You know, I don'y mind mosquitos - birds eat them, so they have a reason to exist, and besides, it's not REALLY summer 'til you get your first mosquito bite, right? Flies help break down decaying animal matter, though it's gross to see, it's better than rotting bodies lying around. Also flies - fruit flies in particular - reproduce and die quickly, and so are very valuable for scientists to research.

Ticks, as much as we hate them, do remind us to groom our beloved pets in season very carefully, enhancing our physical closeness. I am hard-pressed to come up with a defense for raoches, though the giant hissing ones in zoos are really neat.


But for me, there is, as my profile hints, a giant line of acceptability - and slugs and leaches are way on the other side. All there is to it. No one will convince me otherwise.