I know exactly what you mean there, Lizz. I can quite easily put my finger on the precise causes of my cockroach phobia. It has to do with growing up in Queensland, where the cockroachs grow big and dark. It has to do with waking up in the middle of the night with one running over your face. It has to do with sitting at the breakfast table at college (in a city in which you think you are safe from the horrible beasties) and having one crawl up between the tables barely an inch from your hand.

You have never seen anyone move so fast.

So my phobia is heavily cemented into my personality. I can't even get close enough to them to kill them. Just thinking about them gives me the shivers. Bleurgh!!