Hatrack River Forum: okay. random potential rant.

This is topic okay. random potential rant. in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by cmc (Member # 9549) on :

I'm sitting here. Trying to get my mind to shut down for the night. And I seriously almost screamed.

Some monstrous winged beast just flew at my right arm as I sat at my laptop happily typing away. In order to not scream, I literally had to jump up, say 'nuh-uh' about three times, quickly move to the kitchen, grab a glass and catch the thing on the inside of a lamp shade where it had thankfully perched. After I'd let it out the sliding door, I could breath a sigh of relief.

I have no clue what it was. Not a moth, too stream-lined. Not a flyish thing - too not greasy looking. I don't know what it was, but as long as it's not in my home hurting me it's fine.

The point of me saying this, is that EG made me totally crazy about killing bugs!!! I've always been a spider lover (one time i cried to my dad because i'd found a smooshed spider on the cover of one of my books). The rest of the insects, which of course I've internalized are going to take over our world, I could do without. Now, as long as I can get them out of the house without any 'bad' coming my way [or, to be honest, it's not one i know i don't like (eg: mosquito)] I don't kill it and let it out. I figure, they probably didn't want to be in here anyway! Anyone else out there like that? That does the whole glass and paper trick to let them outside?

Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :

I've never killed a bug for being inside. At most I've gotten the paper and glass and let them free outside... I actually get upset, though usually I won't show it or say anything, when people squish bugs [Frown]

Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :

I kill bugs by dropping heavy objects on them, but then I find myself unable to touch the object or the bug, so someone else has to come clean them up for me.

Or else I just call the Orkin man.

-pH

Posted by cmc (Member # 9549) on :

I can't believe I'm still awake and I've got work in the morning... that's what I get for the caffeine after, well, 8 am.

The one thing that kills me is when someone sees a spider and just swats at it. Don't they know how good spiders are???? Aside from that I, for the most part, cringe a bit inside and let it go. Maybe not my strongest point... but, like I said, it's the reckless spider killing that hits the heart...

Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :

The Orkin man kills bugs indiscriminately. And I had a spider problem for a little while.

-pH

Posted by cmc (Member # 9549) on :

Maybe if he hadn't - the Spidey's would have taken care of the flys?

Posted by Samuel Bush (Member # 460) on :

The older I get the less inclined I am to kill animals - even bugs - unless I intend to eat them. And I don’t eat bugs - intentionally anyway.

But I make an exception for black widow spiders and brown recluse spiders and mosquitoes. I kill them with extreme prejudice. And not with any intention of eating them either (just wanted to make that clear).

Anyway, when my wife insists that I vanquish any spiders hanging around the house, I usually capture them and turn them loose outside. I’m even getting so I don’t deliberately stomp on ants and I haven’t fried any with a magnifying glass since I was a kid.

And as long as the sugar ants don’t come into the house I don’t set out any poison for them. I have an uneasy truce with the big black ants in my yard. As long as they don’t crawl up my leg and bite while I’m working underneath my car, they won’t get poisoned either. (Of course if I lived in a part of the country infested with fire ants it would be a whole different ball game.)

When I read the initial post on this thread, it made me think of a play I heard about where mankind was on trial for being cruel to animals. And the only two animals who would come to mankind’s defense were the dog and the mosquito.

I don’t remember the name of the play nor the playwright and I couldn’t find any reference to it online. But I do remember that Arthur C. Clarke carried on a long correspondence with the playwright. And now I’ve gotten myself all curious about it.

Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :

quote:
Originally posted by cmc:
Maybe if he hadn't - the Spidey's would have taken care of the flys?

And then one the flies would be born in the house, strong enough to outsmart and withstand the spiders, and they would cry, "revolution" for the corners of the room and the pillowtops, and he would LORD OF THE FLIES!..

How glorious.

Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :

quote:
Originally posted by cmc:
Maybe if he hadn't - the Spidey's would have taken care of the flys?

I doubt it. The spiders didn't seem interested in spinning webs, and I would have had even more panic attacks if they had, anyway. They seemed more interested in hanging out in my bathroom.

I have a morbid fear of spiders, lobsters, crawfish, crabs, roaches (especially after a gigantic one bit the heel of my foot and HUNG ON when I was ten), rats (especially after 1984)...

There IS a lizard in here as well, though. I like lizards. Maybe he'll eat a fly or two.

-pH

Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :

We've had junebugs around here lately, was it a junebug? (I know it's not June, we've had freaky weather.) Or there's the giant black flying hornet things...

Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :

Samuel: Where are you letting them outside? I hope its not just beyond your front porch because there is a good chance they will find their way back to your house. I am becoming the same way you are. I just see no reason to kill ants, but I have not progressed to spiders yet. If I see em they are typically dead.

Posted by Samuel Bush (Member # 460) on :

Doh! BlackBlade, I never thought of that. Yes, I do let them go just outside the door. I guess I'll just have to stop being so lazy. [Smile]

Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :

You see, in order to properly dispose of them you have to capture them, drive in to the next state, and *then* release them. Simple, eh?

I just use the electrical "light at the end of the tunnel" insect catcher. It's much more gratifying to just hear an occastional BZZZZT!!! and know what just happened.

Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :

We've lived in a mobile home in a small Iowa town for four years. Every year we get a new kind of bug that we didn't have a problem with before. We haven't seen the Japanese beetles this year, but we've got something like June bugs and something that looks like a red wasp. [Dont Know]

The (tiny black) ants haven't been too bad this year, though. The first year or so, they were pretty bad.