Killing bugs - is it wrong?

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VanityGirl

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MiracleOfSound said:
Lately some annoying little insects have arrived on my street due to increased heat and I'm waking up with little itchy bites on my hands which I'm 90&% sure are because of these mini-daddy long legs creatures.
What do they look like? If they are chiggers, you may have yourself a problem. If they look red, you need to call someone!


And no, I don't feel guilt at killing bugs. I won't go out of my way to stomp on a spider, but if one is in my house I will.
 

xanith02100

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Maybe I'm a monster, but any insect that invades my house will be met with the same courtesy they would receive from invading anything in the animal kingdom's territory: enter and be destroyed. I feel no guilt whatsoever and will kill any bug that shows itself inside my home.

Outside, I leave them alone unless they attack me directly (ie, a mosquito).
 

Saul B

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Feb 9, 2009
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No. /thread

They have no real purpose (unlike bees, i don't kill bees) so why should they live if they're a pain?
 

RottingAwesome

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I usually let them be.

There was a spider living in the corner of my shower for a few months, right where the water didn't hit it and I just let it do it's own spider thing and we were both happy.

However, I do kill mosquitoes with no remorse (or other bugs that intend to do me harm)
 

ejb626

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I kill houseflies but I actually mostly use the glass-and-paper method to get rid of them. You just let the bug crawl on a piece of paper and then trap it under a glass, then carry that to the door and let it free. If the bug is annoying me or if I know its a pest I do kill it though, and I don't kill them just when I see them outside.
 

Cryofthewolf

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MiracleOfSound said:
When I was a kid, I was pretty messed up and unhappy. My way of taking my rage out on the world was to kill bugs with my brother. We would pour salt on snails, pull legs off daddy long legs and pour cleaning chemicals into ant-hives.

Because of this horrid behaviour I developed a guilt complex in my adulthood about harming any creature, no matter how small. For the last ten years I've been like a Buddhist or a hippy, I won't even kill spiders or flies.

Lately some annoying little insects have arrived on my street due to increased heat and I'm waking up with little itchy bites on my hands which I'm 90&% sure are because of these mini-daddy long legs creatures.

Last night a critter landed on my hand as I played Red Dead Redemption and SMACK, I killed the little bugger like John Marston without knowing if he was even a blood sucker. I felt bad, real bad,

My questions to you Escapists are:

Do you feel it is wrong to kill insects/other bugs?

Under what circumstances do you think it is morally acceptable?

Do you feel a pang of guilt for crushing a bug that wasn't harming you in any way?



Do you feel it is wrong to kill insects/other bugs?

- I think it depends on your motive. If you are killing bugs just for the sake of killing bugs, then I think it's wrong. All creatures deserve to live, and do not deserve to be killed for no good reason.


Under what circumstances do you think it is morally acceptable?

I think it is morally acceptable to kill an insect or any other creature if it is harming you in any way that disrupts your normal life. I don't like killing bugs, but if there is an infestation of termites in my walls I am going to call Terminix to come and get rid of them.


Do you feel a pang of guilt for crushing a bug that wasn't harming you in any way?

I certainly do. I feel bad when I kill something and I have a good reason for doing so. I think everything deserves to live, but sometimes things need to die so that other things can keep on living. Plants and animals need to die to keep other plants and animals alive, no matter what kind of creature you are. It's not a fun thing to think of, but it's true.


So yeah, that's what I think about killing bugs. =-)
 

PoliceBox63

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El Poncho said:
When they come into my room and have the balls to fly around me is when I find it acceptable to kill them. Just don't torture them, I feel bad when I don't kill it swiftly.
My opinion exactly. It's like they're insulting me by having the audacity to fly around my study! That's when I go "ah hell naw".

I went to kill a fly today in my study and he flew away from me. I ran out into the hall with my rolled up newspaper and stopped to listen for the buzzing. I did this a few times to triangulate his position (words you'd never normally use when talking about a fly!) and he was in the bathroom. I closed the door and let the sun/heat sort him out. I felt satisfied!

When I was younger there was a wasp right on the window where I was playing my ps2 (ah the good old days) and got so scared that I got a glass and trapped the wasp under it. This made it REALLY mad! All i could think to do was get a lynx can and spray it into the upturned glass (there were grooves in the table) and suffocate it. It was like a lynx tornado in there and it took a few tornadoes to kill it.
 

captainwolfos

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Eh, I know it's wrong to kill them, but damn it's entertaining sometimes.
[small]I'm fully aware that my previous sentence makes me sound at least marginally psychotic, but uh... I can't actually think of anything to say to distract from that apart from the obvious MEDIC.[/small]
 

Cryofthewolf

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socialmenace42 said:
In most circumstances i'm a pacifict when it comes to insects; I rescue bees and spiders out of my appartment, but mainly cos of the warm 'good deed' syndrome it gives me.

Right at the moment my room is beleaguered by an army of fruit flies that got a foothold when i delayed taking out the trash, and i'm not having any of that.

Basically I didn't start this war but it is SO ON

OT: But I agree that torturing small creatures is the wrong thing to do, even if they're small. I can understand the idea of venting if you're under strain, but if you can avoid it it's better. You're dammaging a part of yourself as well.

You have fruit fly wars as well? Holy crap, I thought I was the only one. O_O

I was reading online on a good way to get rid of them. I took some red wine vinegar, sugar, and dish soap and put it in a cup with some plastic wrap on the top. The little buggers come and fly into the mixture and die almost instantly because of the soap. It's humane, and it is effective in getting rid of those gross, red-eyed little creeps. They are the only insects that really get to me. x-P
 

Shadowfaze

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Depends. Killing spiders with a hammer is fine, but stomping on snails is wrong. They cant even bite you.
 

Randomologist

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Aug 6, 2008
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I proudly carve a mark in my car for every gnat I kill.

Really, they're just insects. For every one you kill, there are still millions more swarming around. You can go round with a can of Raid and spray every wasp nest you can find, and the buggers will still bounce back.
 

gmacarthur81

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Nov 13, 2009
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I kill bugs in my house and car.

Spiders, are fine as long as they don't bite me.

Anything else, I will try to rescue it. I have an affinity with dragonflies. So much so that if one is in my car or house, all I have to do is hold out my hand and they will land right on it and I carry them outside. The hard part is getting them off after I get them outside. o_O
 

General BrEeZy

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hmm. awkward question.
they reproduce too much and too quickly and are too frequent in the world.
i'd say no...unless you really are shooting for an insecticide genocide, but good luck with that you rich drug lord, you.
 

FinalDream

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Apr 6, 2010
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I kill them. I do feel really bad about it, at the time. Interestingly I have to wash my hands afterwards though.
 

MR.Spartacus

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El Poncho said:
When they come into my room and have the balls to fly around me is when I find it acceptable to kill them. Just don't torture them, I feel bad when I don't kill it swiftly.
I'm going to go with this one. Don't be mean just make it dead. I usually don't mess with spiders though as they can be in hard to reach places.
 

socialmenace42

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May 8, 2010
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Cryofthewolf said:
socialmenace42 said:
In most circumstances i'm a pacifict when it comes to insects; I rescue bees and spiders out of my appartment, but mainly cos of the warm 'good deed' syndrome it gives me.

Right at the moment my room is beleaguered by an army of fruit flies that got a foothold when i delayed taking out the trash, and i'm not having any of that.

Basically I didn't start this war but it is SO ON

OT: But I agree that torturing small creatures is the wrong thing to do, even if they're small. I can understand the idea of venting if you're under strain, but if you can avoid it it's better. You're dammaging a part of yourself as well.
You have fruit fly wars as well? Holy crap, I thought I was the only one. O_O

I was reading online on a good way to get rid of them. I took some red wine vinegar, sugar, and dish soap and put it in a cup with some plastic wrap on the top. The little buggers come and fly into the mixture and die almost instantly because of the soap. It's humane, and it is effective in getting rid of those gross, red-eyed little creeps. They are the only insects that really get to me. x-P
Interesting...
I was trying a method I have seen used on wasps, which was get some seriously sticky syrup in a plastic bottle then cut the top third off and plcese it upside down in the bottom two thirds. Th wasps fly in, can't get out and drown in the sticky gunk. I'm not a fan of that method, the poor things are struggling for ages, but the flies are just too dim anyway, can't figure out the whole flying down the middle bit.
But i'll try your suggestion, thanks :D