Lobsters and roaches are both arthropods. Why do we relish the former and abhor the latter?

Question

Lobsters and roaches are both arthropods. Why do we relish the former and abhor the latter?

Answer 1

I had my students swab a roach once to see what bacteria were growing on it.  The roach had crawled across our floor during our lab to discover how many bacteria and microrganisms were living on various surfaces.  Those two agar plates had to be thrown out because the platess had produced so many bacteria they turned the agar into a rotted soup and the plates stank so badly that people began to gag.

Sorry I really do not care for roaches too much.

Answer 2

You are comparing apples with oranges. I'm betting most people replying here have never even tasted a roach.

Lobsters live in the sea and about the only time we see one alive is when we're looking into a tank and deciding which one we want for dinner.

Roaches live in dirty kitchens. If I see one in my kitchen then first of all I'm afraid in case anyone else sees it and thinks that my pristine lifestyle is, in fact, dirty. If I see one in any other place, I am disgusted and I won't go back there.

Answer 3

Good question, especially since they are both omnivores, although they are in different classes.  But roaches are usually found around dirt/garbage, and are therefore associated with dirt.

Answer 4

I've heard that as an argument for keeping kosher:  If you wouldn't eat a cockroach, why would you want to eat a lobster?

God didn't make them for human consumption.  They aren't good for you.

[Technically speaking, cockroaches are nutritious and make very good food for reptiles.]

I know a man who eats yellow jacket wasps (when they go after his barbecue) and scorpions (when he finds them in the desert).  I don't though.

Answer 5

Although most people don't eat any insect, there are people who consider just about any animal as food!  In parts of Mexico, you can order a taco filled with live stink bugs.  Deep fried insects are eaten as oddities even in the USA!  So it is mostly our societal mores that determine what we consider to be "food!"  

If roaches were grown eating "clean food" they wouldn't be any dirtier than a lobster!  The nutritional value would be considerably different due to the relative amount of exoskeleton to digestible organs in a cockroach!

Answer 6

I, for one, see no substantial difference between eating a crab and eating a really large beetle.  Which is one reason I don't eat invertebrates.  (Nothing against people who do eat them - but for psychological reasons, I can't.)

Answer 7

the answer is simple, my friend, roaches are  annoying and disgusting, and lobsters are delicious and served with butter.if their roles were reversed I'd bet that our feelings about them would be, too

Answer 8

A better question might be "Who was the first person to eat lobster, and why?  Just imagine how hungry that poor sucker must have been.  Chances are, if your kids grow up thinking roaches are great with melted butter, they'd eat them as readily as lobster, but that wouldn't change how they would feel about eating scorpions, for example.

Answer 9

Its social.   Look at all the insects people in some countries eat that we would consider disgusting.

Answer 10

Uhh...the flavor maybe? And you don't have lobsters crawling round your house eating your stuff, pooping everywhere, and spreading diseases do you?

Answer 11

Lobsters tast e yummy and roaches spread disease