I hate the bug haters

The BBQ Pit
1

[Not specifically Pitting anyone, just bee/spider haters in general]

Look people, see that little bee flying in the air? It’s got the whole weight of the hive on it’s hands (figuratively speaking) and you’re going to flail widely at it to make it go away. And guess what? It decided to get angry and sting you!

Why is it that people’s immediate reaction to bees is to go “Arggh! Bee!” and throw things at it? OK, bee allegies are going to be a problem, but making the bees angry isn’t going to help matters is it?

Look, just carmly and gently bush it off with a piece of paper. Don’t run around, don’t make loud noises. Yes I know they’re not cute and fluffly like kittens, but could you just control yourselves?

And spiders! Would you rather have huge swarms of flies unchecked by predatory animals? Admittedly, spiders in your clothes is not a nice thing, but would you rather have a spider gently shaken from your pants, or an angry, partially crushed double amputee looking for revenge over the stupid nutter who squealled and dropped stuff on him until he crawled out of there?

Gasp gasp pant There, I think I got it out of my system.

2

It’s precisely because I don’t scream and throw things at and stomp on the beasties that I am now experiencing this. I generally leave spiders alone. Honey bees have not yet found their way into my home. I will do my best to get any that do back outside. Yellow jackets have come in. They die.

3

Oh, sorry about that peri. Ummm… perhaps it’s OK to throw things and scream in moderation?:confused:

How about these guys?

4

IMO bees are as cute and fluffy as bugs get; the creepy spawns of hell critters that lurk waiting to bite, sting or suck your fluids are the ones I avert. Not that I go a-stomping and a-spatting the things, I just try to avoid any sort of contact. Heck, I even mind my steps if I notice an ant hill, in case I my crush a few hundreds poor opressed workers… :wink:
But if a spider as much as looks at me funny with any of it´s 8 eyes, I promote it to abstract art; if you get what I mean. :smiley:

5

I’m from Bueno Aires and i say Kill them All!!!

6

I’ve had pretty good results with just saying, in a firm voice, “I am not a flower”.

Spiders just need to learn to be small enough that I can’t see their leg hair.

7

I can’t handle spiders.

It all stems back to when I was three, and there was one of those little fuzzy spiders on my shirt. I tried to brush it off, but it wouldn’t go away, and it kept crawling up my shirt and towards my face. I freaked out and started crying. My dad saved me.

Nope, don’t like spiders. I don’t kill them, only because I’m too afraid to get close enough to do so.

Bugs however, I don’t mind. I like most bugs actually. Rolie Polies are my favorite. :slight_smile:

8

I love bees. They’re cute and fuzzy and they are pretty docile (note that I’m not talking about Africanized bees or Killer Martian Death Bees or anything) unless you get near their hive or start going apeshit around them.

I’ve been stung once. It was an accident–I was in sixth grade and I accidentally crushed a bee against my leg (I didn’t know the bee was there at the time, obviously) and the poor thing stung me as she died.

So… three weeks worth of Penecillin later, I was back to normal and so on, and was on doctor’s orders to not get stung by any more bees. And I haven’t been.

But I can’t resist the little gals and frequently let them land on my hand and walk around. They like to drink soda drops off your fingertips and they’re just fascinating to watch. I’ve handled hundreds of bees and never been stung by one of them. There’s certainly no need to start screaming your head off or flailing around.

Now I know other bugs are quicker to bite or sting… like horseflies, yellowjackets, and some wasps… those I just try to avoid when possible. If I see a wasp, I keep an eye on where it is and try to maneouver away from it. It’s worked so far–I’ve never been stung by one.

Been bit by horseflies though.

9

Bees are great. I’ve tried to explain to friends and loved ones that bees won’t sting you if you just leave them alone. I let them land on me, walk around, do whatever they came to do, and everything is fine.

I’ve only had one bad bee experience, and to this day, I can’t figure out why. I was at a family reunion at Bear Lake when I was about 6 or 7. I was walking on the beach towards the lake, and then out of nowhere, this massive bumble bee (which are usually timid), starting to ambush me. It was chasing me all over, it stung me once, and I had to run back to the safety of the campsite to get away from it.

I don’t know what I did to piss it off, but it was mad.

10

My standard procedure for bees that are encroaching on my space is to flick them out the window using my middle finger and thumb. It doesn’t appear to do them any harm, and it’s faster than trying to encourage them outside with a piece of foolscap or something.

I prefer them outside more because I find their noise and hovering annoying than from any concern that they might sting.

Spiders don’t bother me.

There’s no delicate way of getting a damned moth outside without killing/seriously damaging it. That doesn’t bother me. I hate moths. Destructive, and when them bump up against you, they leave residue. I’d rather have a hundred spiders crawling on me than to have one of the damned bat-sized moths we have around here blunder into my pale visage, having mistaken it for the moon.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the shower.

11

Moths are easy to catch and take outside… ?
–Opal, who rescues bugs whenever reasonably possible, and ignores them when it isn’t

12

Yeah, I know, Opal, but I’ve been led to believe that they are so delicate that anything but the slightest touch will knock enough scales off of the wing to start an irreversible trend of deterioration that will eventually prove fatal.

Again, with moths, this doesn’t really bother me, (completely ignoring for the moment that I have no idea if it’s actually true,) although there are a host of insects which I would take great care to avoid doing injury to.

13

I don’t hate all bugs, just the ones that come into my house, uninvited.

Roly polies, ladybugs, lightning bugs, and crickets I like.

Spiders, flies, and anything that can sting me, I don’t like. I am smart enough to not aggravate any stingy bugs though. If I notice one, I generally freeze out of fear, then move carefully and slowly out of the way.

14

I don’t generally mind invertebrates, but I try to use the glass-and-postcard method to remove them because it reduces the risk of injury to the creepy-crawly (and some things like crickets and shield bugs aren’t pleasant to handle because the barbs on their feet mean they don’t let go easily).

Wasps die in my house though; I have been stung far too many times by them to consider them worth humanely removing (little bastards don’t appreciate it anyway). As I have said in other threads, the “leave them alone and they won’t hurt you” thing is not absolutely true with wasps because “leaving them alone” really means “stay out of their way and let them crawl on your food” - sure, they only attack if provoked, but their provocation threshold is in reality so low that you can trigger it quite innocently and unknowingly.

15

For moths I just catch them in two cupped hands… doesn’t really touch them much more than their own walking around would, I don’t think. They just crawl around on the inside until I release them out the door.

16

This is like a Hollywood Squares post. Agree, or disagree? (That is HS, right?)

Anyway, I heard, and I can’t remember where, that insects are sensitive to carbon dioxide emitted by large animals (because we emit so much). I’ve heard that if you blow in their direction they will tend to fly away.

We have wasps around here that buzz you so much it feels like the English Channel in 1940. Well, if you have an overactive imagination and seriously downplay what war is all about. But, you get my drift. When they buzz my face I blow hard at them and it seems to make them fly away more often than not.

Now, some entemologist come in here, or Snopesophile, and set me straight. But, anecdotally anyway, it seems to work.

Bees never mess with me. Our whole back yard is flowering. They are way too busy to pay any attention to me. Spiders, I mentioned on another thread must be wrangled. This requires three paper towels. You wad them up into a soft arachnid trap. Chase the furry little cutie, cup the paper towels over it, gently squeeze and lift. Hopefully at this point it doesn’t come running out of your lousy trap and scamper up your arm onto your face.

Hey, it’s never happened to me. Just don’t be careless. Oh yeah, last step, throw the spider well out into the back yard.

In our yard even a decent sized spider is just another prey item: anoles, toads, mutant aggressive Cuban tree frogs, big toads and native tree frogs (the ones the Cubans don’t eat), birds, small snakes, fire ants, and more will all be happy to munch on a lazy house spider.

17

I was just thinking of posting about this. I also think bees are cute and fluffy, and I can think of nothing more soporific on a warm day than to sit near my French lavender listening to them buzz in and out of the spires of purple flowers. This morning a lovely black-and-yellow plump bumblebee joined the honey bees, and her coloring was beautiful against the lavender bloom.

AfterAugust, that was unusual. I’ve also never seen an aggressive bumblebee. All the ones I’ve ever seen have been docile and slow, but I’ll admit the big ones scared me when I was a little kid.

18

I was attacked by a bee last week. Or maybe it was a wasp. Or maybe it was of the philum Big Fat Hairy Ugly Stingy Thing.

Anyway, I don’t know what this critter was smokin’, but he took an unnatural and rather disturbing interest in my crotch. As sexually liberated as I like to think I am, even I have limits, and Mr. Stingy was about to violate at least 3 of them.

So I tried swatting it, flailing at it, ignoring it, yelling at it, and even reading it poetry. All to no avail.

Then I discovered the attraction: I was wearing swim trunks with a Hawaiian pattern. A floral pattern. I should have guessed – the little bugger either thought my crotch was a magic teleportation gate to Maui, or was trying to pollinate my package.

A flash of inspiration hit me. I could simply remove the offending garment and fling it across the beach. It was a brilliant plan, elegant in its simplicity, and best of all it involved nudity. I proceeded to execute my maneuver.

I was stopped in my tracks by the shrill shreiking of a bevy of beautiful bathing babes who seemed to scream in unison, “AH! MY EYES! THEY BURN! LILY-WHITE FLABBY MAN-ASS! MAKE IT STOP!”

I proceeded on to plan B – I wrapped a towel around myself. Problem solved.

19

Bees: No problem.

Spiders: No problem.

Fire ants: Spawn of the devil that must be rooted out and destroyed. Here, poison is your friend.

20

No no man, you are talking about beetles. I hate beetles. I hate roaches especially. I don’t know if they are a beetle, but I hate those little earwig things. I hate any thing that resembles a beetle: anything that is black and crunchy when you step on it. Like crickets…I hate crickets. My Lord, I hate beetles. Why do they have to be so resilient?