# Poll about, er, bugs. Possible TMI. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 2, 2011, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596 "2011-11-02T06:11:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/21 "2011-11-02T14:54:54Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > The bug guy we had over said never to use sprays on them because you’ll only kill a few, and those who are split off from the group might go start a new colony. Without a queen and supply of drones to make more ants, it’s be a short-lived colony. Like a little ant Jamestown in your kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/22 "2011-11-02T14:58:47Z")
Ah, roaches. I remember fondly my apartment in Lyon, with the “_lit sur mezzanine_” (essentially a bunk bed with no lower bunk, so you climbed a little ladder, crawled into bed and slept with your nose literally two-and-a-half feet from the ceiling). One morning I opened my eyes to find no fewer than six roaches crawling on the ceiling above me. _♪Bonjour mes amis, bonjour!♫_ The building had a bad roach problem. The exterminator sprayed the first time, but the little buggers were back within six months. After that, he came back with a little eye dropper full of a golden liquid. He put a drop here and there under the sink, under the fridge, etc. Took three days to work, but I never saw another roach. The exterminator told me that they tasted the liquid, went a little bonkers, and began to smell like a roach’s favorite food. They then ate each other out of existence. All very fine, I said, but \*mon ami \*-- the final roach standing must be one big, ferocious, well-fed, insane and adaptive motherfucker, no? ---
**Author:** ![RoniaBorkason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@RoniaBorkason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RoniaBorkason)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/23 "2011-11-02T15:24:06Z")
Bugs and I have an agreement - we’re both allowed to try and kill each other by any means available _while in the other’s home_. So, if a bug is in my house, kill it with fire, if I’m in its house (ie, outside), I just avoid it. Also, if they won’t leave my house alone, I’ll take it outside and all rules are off. ---
**Author:** ![AndyLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@AndyLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyLee)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/24 "2011-11-02T15:32:19Z")
What about bed bugs? I grew up in Florida so you have to get used to roaches, and pretty much any other kind of bug. I hate mosquitos with a passion. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/25 "2011-11-02T16:12:32Z")
> [@Lunar\_Saltlick](#): > > … he came back with a little eye dropper full of a golden liquid. He put a drop here and there under the sink, under the fridge, etc. Took three days to work, but I never saw another roach. The exterminator told me that they tasted the liquid, went a little bonkers, and began to smell like a roach’s favorite food. … Dang. I wonder what this stuff was. Is there really such a thing? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/26 "2011-11-02T17:05:37Z")
I leave spiders alone. It reduces the number of other bugs. Roaches and ants deserve a slow painful death. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/27 "2011-11-02T17:22:41Z")
I live in Florida, home of giant flying palmetto bugs. It can be scary here. However, if I had to choose the single funniest thing I ever saw in my life, it would have to be the time I saw a giant flying palmetto bug leap off the curtains and fall down my mother’s cleavage. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/28 "2011-11-02T18:59:39Z")
I gently rehome spiders that are too big for Himself to ignore. Roaches, I pretend I don’t see and let the cats deal with them, or when we had a problem with the little ones when the people next door got evicted boric acid handled it fine (and was very cheap.) Generally speaking, I don’t kill things without a good reason. ETA - Dung Beetle, that happened to me once. You may have heard the noise I made, three states away. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/29 "2011-11-02T19:17:28Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > ETA - Dung Beetle, that happened to me once. You may have heard the noise I made, three states away. I _wondered_ what that was! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/30 "2011-11-02T19:33:37Z")
> [@emmaliminal](#): > > Dang. I wonder what this stuff was. Is there really such a thing? Frankly, I have searched, but found nothing like it. And I kid you not – that was a true story. Now, whether the exterminator was just shitting me, and was simply using an especially effective poison or something, I do not know. But that was the story he gave me. This was in 2002 in Lyon, France. He said it was a new treatment, and extremely effective. Whatever it was, and however it worked, it worked well, because I swear I never saw another roach in that apartment. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/31 "2011-11-02T19:33:50Z")
Nobody helped me, either! It happened outside and there were, like, five people there including my boyfriend and they all leaped away and said “OH GOD GROSS!” while I tried to claw it out of my cleavage, screaming. (Me, not the bug. Or the cleavage, on its own.) There were… so many legs. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Bosstrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstrain)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/32 "2011-11-02T21:47:13Z")
My war against spiders is personal, I have very little beef with other insects, but spiders are the subject of my wrath, mostly because I dislike the fact that something small and undetectable can potentially cause severe pain and possibly death from some types. A large predator I can see coming and eliminate it before it gets a chance to become a threat, a spider (black widows are common in my area) is a foe that I cannot see until it _is_ a threat, thus leveling the playing field a lot more. Sure, there’s a lot of spiders that aren’t dangerous, but they should have chosen to be something else instead :D, I will exterminate all eight legged insects with extreme prejudice and place there bodies on toothpicks (like heads on spears) so the next one to invade my home will shudder in fear while walking through the arachnid graveyard [evil laugh ensues]. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/33 "2011-11-02T22:03:16Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > If the spider is reasonably prim and proper looking and it’s not harassing me, it gets trapped in a discarded water bottle and eventually released. If it’s frightening or annoying, it dies. > > I’ve never seen a cockroach, and I hope I die ignorant. I’d probably resort to arson if I had them. > > Ants get poisoned. Spiders and ants, the same. I have seen cockroaches, and I have resorted to arson (among other methods :D). Make a ring around them with lighter fuel, then ignite. It’s amusing to watch them not know where to run, then as the oxygen in the center of the ring gets used up, the flames go inward and the bug dies a horribly amusing death. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/34 "2011-11-02T22:53:02Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Nobody helped me, either! It happened outside and there were, like, five people there including my boyfriend and they all leaped away and said “OH GOD GROSS!” while I tried to claw it out of my cleavage, screaming. (Me, not the bug. Or the cleavage, on its own.) There were… so many legs. You needed a Real Man[sup]®[/sup] like me. I would have _ **instantly** _ run to your rescue, ripped your bodice, freeing your… errrr … _ **bug** _ (yeah, _that’s_ what I was trying to think of), and then stomped it into an udderly …err.. _ **utterly** _ unrecognizable bugstain for you, earning your undying love and affection. Then I would have given you my shirt, while helping you repack those… ummm… Well, I’d help you repack _ **them** _ in _my_ shirt (which I _gave_ you off my _back_, wench! Doesn’t that earn me any _gratitude???_). How _you_ doin’? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/35 "2011-11-02T22:58:01Z")
I understand the value of spiders in keeping other bugs at bay - but my property has become spider ranch. On any given weekend I can locate and destroy at least 30 of varying sizes - including big juicy black widows. So, for now, for me, spiders are bye bye! ---
**Author:** ![FlyByNight512](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/82dd89/32.png) [@FlyByNight512](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyByNight512)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/36 "2011-11-03T04:11:12Z")
Ugh, I cannot stand spiders. I’m actually too squeamish to smash the big ones - there is NOTHING more disgusting than smeared spider guts. And I’m always a little afraid that they’ll smash me right back. So the big ones (by which I mean 1 to 3 inches from leg tip to leg tip) get put outside, the little ones meet Mr. Tissue and Mr. Garbage Can. I understand their role in the food chain and actually think they’re pretty nifty creatures, I just start sweating when confronted with a sufficiently detailed picture, let alone the real thing. What really makes me furious is that the big, scary spiders aren’t native to this area, they’re an invasive species. We’re not supposed to have anything that gets larger than half an inch, which I can handle. But noooo, this one species lives only in the milder parts of England… and here. Damn you Brits, your sexy accents are not worth the freaky spiders! Take them and leave! ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/37 "2011-11-03T04:15:10Z")
I do not share my space with bugs if I can at all avoid it. I assume that any insect that approaches me in my space is suicidal and grant it’s wish to die. Thankfully have never lived in a place with roaches. Spiders usually get sprayed with something (not poison, but hey, if you can live after being soaked with Lysol, then I’ll probably just smack you with a magazine). Ants get the small poison bait treatment. Flies. I hates flies. I will hunt them down and kill them by any means possible. ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/38 "2011-11-03T05:30:44Z")
Scorpions, tarantulas, brown recluse spiders, nearly any SW desert insect doesn’t bother me. What freaks me the hell out? **Moths**. Roaches and crickets/grasshoppers are distant seconds. The only bugs I kill are the disease carriers or unrelocatable killers. Except for roaches, I always feel guilty. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/39 "2011-11-03T08:31:40Z")
Not enough relevant poll options for me. In general though, ejection is preferrable to: Squishing, because that makes a mess which I then have to clean up Poisoning, because I don’t like spraying poison around the house, and it may harm pets. Cockroaches aren’t a problem where I live, neither are ants. Flies get trapped and fed to my daughter’s gerbils. Summary execution is only meted out to wasps and hornets if it seems like they’re in a sting-y mood (which is nearly always, by the time they’ve come indoors, in practice) ---
**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:** [November 3, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596/40 "2011-11-03T13:36:28Z")
I really like bugs. I don’t kill them and I rarely eject them from my house - unless they swarm. Swarming anything I am willing to resort to killing them. I’ve killed ants twice via poison and fruit flies with vinegar and dish soap. I always feel guilty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-about-er-bugs-possible-tmi/601596.md?page=3)