Is it ok to kill spiders?

[Catfood220]

I try not to kill spiders if I can help it. Just the other day I was just chilling out and felt a tickling sensation on my arm. A scratch didn't solve the problem so a glance showed that the was a fairly small spider crawling along my arm. I brushed it off on the carpet where it nonchalantly wandered off along the floor. Wanting to share my flat with as few insects and arachnids as humanly possible, I picked it up in a cup and chucked it out of the window.

 

[GeneralFungi]

The sight of spiders doesn't bother me. Obviously I'd be a little nervous if something the size of a Tarantula showed up in my room, but generally I don't get freaked out by them. People who use the 'survival of the fittest' argument... if a spider was larger then you it would kill you because it needs to feed itself. Unless you plan on eating the spider you just squished the only reason you're killing it is because you don't like spiders, not because of some deeper meaning.

Don't try to logic your fear of spiders if you're really doing it because of your slightly irrational fear.

 

[Auron225]

Anyway, my question is, is it right to murder spiders just because we dont like the way they look?

Given the phrasing of your question, I think you have an answer already. A more neutral way of asking that would simply be;

"Do you kill spiders on sight?" and then people can say why or why not,

or even

"If you are afraid of spiders, can you justify killing them?"

As for me personally, no I don't. Where I live they aren't poisonous so they can't hurt me. They are likely a LOT more terrified of me than I am of them, and as you said they eat flies which I find more annoying. The most I'll do is catch them and put them outside my window if I'd rather it not be there. But I literally wouldn't hurt a fly.

EDIT: Just remembered, the one occasion I did kill a spider purposefully and knowingly was at a kids youth group. It scuttled across the floor in front of me, and although I had no problem with it - I didn't want it causing a scene by freaking out any of the kids... so I smashed it but I felt bad about it =( Poor spider didn't do anything...

 

[Heronblade]

I guess its fine. I'm personally inclined to let creatures that do no harm be, regardless of how creepy they might seem, but I'm not going to start yelling murderer at those who feel otherwise.

I managed to creep the hell out of a friend of the family by picking up and relocating a harmless black snake rather than killing it.

 

[Artina89]

I won't kill a spider if I can help it, I prefer to leave it alone as it really isn't doing me any harm and they do a great job of keeping flies and other insects down. My brother on the other hand, has a "kill on sight" policy. This video still has the capacity of freaking me out however, especially as I have a fair few friends that live in Australia:

 

[FalloutJack]

Splat

There are many more where that one came from, so you're not ruining anything. Also, a spider that big may be harmful to people with its venom. Also, in no way do any belong in your habitat, since the point of a house is to keep the outside...outside.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

He didnt mean me any harm, he had no concept that i will inevitably use the toilet role, and encroach on his territory.

It's your house, it's your territory. A spider outside is in his own territory. A spider inside is trespassing.

Anyway, my question is, is it right to murder spiders just because we dont like the way they look?

I'm not sure that I know anyone who kills spiders just because of how they look. They murder them because they don't want them inside the house. We do the same to mice, which are arguably adorable.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I don't kill spiders, I talk to them. I don't like killing stuff in general. Flies and mosquitoes are dead to me however.

 

[Seydaman]

Yes, they are heartless monsters that must be purged with fire and sword. It is not merely ok, it is demanded by the Gods.

OT: They're spiders and not conscious intellectual beings, don't worry about their death.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Well, just recently it was that time of year and a bunch of Huntsman and Brown Recluses wandered into our house. I'd say it was a mixture of both, it could have been just one or the other. Anyway, it's kind of hard to tell the two apart, and while Huntsman tend to do their own thing and their bite isn't venomous (not that I know from personal experience, I'm terrified of getting bitten by ANY spider), the Brown Recluse's can rot away your skin so I didn't exactly take the time to go get a magnifying glass and go "So which one are you?"
They're not *huge* but their kind of big, so anything their size or larger gets killed, anything smaller, just don't come near me, okay?

 

[Rainforce]

Well, I don't know, depends on you how moral it looks to you to kill something solely based on that it looks weird to you. I wonder what you do when it looks at you funny? Although, it's not that easy. It's up to you what you want to kill, but spiders are usually harmless, are one of the few insects in your vicinity that don't want to use your body for nutrition or reproduction and are generally very busy keeping all the other shit away. I killed spiders for years and kinda grew tired of it, and even though I don't kill them anymore, it's not like their numbers increased.

Spoiler

Yeah, he would.

well....maybe you never understood that game : D

Spoiler

 

[ninjaRiv]

Kill them all.

I stamp on them the second I see them. I've gone nuts at one with a tea tray. Fuck those guys. You'd think they'd evolve invisibility or at least the ability to know NOT TO FUCKING RUN OUT IN FRONT OF HUMANS. Spiders are stupid and they're scary as fuck. It's not murder, it's DUTY.

I live in the UK, too and all of the outside spiders are heading inside and they're all BIGGER THAN EVER. I'm seeing shit out of the corner of my eye after reading this thread, man. Spiders. SPIDERS. Fuck 'em so hard. Had one the other night that was so big I could fist it and it'd wonder why its ass tickles.

They have eight legs, man. Nothing needs eight legs. It can't even use all of them properly! Why the fuck do they keep falling off the wall?!? Wriggling over themselves like that?!? Fucking.... Blragh

 

[Nazulu]

Yeah, no intelligent designer. Your avatar and solution to the design makes me want to smash you with a shoe.

Anyway, I think we should embrace and then worship the spiders like the pharaohs did with cats. We already fear them even when we know most of the common ones are harmless, so we're already half way there. Then we can get to the meaningless sacrifices and crossbreeding later.

 

[Slenn]

Not particularly. There's tens of thousands of species of spiders all across the globe, and only handful of species are either poisonous or fatally poisonous to humans. I've never really seen anything in my apartment larger than a quarter dollar coin. And the things that usually appear more often (for me) are centipedes. Those suckers are fast.
I've even welcomed the company of many spiders as non-human residents in previous abodes. There was an orb-weaving spider that hung around the fluorescent lamp that was outside the front door of my previous house.

Hell, I've been looking into taking care of tarantulas just because they're fuzzy, colorful, not poisonous, and just plain cool-looking.

Spoiler

 

[The Lugz]

He didnt mean me any harm, he had no concept that i will inevitably use the toilet role, and encroach on his territory. He was an innocent, caught in the crossfire.

a virus means no harm, it has no concept that it exists and yet it is still alive and causes me bother.

a sheep on the other hand can be reasoned with, herded and removed from the property if need be with no particular violence involved.

now bare with me.. i have a point

if the thing in question can logically be removed or gotten red of in a fashion that is amicable to both parties this is obviously the best solution..

if the thing in question cannot be removed, and is doing you harm in some fashion you have the right to defend yourself and, yes psychological threats count because who wants to be terrorised? really?

so.. if you're afraid of spiders and have to smoosh them.. well go for it i guess? but think about getting a bottle or a small vacuum or something and putting them outside.. far, far away.

 

[Leemaster777]

I generally try to ignore spiders as long as they leave me the hell alone. You do your thing, I do my thing, and if our paths do not cross, that's great for both of us.

So just recently I had a spider the size of a tennis ball chilling next to my toilet roll.

A spider that big though... I don't think I could leave it alone. I'd probably just man up and let it outside. Not because it's the "nice" thing to do (although that's certainly a plus), but more because a bug that size would leave one hell of a mess. It's the same reason I let roaches out instead of stepping on them.

 

[TWRule]

No I wouldn't kill a spider *just* because of the way it looks; there are easily recognizable species that are harmless to humans but eat insects - I'll usually leave them alone if I find them around. Anything else I'll kill - I'm not risking dying to something stupid like a spider bite.

I don't enjoy killing anything though - I'd prefer to coax them out of the house if possible.

 

[Akytalusia]

i'm surprised to see someone else asking this question. but here's how i look at the situation. if i casually kill spiders, then i've forsaken any right i had to complain if they ever manage to kill me. as long as i maintain this position, then everything's fine.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

As long as they aren't near me, I'm fine with them and I avoid killing them. They're a lot less annoying then flies.

<spoiler=Buzzing Bastards>http://i.imgur.com/vhHD7mx.png
Assholes, landing on my hand and making me miss my finely aimed sniper shot. Fuckers will one day get what's coming to them.

 

[Jynthor]

I have a tarantula and generally put spiders outside when I see them in the house(before dear ma crushes them)
You shouldn't kill them, they are your friendly neighbourhood spiders.

Actually one spider has been living in my bathroom for a month, won't come out of the corner and it's too much trouble to reach.