People kill harmless spiders all the time (I’m not referring to black widows, brown recluses or Sydney funnel-web spiders, but harmless ones) for no other reason other than that the spiders cause fear and distress. And this sentiment is often widely supported (i.e., the meme, “A spider? Nuke it from orbit!”)
But is it really justifiable to kill something simply because it causes fear?
The killing of wolves (if for no good reason) is condemned. Same for sharks. What if someone were afraid of butterflies? (I do know someone with a phobia of butterflies, by the way.) Wouldn’t they be condemned for killing butterflies?
So all said and done, why should the killing of harmless spiders (for no purpose other than fear) be condoned? Interestingly, political left-wingers and right-wingers alike both seem likely to fear and kill spiders.
They’re a nuisance, getting to clothing, hair, bedding, etc. They leave webs here and there, unsightly and traps for dust and dirt. I eliminate them along with gnats, fruitflies, houseflies, crickets, etc that invade my space.
In addition, they’re not endangered, their nervous systems are so simple that they don’t suffer, and they are in my way. No fear involved.
And fear is an acceptable reason to kill them, IMHO. If someone gets a better night’s sleep due to knowing the spider in their bedroom got killed, they’re likely to be a safer driver, more attentive parent or employee the next day.
I have no desire to join the Jain religion. I can admire a desire to do no harm to living things, but I destroy countless non-pathogenic bacteria, plants, and other simple living organisms just by going about my acts of daily living. Why should spiders get a pass?
I do not kill harmless spiders. My wife vacuums them up, whacks them with brooms and the like, and she hates their webs. I leave them be, and in return they kill non-harmless bugs. I also think killing spiders brings bad luck. I have never heard that anywhere, or seen any indication that it is true, but why tempt fate?
I routinely condemn the killing of spiders.
I do so on personal level when I encounter a person actively trying to kill a spider.
I do not make a point of broadcasting that condemnation to the entire world, (or even the SDMB), where such condemnation would simply raise the ire of arachnophobes without actually causing them to desist from their behavior.
I also suspect that this thread would do better in IMHO or MPSIMS than in Great Debates.
I will leave it here, for a while, to see how it plays out.
I think there is neither too large nor too small a level of condemnation of killing spiders. I avoid killing them myself but don’t care too much if people do as long as they are killed instantaneously with a hard object against a hard surface for an instant death. Those who would outright condemn killing them had better be vegetarians, since mammals and even chickens and fish have a much higher awareness of pain and suffering than spiders do. (I feel the same way about abortion, by the way. An adult cow or pig is definitely more sentient than a newly formed embryo, but I have little qualms about eating meat.)
How do I know at a glance whether they are harmless or not?
I don’t kill the spiders in my home , if it’s warm outside I will move it out doors to find more bugs to eat. I like having at least one spider in my house to trap flies that sneak in . I hate flies in my house !
I kill harmless spiders and I’m proud of it. I know that, after the nuclear apocalypse, I’ll be first against the wall when the giant radioactive spiders emerge to reclaim the Earth, but until then, fuck 'em! They’re freaky looking, they have too many eyes, and they move weird. They’re basically the closest thing we’ve got to actual aliens. If I see a spider in my bedroom, I literally can’t sleep until I’ve squashed the little fucker. If that makes me a bad person, fine. I’m totally cool with that.
I also have a zero-tolerance policy towards moths and bluebottles.
Well, for what it’s worth, it’s been hypothesized that irrational fear of spiders (and snakes, and scorpions) tends to be stronger in humans and other primates than various other fears, as it’s an evolved response to avoid being bitten.
So given that many people who kill spiders are likely to be experiencing severe emotions of fear and distress, even though they’re not rational in the present context, I give them a pass. Especially since (as has been pointed out) spiders are not endangered and have simple nervous systems, so killing spiders is not different, ecologically or humanitarianly (?), from killing common insects.
That said, as I personally don’t suffer from arachnophobia and appreciate spiders’ bug-eating services, I don’t kill them in most situations and don’t encourage other people to kill them. (I do routinely destroy their webs when I’m cleaning house, but I let the evicted spider scuttle to safety first.)
And I agree that it’s fine to disapprove of and discourage the actual glorification of arachnicide with internet memes and the like. Kill spiders if it makes you feel better, but don’t act like you’ve done something heroic. There’s nothing heroic about killing harmless creatures.
Depends where you are. If you’re in any serious doubt as to whether a particular spider might be dangerous, then by all means kill it as safely and swiftly as possible.
Everybody who’s not too phobic to even look at a picture of a spider should familiarize themselves with the basic appearance of dangerously venomous spiders in their geographical area, whether or not you oppose unnecessarily killing spiders. In North America, those are mostly the black widow and the brown recluse.
#notallspiders
I kill the ones in my house because they are in my house and too gross to want to try and trap and release, especially with the wife freaking out about them laying eggs in her brain and underwear and whatever else other inane reasons.
Spider Lives Matter.
I wouldn’t dream of hurting them.
I agree with the OP. I’m not saying I’ve never killed a spider, but as I get older I just tend to move them outside or ignore them altogether.
I tend to leave them alone. if they’re up on the wall somewhere out of my way, all good. Daddy Longlegs keep the redbacks away and also work well on mossies so they’re a protected species.
Get in the wrong spot though and become squished. There are no warnings.
Why is the killing of harmless spiders not condemned? It is if you’re a Navajo. Spiders are a big part of their folklore.
Because they’re fricking spiders, which means they’re damn arthropods, which means they’re basically organic robots. They don’t have sufficiently complex brains Jr neurological systems for anything bkuje what we’d call consciousness and may safely be assumed to have no moral value except in aggregate. It might be ecologicalli bad to wipe out an entire species, but one, if even a thousand? Meh. There’s 345,687,421,908 more in West Memphis alone.
It doesn’t raise my ire; I acknowledge, without hesitation, you’re right. I shouldn’t be killing spiders. The spider never did anything to me. If anything, he’s made my life better, by killing other pests.
But phobias work on a level completely divorced from reason. When I see a spider in my home, the phobia takes over, and reason goes to pieces. So do I. I squeal and scream and make a goddam fool of myself. And…yeah, I go after the spider with crazed panicky fury.
No ire whatever. You’re completely right.
(Sigh: had to skip watching a recent episode of Miss Fisher Mysteries, because it involved spiders and spider-venom. Bummer, as I love that show!)
(I also can’t watch that scene in Dr. No, or that scene in The Return of the King.)
Spiders eat roaches. Stop killing spiders.