Pearland Has Flying Roaches and Lots of Spiders

"Entomophobia" is what I suffer from.  According to Wikipedia, it is also known as "insectophobia," or the irrational fear of bugs.  All bugs - I hate 'em!  Now you know.  Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:  

"The symptoms associated with this phobia are similar to the symptoms manifested with many other irrational fears. An entomophobic is likely to experience enough anxiety upon viewing or otherwise coming into contact with an insect that he or she experiences a full-blown series of panic attacks. With extreme cases, the individual may lose consciousness for a short period of time. Uncontrollable weeping or a strong desire to flee from the area are also common signs that indicate an individual is suffering with this particular phobia."

Although I've never wept uncontrollably, last night after a wonderful dinner at one of my favorite new restaurants in Pearland, the inevitable happened:  a HUGE flying roach appeared behind my chair.  

Roaches exist.  And a huge flying roach is not an indicator of an unclean restaurant nor of (what would Marvin Zindler have said??) . . . "failure to control pests and ROdents."  [emphasis added by Marvin's voice inflection]  (Boy, I miss him!)  But, I digress……..

It grossed me out to add this pic!

So why did this big bad boy have to fly up behind me and stir my irrational fears?  I immediately left the table and went outside, only to learn that the culprit for this flying rodent is a large tree just outside the door of the place.  Those flying roaches LOVE to nest in big trees.  

It made me remember my last house in The Heights on Columbia which had a HUGE tree in the front yard.  When I first moved in, I discovered that it had a hidden nest of flying roaches who dive-bombed me every time I went in and out.  Thanks to my friend James Stuart (Stuart's Pest Control), they didn't last after he came over and fully douched the tree with poison.  

After my family teased me and humiliated me in the parking lot with fake bug jokes, all of our irrational bug fears began to surface.  And my son-in-law, Travis, gained a new perspective on his wife's inherited phobia!  But also, all of our bug stories came out.

Be sure to ask Rachel about getting a roach in her ear!  If you want to know about my days inspecting homes for the VA where I was stung repeatedly on my forehead, I'll tell you that one, too.  Or about the countless spiders-in-the-bathtub.  On and on our bug stories go.  I hope you'll share yours!  Or am I the only one?

It's comforting to have a name for it -- entomophobia.  Irrational, maybe.  But you can keep the flying roaches for yourself.