# Do you dislike people who step on bugs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 12, 2020, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762 "2020-10-12T04:48:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/41 "2020-10-12T19:09:20Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Why set it on fire? On a freezing cold day in January you could have just relocated it. (If the raccoon hadn’t found it first.) It was only an initial plan. I also planned on mailing them to someone, but that would be too evil and downright mean. Most likely I would have just knocked it down and took to the woods out back. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/42 "2020-10-12T19:39:38Z")
I’ll kill just about anything I want for just about any reason I want. Sometimes the only reason is that I can. I’m indifferent to it, so I don’t chase it. Nobody has ever given me a real reason why I shouldn’t, just a bunch of hand-waving and bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/43 "2020-10-12T22:19:00Z")
Almost fucking forgot the ant trail I annihilated. Year round pretty much a continuous trail and condo excavation by ugly ants along the mouldering concrete Steps. Hot water and kosher salt piles eventually convinced them to vacate. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/44 "2020-10-13T00:26:34Z")
I don’t like people killing bugs that are just doing their bug thing outside and bothering no one. For those creatures in my home, I have a salt shotgun that looks like a Nerf gun on steroids, and it kills everything I can hit (no wolf spiders in Jersey, thankfully. I’m sure my salt gun would just get them angry). Spiders and flies are the most common targets. I kind of feel like Elmer Fudd when I’m on the trail, and my wife finds this humorous, but I can hit spiders that are high up on the wall or tucked in corners. Oh yes… stink bugs always get carefully carried outdoors and freed, or they get a burial at sea in a pinch. Never squash a stink bug, for obvious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Jakeyjakey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jakeyjakey/32/5071_2.png) [@Jakeyjakey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jakeyjakey)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/45 "2020-10-13T04:12:40Z")
Why does it have to be kosher salt? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Jakeyjakey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jakeyjakey/32/5071_2.png) [@Jakeyjakey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jakeyjakey)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/46 "2020-10-13T04:13:35Z")
I think your post was the most honest one in this entire thread. You get props. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/47 "2020-10-13T10:52:21Z")
More bang from the big crystals the ants leap higher. I may have never noticed them until they crossed mah land trespassers, termites wouldn’t please me either ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/48 "2020-10-13T14:47:00Z")
> [@Jakeyjakey](#): > > I think your post was the most honest one in this entire thread. You think the rest of us aren’t being honest? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/49 "2020-10-13T17:52:43Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I the meantime I will start planting _[Drosera capensis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosera_capensis)_ Don’t do that. It’s terribly invasive outside its natural habitat (here). Rather plant one of the 3 European ones, even if they’re more finicky. . ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/50 "2020-10-13T19:06:36Z")
I wanted to plant them indoors in Berlin, Germany, I thought they would not escape and if they did they would not survive the winters, but I will look at your European suggestion, thank you. Got any links I could follow? ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/51 "2020-10-13T19:22:43Z")
I respect all creatures, even icky insects, in their natural environment. Live and let live, I say, repulsive though some of them may be. Once they trespass into my abode, however, they’ve literally and figuratively “crossed the line”, and their asses are mine. No need to fret, though, because their demise is quick and painless ---
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/52 "2020-10-13T19:29:44Z")
I’m with the others. I don’t mess with ’en unless they’re in my apartment. I leave spiders and daddy longlegs spiders alone. but I’ll kill house flies and those damn flies that seem to hang around my kitchen drain sometimes. At times, they’ll fly into my living room while I’m on my computer and fly around my face ☹ ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/53 "2020-10-13T20:27:15Z")
> [@robby](#): > > (I do draw the line with flies, termites, ants, etc. in the house.) Agreed. I stomp any termites I find with great satisfaction. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/54 "2020-10-13T20:43:20Z")
Useless. It’s the queen you’re looking for, and she never leaves her nest. Same with ants. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/55 "2020-10-13T20:54:04Z")
It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s that I despise you. I utterly despise humans who kill things for no good reason, just because they can. Words can’t express how loathsome I find this. Good reasons to kill animals: 1. because the human intends to eat it, and its species is not endangered (by our other oblivious selfish activities) 2. because it is eating something the human wanted to eat, and there is no other way to dissuade it 3. because it is dangerous to the human and there is no way to coexist peacefully I’m trying to think of other good reasons but coming up dry … having an emotion which requires death to the other sentient being is not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Jakeyjakey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jakeyjakey/32/5071_2.png) [@Jakeyjakey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jakeyjakey)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/56 "2020-10-13T22:34:20Z")
Despise? That’s mean. 🙁 Most people think I’m an easygoing, tolerant, and amicable guy. I even coach Peewee tennis every other weekend for barely anything, and the kids all love me! Am I really deserving of that much contempt, if the worst thing I do is step on bugs? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/57 "2020-10-13T22:41:40Z")
> [@Jakeyjakey](#): > > Despise? That’s mean. 🙁 > > Most people think I’m an easygoing, tolerant, and amicable guy. I even coach Peewee tennis every other weekend for barely anything, and the kids all love me! You keep saying this as if we are just supposed to take your word for it. Reputation is earned. All you have done so far on this board is advocate cruelty to lesser beings. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/58 "2020-10-13T22:54:59Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > To the OP question: Depends on the bug and the circumstance. > > Squashing potato beetles to save the potatoes or eggplant? That’s fine. Squashing a mosquito that’s biting you, or one flying around the bedroom that’s probably going to bite you? Also fine. Swatting a fly that’s buzzing around the kitchen and is likely to go back and forth between the cat pan and your dinner? No problem. > > Killing a wasp nest that’s under the front steps and is trying to defend them against humans? There may be ways to relocate it without killing the wasps; but if such methods aren’t practical under the circumstances, then that’s all right. Killing wasps in general because they might possibly sting somebody sometime? Not all right at all; though this might be partially ignorance, as the person might not understand that wasps are generally beneficial, and really important environmentally. > > Squashing bugs just because the squasher thinks bugs, in general or of that species, are icky? That’s icky. Might just be ignorance; but it’s unpleasant, and makes me think less of the person, yes. Thinking one’s entitled to kill what one thinks is icky is not a frame of mind I’m happy about. > > Squashing bugs because the squasher thinks it’s fun to kill things? Makes me think the person’s both unpleasant and potentially dangerous. > > \ > > – Full scale phobias would be another matter; but the person should either be trying to work on that or trying to avoid situations that are likely to include bugs, or both. I suspect however that most people with phobias are going to be trying to avoid bugs, rather than trying to squash them. You just about nailed it for me. I kill mosquitos that are likely to bite me, and other pests. But I prefer not to kill if I don’t have to, even if it’s just a bug. When we get wasps in the windows, I catch them (and their nests) and take them outside. Spiders get to hang out in our house. And once we joked about our “pet stink bug” in the bathroom. It was there for weeks. I won’t make a fuss if I see someone going out of his way to kill bugs. But yes, I will think less of him. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/59 "2020-10-13T22:56:04Z")
I try to not kill things. I have a few exceptions- houseflies and ants in the house, black widows and yellowjackets, but even there only in my own yard area. Mosquitoes if they land on me are swatted, of course. I will usually escort other insects & spiders outside. ---
**Author:** ![Jakeyjakey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jakeyjakey/32/5071_2.png) [@Jakeyjakey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jakeyjakey)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762/60 "2020-10-13T23:05:35Z")
I think that cruelty is a little bit strong of a word to use in this thread though. I would even say it is a mischaracterization. Cruelty is usually associated with suffering and brutality. It’s often driven by emotion and malice. I don’t hate the bugs I run across. I will take credit for being indifferent to ants I’ve crushed, but I don’t take credit for harboring malice or feelings of cruelty for them. At the end of the day, they’re ants. Nothing that I’m capable of doing could even put a dent in them. Scuffing out one of their mounds on my driveway which I sometimes do is pretty inconsequential even to them when you consider how vast their network spans. At worst, I’m giving the little guys something extra to do for the afternoon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dislike-people-who-step-on-bugs/922762.md?page=4)