Awwww, Veb. I don’t mind sending the little beasties to Insect Valhalla, but I chafe, yea chafe, under the previously mentioned Rules of Engagement for Insect Termination. I feel my supernatural bug-killing prowess must not be hampered in any way if they are truly to be used for truth and justice.
Last complaint from Mrs. Blue was the use of her Velvet the Panther Ty Beanie Baby to dispatch a june bug that unwisely crossed paths with me. No harm came to Velvet, which was enclosed in its retired acrylic case. My novel approach was not appreciated by the missus, but widely applauded by Kidpony #1, who attempted to collect more june bugs for a ritual slaughter. I guess it’s back to the National Geographics or our new subscription to Parents magazine, which I never read anyway.
I got a laugh picturing Cristi dispatching *las cucarachas* with broadsword and that cool Xena Frisbee of Death. I have a soft spot in my heart for barbarian beserker chicks. ;)
I am a Top Gun of the fly world—I’m to the point where I can smack 'em out of midair with a swatter, I don’t even have to wait for them to light.
But—like many Dopers, it seems—I am totally skeeved out by spiders. I can kill them, but with a good deal of shuddering. I remember when my college roomie and I were menaced by a huge spider, we both actually leaped onto chairs, lifted our skirts and yelled “EEK!” like in a 1950s cartoon. So some stereotypes do have basis in fact . . .
I tend to scoop and put outside, not so much because I believe that insects should be protected (except spiders. I like spiders, I think they should be protected.) but more because I consider dealing with the little corpses disgusting. I hate when they smoosh against the magazine or wall or whatever.
The exception I have is that I do kill those evil little moths that get into food. I hate those things. They all must die.
Ok good someone else said what I was going to say. No, I don’t kill bugs and neither does my husband and we try to teach Nicky not to either. I’ve actually gotten quite good at snatching flies out of the air and tossing them outside.
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From an actual catalog: “Disco balls create an enchanting, dazzling effect of light shafts, adding movement and glamour to any occasion” the Abrams’ bris was certainly memorable
O p a l C a t www.opalcat.com
Some of you admit (nay boast) that you kill bugs and spiders?
Look, Order Diptera is probably fair game, they just about all bite, spread disease, or both. I’ll swat flies and mosquitoes with the rest of you. Roaches are also fair targets (although I haven’t had to deal with one since I left the inner city 21 years ago).
The rest of those critters are just living their lives. We don’t even move spiders outside. (Beetles get moved if they start buzzing loudly around the room looking for an exit.) (And I do have my wife’s approval on these rules.)
Even the wasps and bees get removed gently. An Old Fashioned glass or one of those clear containers that deli salads come in are perfect, together with a post-card or other stiff paper. Trap the beastie between the container and a window (where you can see what you’re doing), then slide the card across between the window and the container, being sure not to drag off a leg. Hold the card against the container until you get to the door, then flick it outward (retrieving your hand and closing the door, quickly).
We consider it a wasted summer if our jumping spider doesn’t nest in the mailbox and the orb-weavers don’t decorate the bushes in front of the house.
=:O
that would spell divorce for me. Or if someone did that in my home, they’d be instantly told to leave and never come back.
Oh, and if I have a bug and a guest in my home, I tell them not to kill it if they look like they’re about to. Then I catch it and take it outside. Some people think this is rude, but hey. If you were anti-abortion, you wouldn’t let someone have an abortion in your home. I’m anti-unneccessary-killing and it isn’t allowed in my home.
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From an actual catalog: “Disco balls create an enchanting, dazzling effect of light shafts, adding movement and glamour to any occasion” the Abrams’ bris was certainly memorable
O p a l C a t www.opalcat.com
(Off-topic.) Gross things that happen that you didn’t mean to.
My spouse was mowing the lawn and he came across a little turtle. The grass had gotten pretty high, and he was afraid he’d hit it. So he picked it up and tenderly placed it under the deck, where it would be safe, and went on mowing. A little while later - KA-WHACK!!! Apparently the turtle didn’t like it under the deck. My spouse was sick about that (literally.) This is a man who uses live-animal traps for the rats that occasionally come to visit, and takes them away somewhere because he can’t kill them.
(On topic) I don’t kill spiders, either - they’re my friends. Except I do look to be sure they aren’t black widows or brown recluses.
My designated SO and I have a covenant with many clauses, of which one is:
L) Bugs and Vermin–There are no gender specific role assignments regarding the dispatchment of insectivora and whatnot in the apartment. If Dottye screams, Allan may elect to do squishing duties, but it is not his duty and she is not to insist upon it.
Bugs, snakes, mice, lizards do not bother me.I have no problems in the killing and desposing of said creatures.
Hubby, OTOH, is a (rhymes with )wussy about bugs. Can’t stand 'em. You should see him when the mosquitos attack him. It’s funnier than the stooges. Get his Mom and his sister together and its a comedy act.
It’s also a German thing.
I was sitting at his Grandma’s house in Germany and a big black fly comes inside.(They don’t have screens over there because they don’t have the bug problem that most of us over here have.) Just one black fly. EVERYONE in the room grabs a newspaper and starts whiffing at it in the air. I almost peed my pants from laughter. The fly, I strongly suspect, died from hysterics.
That what does not kill me, postpones the inevitable.
I can relate to ‘Suzeanne’. The wife wakes me up, (I work shift work), screaming of this ‘hugh, woman-eating spider’ that was about the size of my pinky finger-nail. Another time she calls me at work, DEMANDS!!! that I come home and kill another ‘woman-eating’
spider. Roaches/waterbugs/other assorted creatures bring about the same response.
I pity the fool that brings a knife to a gun fight.