or Vietnam etc
And i can't even recall another place that had roaches like that in BC, Canada.
Unless you go to big city's maybe like Vancouver etc.
Point i am trying to make here is in Canada they are not found naturally.
They come from riding in from shipping containers.. food.. people etc
I am GLAD i don't live in a country that has them in the wild !
Which is actually really common all over earth.
So i got a fear of them pretty much (more paranoia) over time.
One incident sent me over the edge.
I was in bed and turned to move my pillow and one ran out from underneath it.
And then a bit later i grabbed my orange juice from the night stand for a drink
and one crawled out of the cup in my hand. (while the lights were on)
Had a good attack of paranoia then and went and slept on the living room couch
with a blanket wrapped tightly around me LOL
(knowing most of them were in the kitchen a few feet away regardless)
A secondary issue that i hated about them was..
Was not just knowing they spread disease but they actually are messy.
If you don't clean up after them they will coat a kitchen counter in their waste etc.
So that combined with disease potential is hell nasty !
They are not clean bugs LOL
And the kind i dealt with were also nocturnal.. which can fuel your paranoia more !
because you KNOW damn well when you turn on the lights you ARE going to see them scatter.
And hell ya they get in your food (sucks having to chuck tainted food)
They get into everything !
I had taken apart a few small electronic items years later after moving
and i found crap loads of them dead inside.. my stereo / amp and Alarm Clock.
I suspect they are attracted for some reason to the electronics.
Anyway what REALLY bugs me about them like spiders is..
They sneak up on you ..so you end up getting surprised a lot.
And we have a deep potential reaction to them for a good reason too !
Humans are engineered to fear things that are risky to our well being.
Bugs are among these risks.. many are highly poisonous.
Last year i got cell phone pics of Black Widows for example.
No clue if i got bit or not though.. i think it would have made me feel sick (not die)
But that picture.. HOLY CRAP !!!!1111ONE