I know so many people who kill spiders, flies, bugs, mosquitoes etc.
And when I ask them why they basically all say the same thing:

"They're annoying, disturbing, disgusting, dangerous...."

Whenever I see them first I try to rescue them but I often get ridiculed for my actions.
Sometimes I try to explain why I don't think killing is an option but in most cases I don't bother because it's of no use to try and convince them anyways.

I even know of some people who claim that insects aren't animals

Now why is that? Once animals get bigger, furrier or the likes they usually don't get killed and are just being brought outside.

Why all this disgust and unfeeling cold-heartedness towards those (often quite useful!) insects?

Mind you, I'm not a treehugger nor do I go around preaching that they should survive but I simply do not get it.

I don't know, I usually try to shoo them outside, too. Even spiders, which pretty nearly terrify me [don't judge me, I know it's silly]. And actually, most of the time it winds up being my husband shooing the bugs outside, because I've first gone "OH MY GOD A SPIDER, EEEK!" and he comes in the room and I'm hiding under a blanket saying "DON'T KILL IT, LET IT OUTSIDE!"

I don't know why I'm so much more important than a bug.

Where I live mosquitoes threaten my health and life and are in fact the most dangerous animals in Africa..
For that same reason spiders are welcome (I know they're not insects, humour me here).

LIFE wrote:Now why is that? Once animals get bigger, furrier or the likes they usually don't get killed and are just being brought outside.

Unless they get big enough, then they get eaten instead.

I never kill insects, but I feed them to my pets :/

Anything with more legs than teeth should be Killed With Fire.

I thought the spider disgust was a primordial survival thingumyboby.. what's the word.? Same for snakes.
No?

Wiðercora wrote:Anything with more legs than teeth should be Killed With Fire.

That's Julia Roberts dead then.

Wiðercora wrote:Anything with more legs than teeth should be Killed With Fire.

That includes old people without ivories.

Paul G wrote:I never kill insects, but I feed them to my pets :/

That's malevolent indifference

Paul G wrote:I never kill insects, but I feed them to my pets :/

Okay, I suppose I'm guilty of allowing our cat to eat bugs.

Paul G wrote:I never kill insects, but I feed them to my pets :/

Aye. Seems familiar.

I dunno. I don't kill insects either. I never really thought about it. I just like them and don't see the point killing them.

Spiders are poisonous and will scamper away with your soul while you sleep.
I read it in a book.

It's just insects. It's not like they have much consciousness or personality. So why wouldn't you kill them?

Ironclad wrote:I thought the spider disgust was a primordial survival thingumyboby.. what's the word.? Same for snakes.
No?

I keep snakes and spiders. Well, I have no spiders now except those that have moved in of their own free will. But I have had tarantulas, plan to again, and do have snakes. I don't have that automatic disgust for insects or any creep crawly--except cockroaches and ticks. I loathe the both of them. And if it feeds on me or mine, I kill it without remorse.

I had a mouse in the house last Spring. Now I think mice are cute and charming but I can not allow one to be in the house (the snakes get pre-killed feeders). So, I had to set a trap for it. It was sad, and I did get it which was a good thing because it was a big, healthy female. No I did not feed it to any of the snakes.

While we are on the subject, I have to admit to even more irrationality, I can't bring myself to throw away or neglect a houseplant even if I don't want it anymore. I always try to find it a new home.

NineBerry wrote:It's just insects. It's not like they have much consciousness or personality. So why wouldn't you kill them?

Why bother then? They don't harm you, and you're not going to deter any other insects by killing the first wave mercilessly.

NineBerry wrote:It's just insects. It's not like they have much consciousness or personality. So why wouldn't you kill them?

Same with plants.

I can't stand them, I'm sorry but I'm actually slightly phobic, it's the black hairy legs some of them have. Bees and wasps sting you, others bite and give you itchy bumps on your skin. And don't even talk about spiders, just horrible!

While I know they're necessary in the food chain etc I would be very very happy if I never saw another creepy crawlie, and yes I kill them if I can bear to get close enough to them and there's no one to get rid of it for me

NineBerry wrote:It's just insects. It's not like they have much consciousness or personality. So why wouldn't you kill them?

This is an example of an area in which I am admittedly irrational, but I do not kill things just because, ever. They only have their one life and unless I have justification for killing them, I just don't. On those few occasions when I had to stun rodents to feed to the snakes, I agonized about it all day like an executioner. I've had to euthanize animals before, but reconciled that at the time knowing they were suffering. I have killed animals for food, but reconciled that by knowing that they were not going to be wasted and that the kill was clean, quick and far more humane than any other predator would do it. I recognize this is an anthropomorphisization, but that's how it is.

I'm probably a little OC too because I try not to step on ants when they are on the sidewalk. I rescue earthworms from being on the sidewalk by putting them back on the grass. When I lived in So Cal, I used to rescue as many snails as I could after the rain. Pitiful, I know.