This happened in the past few days. Two women I know, mother and daughter, were discussing a lizard who had gotten into a washing machine and showed no interest in getting out.

Throughout the description of the problem — which included the reptile hanging on through a spin cycle and also survived the water draining out of the tub — the offensive creature was referred to as “he”.

To wit: “And he was still there!”

This only reinforced a conclusion I arrived at long ago.

Where American women (at least) are concerned, all bugs, reptiles and offensive, scurrying critters are “he”. They are not “its”, even though “it” would never be an incorrect identifier.

No, “he” — just like their husbands, sons and brothers, as it turns out.

I find this very curious.

Intellectually, we know that the overwhelming majority of social insects are not male. Among colonies of ants and bees, for instance, nearly every one of them we find marching/flying into our homes are workers — and workers are female.

Among spiders, where the female is often known to kill/eat their hapless mates, it seems quite likely the biggest and scariest we are likely to see … also females. But I have yet to have a woman tell me about a black widow she has spotted in the garage “and you need to go kill her.” No. Always “him” — even as a black widow.

And as regards lizards, geckos, snakes, rats … when women I have encountered over the past half century discuss them, they also are referred to as “he” and “him” … when only an expert probably would have any real idea of the gender of the alarming creature, without aid of a microscope.

Which is all … interesting.

Creatures less likely to provoke disgust or alarm? They might be female. Maybe. Birds, for example. I bet if I paid attention to this, I would find women referring to butterflies as “she” — but moths as “he”.

My theory is that annoying creatures, creeping and slithery creatures, dangerous creatures, at least among the women I have known, are inevitably assumed to be male. Even after semi-serious discussions about the indeterminate gender of most of them, and the near-certain femaleness of most ants and bees and wasps.

Was it something I said? Or something the boys at school said?