It’s hard to explain. For one thing, roaches look a lot more threatening. And yes, the way they skitter doesn’t work in their favor either.
But the biggest difference I see is their antenae. Roaches, unlike beetles, have really long, fast-moving antenae that just make me shudder with disgust.
I kill bugs found in the house, if I see them before the dogs eat them, and The Druidess isn’t looking. Sometimes, I have to point, say “Hey, look over there” to distract her, then I squash the bug. She doesn’t object to me doing the squashing, but really hates to do it herself.
Note to any and all bugs: You want to stay at my place, you pay rent or you die
I chose “I don’t hold with killin’” but I will kill bugs that a) are planning to eat me or my pets (mosquitoes, fleas, ticks) or b) are in my house and will actually damage it if I don’t (carpenter ants). I did authorize the vacuuming up of house spiders by a lady we paid to clean our house right before my sister, who is spider-phobic, came to visit. I still feel guilty about that, 'coz I like spiders. I do swat flies in the house if they bring themselves to my attention (i.e., bother me).
I’ve never had a roach problem, but I’d probably be OK with poisoning them, since I believe they carry disease.
Normally, I try to catch the suckers and toss 'em out a window or out the back door. I’ll make attempts to shoo a fly out the door too. I had fun catching a cricket that got loose in our house. (He was actually an escapee from our frog’s tank). I rewarded his resourcefulness by giving him his freedom, releasing him in the great outdoors.
But If it’s 1am ,and one lowers himself onto me watching TV, he’s toast.
99.9% of the time, I let bugs and spiders go their own way or attempt to relocate them outside. I’ll terminate 'em if they bite or if there are too many to deal with as individuals.
I really couldn’t answer this one, because the option isn’t provided. I vanquish insects. I save alive spiders.
Eight legs good!
Six legs bad!
I never kill spiders. Spiders eat nasty things. The really big ones I will require my husband to take outside, though.
I will kill a stinkbug anywhere. Carefully, without mashing it. My preferred method is to grab them with a tissue and flush 'em.
Most other things I will leave alone if they are outside where they belong.
I would cause the death of Japanese beetles or those web caterpillar things.
Mosquitoes anywhere. Fuckers. They’re a marvel of dipteran design, but I hate them anyway.
Otherwise ants who invest my house, cockroaches likewise ( but I haven’t seen one in my living spaces since I was a kid ). Ticks that attach to me or a pet. Fleas. Other similar pests that impinge upon me by trying to drink my precious bodily fluids or investing my foodstuffs.
Otherwise I tend not too. I’ll catch and release harmless beetles, moths and the like that get trapped in my home and I usually leave spiders alone ( my cats are less accommodating in that regard ). I like stinkbugs, but that is because I live where they aren’t investment-level common.
Fuckin’ roaches. Nothing else on this green earth gives me the irrational heeby-jeebies (rats? love 'em! snakes? cool! spiders? whatevs, they eat mosquitos!) but very large roaches have occasionally driven me to tears.
Dibs: “Tears of Fear” as a band name, if it’s not already taken…
Insects I recognize as problematic (webworms, fleas, etc.) die immediately. Most everything else is cool in my book, particularly outside. I’ll happily sit and watch a caterpillar munching my flowers to skeletons, if I know it’ll turn into a monarch or a swallowtail…
Some insects get to live, some not so much. Carpenter ants could ruin my home. They die. Stink bugs buzz around and make noise. They die. Simply put, if they aren’t bothering me, I probably won’t bother them.
Spiders I ignore almost entirely.
Insects die. Spiders live.
A stink bug will be terminated… Many other creepy crawlers, too.
A spider I will let be. I might even wish it a good night. Exception to spider rule: Daddy Longlegs.
Spiders, I will “escort outside.”
Other bugs I kill. Yuck!
I kill bug inside my flat, except spiders, they eat bugs so they can stay.
There’s one spider by my screen, it’s been their for a long time, so it’s must be a family of spiders as I don’t think one spider could live that long. Actually it’s kind of cool to see her build her web.
Weird how many of you leave spiders alone. I find spiders and spiderwebs in my home to be aesthetically displeasing. Also the fact that their victims’ remains usually end up accumulating in the web, not a nice sight. I escort the spiders out and I vacuum their webs.
I said the second option, as fleas, inside ants, mosquitoes and the like are dead. However, I try not to kill any others, including creepy ones like solfugids, house and other centipedes, and large spiders. I don’t really like killing arthropods, but the first option doesn’t work as I can and do kill larger animals.
All non-authorized intruders die.
I don’t need examples of beneficial sybiosis in my bathroom or kitchen. I need clean and bug-free.
There’s a whole big world outside they can have. The inside is mine.
When they clear-cut and built a new neighborhood behind mine, I had to run a trapline in the basement for 2 years to get rid of the rat population. Now the cat takes care of things…
I only kill mosquitoes and only if they’re trying to bite me. I have three cats and don’t leave food laying around so there are very few bugs that I ever actually see in the house. I lived in an apartment for 6 months at one point with no cats and it had roaches that totally squicked me out, but I didn’t kill them. I just can’t bring myself to.
I try really hard to not kill spiders or insects. My two exceptions are centipedes and mosquitoes: Centipedes because they fucking scare the shit out of me and Mosquitoes because 1- they seem to love me far more than anyone else* and 2- I seem to react to their bites a lot worse than anyone I know (one bite can swell to the size of a dime and have an angry red circle the size of a silver dollar or more, and for some reason if I get one on my upper arm, it’ll make my shoulder ache horrifically for a day).