Yuck.
So I am spending A LOT of my time escorting beetles, spiders, assorted flying insects, centipedes (including the one that bit me on the neck a couple of weeks ago, leaving me with a nice little infection), and so forth back to their natural habitat.
One of the off things about living here is that every year, about this time (and a corresponding time in the spring), there is a hatch of millipedes. They're small, from an inch to an inch and a half in length, and seemingly harmless. They come into the house at night, wander around, and then curl into little coils (think of a snail-shell for the visualization) and die. That's it. They come in, walk around, and die. So every night, at least once an hour, we have to walk around and gather-up all of these millipedes that we can find (usually about 25 in a typical round-up) and toss them back into the yard (where they should be cruising around eating leaves and doing that whole mulching thing). And every morning I have to go around with the little hand-held vacuum cleaner, sucking-up all of the little corpses of the millipedes who came in and died. Kind of depressing.
Now, last Saturday, my new pet arrived. She's sweet, she's tender, she's affectionate, she's playful. She's also an Insectivore. And it seems that her favorite thing to do is to waddle around the floor, sniffing out millipedes and then crunching them down (in a slightly disturbing "crunch and slobber" manner).
All of these millipedes have come to think of this house as being a safe-haven. Is it morally acceptable to now allow all of those who venture inside to be consumed, or should I keep Miss Penelope Anne from stalking the little beasties and dining on their tender flesh?
Here's a photo of Miss Penelope after she had just eaten a millipede:http://www.lauraslist.org/031027%20-%20Penelope%201-5%20-%20Small.jpg
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 04:21 (twenty-two years ago)
― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 04:40 (twenty-two years ago)
(Oh, and what DB said.)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 04:45 (twenty-two years ago)
I also own a hamster who sleeps in his habitrail tunnel:
http://www.lauraslist.org/031027%20-%20Norbert%20Sleeping%20in%20Tube%201-1%20-%20Small.jpg
Miss Penelope Anne wonders if that is a sincere compliment:
http://www.lauraslist.org/031027%20-%20Penelope%201-3%20-%20Small.jpg
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 04:46 (twenty-two years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 04:47 (twenty-two years ago)
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 04:48 (twenty-two years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 04:48 (twenty-two years ago)
But hedgies (as those of us in "the know" call them) take-up much less room. And they're good at controlling the bug population.
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 04:50 (twenty-two years ago)
― Priscilla Beaulieu Magnatech (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 05:14 (twenty-two years ago)
Remember, the Wolf culls itself.And we know what a noble beast the Wolf is.
They are bugs. You are a human. If you do not feed the lowly insects to your pets, you must crush them. It does not have to without mercy, but you kill them anyway, that is when you drive your car. They are bugs.
― Star Hustler, Wednesday, 29 October 2003 05:55 (twenty-two years ago)
And SHES SO KYOOT! I want one! I don't think my cat would agree though.
― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 06:47 (twenty-two years ago)
We have to draw a line at some level of animal life. Arbitrary though it may be. I personally think we have a duty to kill all the bugs that crawl around our houses. Or have a delightful hedgehog do it for us, of course.
Granted the line must by definition be arbitrary, but otherwise, we fall into the trap of, "I have no right to take this antibiotic, because this bubonic plague bacteria coursing through my body, killing me, has the same right to exist that I have." Well, no it doesn't. Neither do bugs in your house, or mice. Certainly not millipedes.
Although it is a question of degree, there's a fundamental difference between not eating meat, or not wearing fur, and not killing bugs in your kitchen.
Still, it's good to avoid pesticides wherever possible. I remember growing up on the Gulf of Mexico and never seeing a pelican or lightening bugs/fireflies. Now they're back thanks to the banning of DDT decades ago. But it takes decades for the chemicals to leave the environment.
Oh, and you should of course never kill lightening bugs. Or ladybugs. They are both, clearly, much higher life forms, approximately at the level of members of the ((insert name of reviled political party Party.
Hey, ladybugs. They're carnivores. You can buy them for your garden and they can eat pests for you too!
― Skottie, Wednesday, 29 October 2003 07:09 (twenty-two years ago)