Is it ok to kill spiders?

[Odbarc]

No mercy for insects and arachnids!
It doesn't have enough sentience to know to keep out of my territory, it dies.

Squirrels are running into my window and disturbing me. I let THEM live. I LET them live.

 

[ScorpionPrince]

As a child, I used to be afraid of spiders. As an adult, I don't quite fear them anymore but will kill all spiders I see.
Any other creature is spared, captured and set free or just left alone.

 

[optimusjamie]

I try to avoid killing spiders. They're pretty cool in my book.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

I have no problem killing bugs. Being annoying is enough justification to a bug. The real question is it worth the effort need to kill an annoy bug if they can't harm you? The answer depends on how annoy it's being.
In other words I think it's ok to kill spiders.
Somethings in this world I don't a highly value as life; bugs and spiders are on that list of life that don't see much value to. bugs outnumber humans on this planet. If I was to kill an annoy bug once in a while; it do nothing from stopping them living long on this planet after every human died.

 

[FireDr@gon]

Short answer; No & if it made you feel bad then you have already answered your own question.

Long answer - It's really wrong to do stuff like this - I'm an arachnophobe too, but im trying to cope with my irrational fear. The fact is spiders have been around for fucking ages, way, way longer than us and they need our respect, not mindless termination. My philosophy is: Don't break it if you can't make it - with the one exception of babies, you can make those but don't break them either.

I always catch them and put them outside now and i feel better for dealing with the problem without murdering and coping with my fear simultaneously.

 

[FireDr@gon]

REAL men keep spiders as pets, they don't smash them.

I have no problem killing bugs; even the ones that can't harm me. Being slightly annoying is enough justification to a bug. The real question is it worth the effort need to kill a annoy bug if they can't harm you? The answer depends on how annoy it is being.
In other words I think it's ok to kill spiders. Somethings in this world I don't a highly value as life; bugs and spiders are on that list of life that don't see much value to.

By your logic i could kill you because i find you annoying. OF course this doesn't count as a death threat because you and people with your shitty attitude are simply not worth the effort. If you even bothered to educate yourself you would realise that "bugs" are a vital part of YOUR existence and without them we would all be dead, you ****ing moron.

 

[WenisPagon]

I don't have a problem with them at all, the spiders around here are small and careful not to web places humans would need to be. We almost had an ant problem but the spiders were instrumental in keeping them under control.

There's a spider that hangs out in the far corner of my desk, and sometimes I talk to it like I would a pet or lightly toss it flies I swatted. :3

 

[Teoes]

I'm not going to be scared by anything that couldn't possibly beat me in a fight. I also love spiders, find them fascinating and live in the UK where we get namby-pamby harmless spiders. No spider will suffer in my presence.

Spoiler: spoiler snip

SMUSH THEM! KILL ALL THE SPIDERS! KILL THEIR WIVES AND CHILDREN.

Actually I usually put them outside. No I SCREAM for my boyfriend or someone to come get rid of it.
I know they have their uses but the freak me the fuck out. I won't sleep if there's a spider in the room and I've been known to wake up screaming because I think it's on me *shudders*

Oh, there was a spider in my living room a few weeks ago, I threw my FOUR cats at it and none of them gave a fuck so mum had to get the duster and we were screaming and running around like headless chickens because it was crawling towards us which was funny to see two grown women do.

A little thing like that can make a woman scream louder than a man ever has, u mad?

There's always a spider in your room - you know this, right?

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

I mercilessly kill any spiders I see indoors. I'm an arachnophobe and there's no way I'm letting those things breed in my house or office. Outside, fine, spiders can do their thing. Indoors? No. And since I'm so terrified of them, I can't just capture and release them; they have to be slain from a distance. Sometimes I throw a book at it; sometimes I get the Raid and shoot it down.

Either way, spiders are abominations and I don't want one near me, thanks. Can't wait for winter so they all disappear for a season.

Also, there are so many of the damn things that the few I kill are a drop in the bucket. I am not about to get sentimental over this.

 

[FireDr@gon]

I mercilessly kill any spiders I see indoors. I'm an arachnophobe and there's no way I'm letting those things breed in my house or office. Outside, fine, spiders can do their thing. Indoors? No. And since I'm so terrified of them, I can't just capture and release them; they have to be slain from a distance. Sometimes I throw a book at it; sometimes I get the Raid and shoot it down.

Either way, spiders are abominations and I don't want one near me, thanks. Can't wait for winter so they all disappear for a season.

Also, there are so many of the damn things that the few I kill are a drop in the bucket. I am not about to get sentimental over this.

get over your fear you big wuss and stop being a murderer. You are already halfway there on the idea, just catch them and put them outdoors where you don't mind them!

Also this idea that spiders only right to existence is their "uses" to us is just wrong. They have a right to life because they were around before fish even left the oceans.

[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2mmTDT6W7E[/link]

 

[ChaosDragoness]

I'm a Lokean, a Neo-pagan worshiper of the Norse god Loki, and I personally don't kill spiders because of their connection with Him. (Spiders are one of the many animal forms this trickster takes among mortals) If I see one and it's not doing me any harm (which they usually don't) I let it chill because spiders are one of the forms that He takes and I believe that when Loki chooses to come by my place, He takes that form in order to watch over me and/or plan His next little trick on me.

It may sound crazy to a lot of you, but this is simply what I and many other Lokeans believe.

 

[FireDr@gon]

I'm a Lokean, a Neo-pagan worshiper of the Norse god Loki, and I personally don't kill spiders because of their connection with Him. (Spiders are one of the many animal forms this trickster takes among mortals) If I see one and it's not doing me any harm (which they usually don't) I let it chill because spiders are one of the forms that He takes and I believe that when Loki chooses to come by my place, He takes that form in order to watch over me and/or plan His next little trick on me.

It may sound crazy to a lot of you, but this is simply what I and many other Lokeans believe.

I struggled not to respond to this, but screw it. why do you only worship one norse god and not the whole pantheon? And how exactly do you "worship" it beyond not killings spiders?

 

[loc978]

Oh my dear god.

The mindless hypocrisy in this thread.

No, it's not okay to kill a spider that is no threat to you. Just like it is not okay to kill a puppy.
Just because it is not furry and looks at you with large beady eyes does not mean it is okay to kill it whenever it suits you.

Just because a being is not very likeable by it's looks and smaller than you does not mean you should kill it whenever you please. If we went by that logic, I could justify killing about half of the Escapist Forum. Yeah, suddenly makes a lot less sense, huh?

A spider is just an animal, albeit one that is not very likeable. However, they are useful.
They just sit in the corner of your room all day, chilling, catching everything that buzzes and is otherwise annoying.
Worst thing that could happen is that you eat one in your sleep (Great way to say thanks for the countless flies and other bugs he kept from buzzing around your ear at night), but it's not like you will notice when that happens anyway.

Bottomline: A spider is a living being, no different from a puppy. If you think it is okay to kill spiders, but it's not okay to kill puppies just because they look different, you're a horrible hypocrit and karma will strike back at you one way or the other.

How about we get a little more conscious about what we're doing, people?

That's... actually a pretty silly argument. Considering your average spider life span is around a year, and your average spider reproduction results in around 1000 offspring. A dog, on the other hand, lives 10ish years and births litters of around 4-10. We're a part of nature, like it or not... and humans are one of the longer-lived, slower breeding species, so yes, we can all kill spiders without thinking about it... without significantly affecting their population.

Does that mean we should kill every spider we see? No. Spiders are, in general, your friends. But one on your toilet paper? Sure.

...honestly, if you feel that way about spiders, you should protest every pest control company on the planet. People regularly hire those to commit spider genocide by gas in their cellar or garage. Thousands dead every time... without significantly affecting the overall local population.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

No way man, I love my spider bros.


Hell, I've saved more spiders than I've killed.

Spoiler

They're harmless, and they catch all the other annoying bugs.

 

[FireDr@gon]

That's... actually a pretty silly argument. Considering your average spider life span is around a year, and your average spider reproduction results in around 1000 offspring. A dog, on the other hand, lives 10ish years and births litters of around 4-10. We're a part of nature, like it or not... and humans are one of the longer-lived, slower breeding species, so yes, we can all kill spiders without thinking about it... without significantly affecting their population.

Does that mean we should kill every spider we see? No. Spiders are, in general, your friends. But one on your toilet paper? Sure.

...honestly, if you feel that way about spiders, you should protest every pest control company on the planet. People regularly hire those to commit spider genocide by gas in their cellar or garage. Thousands dead every time... without significantly affecting the overall local population.

By your logic, again, it would be fine to kill people that get in your way/annoy you because A; we're just animals too and B; it doesn't "significantly reduce their numbers" because there's billions of us and we live long enough to breed multiple times and infant mortality is pretty low among humans. It's not wrong to kill something just because you might endager the species as a whole, it's about killing being wrong. Why is this simple concept so difficult for people?

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

If they're inside your home and/or poisonous, then I would say yes.

If they are outside and/or not poisonous, I say let them be.

It's that simple.

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

*chews gum for a bit*

....Nooooope. I can't say I can muster sympathy for bugs. I only have so many cares to give, and they do not go to bugs or curing a phobia that doesn't show up much because my house is pretty darn clean and doesn't attract vermin.

Everyone here who thinks it's murder should consider that you've probably stepped on thousands of ants by accident in your lifetime. Also, if I go into an animal's den/cave/etc. and sit around, odds are it will feel threatened and try to drive me off. If it's much bigger than me, it will quite possibly kill me if I don't listen and GTFO. Well, I certainly don't want freaking scary bugs in my house. I'm an animal too.

 

[loc978]

Oh my dear god.

The mindless hypocrisy in this thread.

No, it's not okay to kill a spider that is no threat to you. Just like it is not okay to kill a puppy.
Just because it is not furry and looks at you with large beady eyes does not mean it is okay to kill it whenever it suits you.

Just because a being is not very likeable by it's looks and smaller than you does not mean you should kill it whenever you please. If we went by that logic, I could justify killing about half of the Escapist Forum. Yeah, suddenly makes a lot less sense, huh?

A spider is just an animal, albeit one that is not very likeable. However, they are useful.
They just sit in the corner of your room all day, chilling, catching everything that buzzes and is otherwise annoying.
Worst thing that could happen is that you eat one in your sleep (Great way to say thanks for the countless flies and other bugs he kept from buzzing around your ear at night), but it's not like you will notice when that happens anyway.

Bottomline: A spider is a living being, no different from a puppy. If you think it is okay to kill spiders, but it's not okay to kill puppies just because they look different, you're a horrible hypocrit and karma will strike back at you one way or the other.

How about we get a little more conscious about what we're doing, people?

That's... actually a pretty silly argument. Considering your average spider life span is around a year, and your average spider reproduction results in around 1000 offspring. A dog, on the other hand, lives 10ish years and births litters of around 4-10. We're a part of nature, like it or not... and humans are one of the longer-lived, slower breeding species, so yes, we can all kill spiders without thinking about it... without significantly affecting their population.

Does that mean we should kill every spider we see? No. Spiders are, in general, your friends. But one on your toilet paper? Sure.

...honestly, if you feel that way about spiders, you should protest every pest control company on the planet. People regularly hire those to commit spider genocide by gas in their cellar or garage. Thousands dead every time... without significantly affecting the overall local population.

So because there's a lot of them we can kill them?

There's a lot of humans too (and plenty of dogs too, for that matter). I can kill a couple without affecting us too much. Actually, it would probably be a good thing considering how overpopulated the world seems to be getting. Does that make it okay to kill humans?

This isn't about threatening populations, it's about mindlessly killing living beings without second thought. Humans are just living beings. Do you kill them when they sit on your toilet roll?

Honestly, I don't care how many spiders people kill. I just wish people wouldn't be so damn ignorant about what they're doing. It doesn't occur to them that a spider is a living being just like a dog is, just "Oh it's inconvient that you are here and I am bigger than you, let me just kill you."

It's just unenlightened behavior, to say the least.

Pest control is in my eyes different, because in that case they're actually threatening to take over your house or whatever.
I fully understand the need for it when there's a thousand spiders in every corner of your house, or hundreds of rats.

By your logic, again, it would be fine to kill people that get in your way/annoy you because A; we're just animals too and B; it doesn't "significantly reduce their numbers" because there's billions of us and we live long enough to breed multiple times and infant mortality is pretty low among humans. It's not wrong to kill something just because you might endager the species as a whole, it's about killing being wrong. Why is this simple concept so difficult for people?

Because it's quite subjective, and from where I sit, you're wrong. Certainly there's some value to each life we snuff out, human or otherwise (yes, done that too. Would do it again in the same circumstances... not casually)... but the question is "how much?" I measure that by a scientific metric (ie. I'd wipe out hundreds of thousands of spiders to save one human... or hundreds of humans to save one blue whale). You say "enlightenment", I say "pseudo-religious bullshit".

Also, I actively encourage the wood spider population on my property... just not in the house.

Spoiler: as I was typing this, I noticed one of the little guys outside my window

...
and no, I'm not going to kill 'im.

 

[Someone Depressing]

If it's in my house, fucking stamp on it, twist my foot, then scrape up the remains and burn it.

But I have a rule.

If I'm outside, leave it alone. Because there are lots outside. And I might be eaten by entire swarms.

But really, I'm slowly overcoming that, bit by bit. I just hope we don't start worshipping the 8 legged wankers, and start to let scorpions sleep on our faces. The Egyptians did that to pretty much any animal that wandered on their front door, not just cats, and I wouldn't be suprised if most of the death rates were from disease.