murdering hapless bugs because they are ugly

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well i just killed a big blowfly. it buzzed horribly for ages, bashing itself against the window before finally dying.
yet, i would gently carry a spider outside, or a weta ( local creepy ), even slugs get scooped up and popped out the door, so it seems pretty mean to kill flies just because they have a bad reputation and look fugly. i mean, if you saw a weta you would have to agree it is one of THE most unattractive bugs around, but i couldnt bring myself to kill one. hypocritical hey.

― donna (donna), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 00:23 (twenty-two years ago)

no it's ok to kill blowflies because they carry diseases that could potentially (it's a long shot but it's poss.) kill YOU. wetas merely look scary so it's good that you treat them with consideration. also they are natives of course which makes me more favourably disposed towards any creatures. i dunno about slugs, i admit that i only don't kill them because i would find squashing one even more disgusting than dealing with it in its alive state.

― duane zarkoff (hellbaby), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 00:49 (twenty-two years ago)

http://schoolipm.ifas.ufl.edu/graphics/earwig.jpg

― ron (ron), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 02:24 (twenty-two years ago)

wetas are rare and endangered, flies (& roaches) are doing alright for themselves. Though from the perspective of the individual fly this does not mean a lot.

― isadora (isadora), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 02:25 (twenty-two years ago)

once upon a time, my cousin and i decided to make a little horror movie with some slugs. this involved me holding dozens of them in my hands and getting completely covered in slime, which proved to be a poor idea cuz that shit does not come off!

― ron (ron), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 02:38 (twenty-two years ago)

that is gross, ron. i dont touch them, they are way too slimy so they get scooped up with a bit of paper and i just hope like hell that they dont fall off and land on ME on the way to the door!

― donna (donna), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 03:47 (twenty-two years ago)

haha yeah, we were probably about 11 so being gross was a full-time endeavor!

― ron (ron), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 04:05 (twenty-two years ago)

When I was a kid I used to love to salt slugs... just watch them dissolve into a pile of orange goo.

Heheh.

― Jen (nstop), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 05:27 (twenty-two years ago)

i'd like to see one of the new gladiator bugs, first new insect order in 87 years.

― keith (keithmcl), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 05:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I misread bugs as bums and I had a great story to tell, oh well...

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 06:38 (twenty-two years ago)

http://arnica.csustan.edu/photos/animals/Potato_bug_3.jpg

― gygax!, Tuesday, 3 December 2002 06:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd be too scared to kill a weta anyway cos of the spikey leg things. Wetas aren't nearly as annoying as flies anyway.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 08:44 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, i see, weta = earwig.

spiders are mercilessly dealt with in our house, because they give meg the heebie-jeebies and it means i get to to be the hero by squooshing them ;)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 09:43 (twenty-two years ago)

we spent about half an hour stalking a fly in my friends shed about 2 weeks ago. We opened the doors and tried to let it escape but it just wouldn't leave and it was really annoying, we were trying to have a conversation. Anyway I had a National Geographic, the elephant edition from years ago, as a weapon and I hit it full force but it stayed alive. We must have both hit it a few times and it kept just going more and more into a frenzy. If it was ancient Rome the crowd would have given it such a thumbs up and we'd have had to let it live but it wasn't so eventually we killed it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 10:41 (twenty-two years ago)

a centipede ran across my desk the other day. I nearly crapped myself!

― Mark C (Mark C), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 12:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Insect gladiators!

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 12:52 (twenty-two years ago)

When I was little we used to BURN slugs. Now that is gross.

Even grosser: Picking tics off the dogs when I lived on a farm and dropping them in a bottle full of poison.

Yesterday I looked down at my hand and saw a wee bug. Instead of just trying to kill it, I was very nice and decided to see what kind it was first. So I got down really close to it and it leaped off - a flea! Arghh!! But thankfully I didn't see any more after that.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

wetas arent earwigs, they are more like a giant kind of cockroach with longer legs, fatter bodies that are segmented and their legs have spikey bits.

― donna (donna), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah carsmile what the hell kind of "earwigs" you got in england?!

donna i don't think they look anything like cockroaches either tho.

― dz, Saturday, 7 December 2002 07:26 (twenty-two years ago)

ron, did you really think you were not going to DIE for putting that disgusting earwig up there? next time I see you . . .

― felicity (felicity), Saturday, 7 December 2002 07:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Aren't wetas like grasshoppers? Maybe? Bout 5 years ago my pa's house was infested with earwigs. I fell asleep watching TV one hot night with my shirt off and woke up with 4 or 5 of them on my arms and stomach nabbin me with those damn little pinchers...anyway we got rid of 'em.

― B, Saturday, 7 December 2002 08:04 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah grasshoppers, sorta. maybe a cricket's the closest thing.

― dz (gegoss), Saturday, 7 December 2002 11:21 (twenty-two years ago)

well i don't know, i *assumed* the pic above was of a so-called weta and that this was some sort of antipodean word for earwig, as it looked like an earwig to me...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Saturday, 7 December 2002 11:42 (twenty-two years ago)

http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/hort/homehort/Earwig.jpg

― dz (gegoss), Saturday, 7 December 2002 11:49 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.gowild.org.uk/resources/curriculum/science/G%20Roles/earwig/earwig.gif

― d (gegoss), Saturday, 7 December 2002 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

http://ag.arizona.edu/urbanipm/insects/images/earwig-c.jpg

― d (gegoss), Saturday, 7 December 2002 11:54 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.mikestree.com/earwig.gif

― d (gegoss), Saturday, 7 December 2002 11:54 (twenty-two years ago)

http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/earwig4.jpg

― +Duane (gegoss), Saturday, 7 December 2002 11:58 (twenty-two years ago)

nice

― felicity (felicity), Monday, 9 December 2002 13:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Lordy! Why did Peter Jackson call his CGI company after that uglee a creature. Mental man-ho(bbit).

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Monday, 9 December 2002 14:02 (twenty-two years ago)

At a couple of places I've lived, we've had these really weird long centipede-like bugs crawl out of the spout in the bathtub. I think they're called silver bugs, or something like that. Oh no, they're called silverfish. I would be taking a peaceful little bath and then hoards of them would start crawling out the drain like a nightmare.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Monday, 9 December 2002 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

silverfish like warm dry places so this proves you nevah WASH sarah!!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 9 December 2002 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

six months pass...

The rainy season has ended here and we are finally into the dead heat of summer, which means that I will no longer have to vacuum up piles of little dead God-knows-whats from around the base of my lamp, I will no longer have to smash fat giant ants with my paperback of Finnegans Wake, and I can stop brushing the webs from all the dark corners in my room where spiders set up camp in my room to feed on said little God-knows-whats. Hopefully I won't have to drown any more moths or crickets that crop up in my bathroom, either.

Damn insects. Damn them all.

― Millar (Millar), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 02:06 (twenty-two years ago)

And damn slugs, damn them to hell. Why do these. Little. FUCKERS. Insist on believing that my herb garden is for their own personal consumption?

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 02:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I have slain a silverfish just now. I had no remorse.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Heavens! That wasn't very kind of you:-)

― estela (estela), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:09 (twenty-two years ago)

no thats ok they deserve to die because they eat books & ideas are more important than individual lives

― duane, Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:12 (twenty-two years ago)

i've found a few roaches in my apartment this past week. in two cases i snatched them with two fingers and then tossed them in the toilet. this last unlucky bug, i watched as he flailed helplessly in the water before i flushed him down. it was horrible. i can't believe i am capable of such cruelty. i don't know why i did it. typically i go out of my way to walk around ants and so on. i think i need to repent.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:16 (twenty-two years ago)

i think god will judge me harshly. and what good would it do to apologize to the little bug now?

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm quite merciless when it comes to bugs inside my house. Outside they can do what they like but if they come inside they usually have to die because I'm too skittery to live with them. If you'd ever been woken by a giant striped cockroach crawling scratchily up your neck and across your face you'd empathise.

― estela (estela), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:28 (twenty-two years ago)

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