do you squash bugs?

[Tasariel]

I have a horrible phobia of insects and bugs and things. I don't really understand at what point it developed, but I definitely wasn't always this way and I used to keep ants as pets and things.
Anyway, I sort of try to live in a 'live and let live' sort of atmosphere. If the bugs stay away from me, don't land on me and don't get in my direct living space, I'm okay with them. I let the spiders do their thing in my closet and window and whatnot.
But as soon as they get up in my space, I gotta admit, I kill them. I've thought about the ramifications of it, for sure, but I can't really help myself. Ah well...

[Rosewolf]

I don't kill things, or I really really try not to. I catch spiders and put them somewhere safe. I flip beetles off their back so they can run away safely. I do kill creatures if they are suffering and in pain, but thats pretty much the only exception.

[Packie99]

I kill insects. ALL THE TIME. I will go out my way to kill them! To all you who don't, then you are betraying your fellow humans! JUST WAIT UNTIL THE INSECTS RISE UP AGAINST US!!! YOU'LL BE SORRY!!!

I'm just kidding

I am not creeped out by them. Even if they are on me, I'll just pick them up and set them aside. Don't get me wrong, it's no moral or ethical thing for me. Just there is no reason for me to kill them. But if they bite me I bite back. I also agree with JB on the issue....if they are detrimental to your living, like infestations or destroying crops, then absolutely kill them.

So I am neither particularly drawn to insects nor am I freaked out by them. I let them go along with their business of living, and I go along mine.

[black dove]

Ah, this question. Like most of you I'll kill them if they're harmful or pests. As for beneficial, or simply insects that I enjoy, I'll keep them alive, unless they have basically swarmed the area I live in.

List of bugs I kill:
-Wasps (We have Red Wasps here, and they have one of the most painful stings ever)
-Spiders in my house (We have Black Widows and Brown Recluses where I live, so I kill those no matter what, because they have the most deadly poison, found in spiders, in the world.)
-Roaches
-....basically anything in my house or dangerous.

I don't just kill bugs, but anything that has reached the "pest" status and is too difficult to simply relocate: Raccoons, moles, etc. If its something more along the lines of a dog digging into our flower garden, I'll shoot them with a BB-gun or paintball. It'll hurt them like all get out, but it isn't nearly powerful enough to cause any injury. If anything, it may cause MINOR bleeding and simply ricochet out of the wound.

[seawitch Artist]

I prefer to chase bugs out the house if I can, but sometimes you need to be harsher. My friend next door ran out of options when he found a Wasps nest in his bed, at somebody found it welcoming!....

[Autumnal Rose]

I don't kill anything - ever. Though to be fair I have never seen a cockroach and am so terrified of the thought of them that I can't say for certain I wouldn't make an exception just for them.
I went for a walk once and there was this HUGE stag beetle struggling on its back. I'm really scared of beetles so I ran past but I just couldn't leave it there to die so I got a long stick and very carefully flipped it back onto its front. It ran right at me and I ran down the road screaming!! But it had a right to live so I'm glad I did it.

[Evanthe]

As a general rule, no I don't kill. Most of the time I simply move them to a location that will not bother me. Mosquitos and flies are they exception. I've found it pretty easy to live along side most creatures without being bothered or bothering them. I feel like we have this symbiotic relationship that I respect a great deal. I even plant extra in the garden for nature to have.

[Truthseeker]

I always feel guilty but I squish 'em if they are spiders or roaches -others i give a chance to escape first

[SingingCanyon]

I have a real problem with this. I'm really afraid of spiders. I see one and I scream bloody murder. I don't usually kill them myself, but have another person do it. I feel really bad afterwards though and get a little depressed. I'm trying to get over my fear of them, and thank the Goddess it is going along slowly but well. For the most part I try and move the bugs somewhere else where they won't be bothersome. Although sometimes they surprise me and I end up flicking them off or killing them, with great remorse.

[Kiss of Mystery]

I just griped at my grandson a few days ago for stoming on a ant hill..lol Even as a young child..I didnt have the conscience to kill anything at all. The only phobia I have is of scarecrows.

Blessings n Love

[Kei Kawazu]

=/i like moths. they have cute antennae and the one in my house has tribal markings on his wings. hes truly lovely ^.^ and i feel connections to moths mostly =/ and butteflys xD

once moths were following me around

but honestly it might have been because i didnt use soap detergent with washing my clothes lol

or i was emitting pheromones or soemthing lol who knows. But one flew in my face through a window on a bus, and odd stuff like that.

[pelias3]

My daughter hates slugs (don't ask me why, its no more explicable than my fear of spiders when i was younger) and yesterday i was taking her into school and there was a slug! so i had to lift her over it and say "isn't it a lovely colour? be careful not to squash it, its doing no harm". But no the way out of the school, what did i find? Same slug squashed very messily flat! Why? What was the point? if i protect my plants from slugs then i'm PROTECTING my plants! if i step on a slug in the middle of the path then i have no reason and that's just bad! why do something bad just because you're too lazy to avoid it?

[wolfgirl96]

ya i tell my family not to kill them outside but when i see them in my house im like get out or i will kill u nd kill it if its still there later... but i say sorry as i do cause it just feels wrong

[scaravich]

I think killing bugs just because they are bugs is really messed up. I mean, I understand they scare some people. Sometimes they scare me too, especially when they move really fast and I'm not sure what they are or where they are going and if they are dangerous or not. (Luckily I know a good deal about most bugs and know most are harmless and even helpful).

But like, some people are afraid of dogs. Do you think that makes it okay to carry a gun and shoot and kill every dog you see simply because it scared you? I realize bugs are easy to kill and it makes you feel like you didn't do much because they are small. But in the end, you are killing an innocent creature. You are taking away a life, and destroying one of the Great Mother's precious creatures. I don't feel like their lives are somehow more "valuable" than ours. We are all a part of this Earth and we all share our energies. We all come from the Goddess. I don't think it's my place to decide what lives and dies.

Now, protecting yourself and loved ones is a different matter. If there is a black widow in your house, you should kill it. I mean, it is a threat to your safety. It is natural to fight off predators and dangers, big or small. If ants are in your kitchen and messing up all your food and stuff, you don't really have a choice. They can make you very sick. You need to protect yourself. I happily welcome all bugs into my house, though, as long as they aren't hurting me. I am happy to see centipedes and spiders skittering about.

With other things like bees or mosquitos, I don't kill them. Even if they sting me or bite me or whatever, they are not going to kill me or even hurt me that much. If I scared a dog, cat, bee, and spider... the dog and cat would be the biggest danger and threat to me. A dog, even a puppy, can hurt you more than even big spiders and tarantulas (talking about most -- the non-venomous ones, of course), but people feel the need to kill a spider but no desire to kill a puppy.

Of course, puppies are capable of what we see as more complex thought and emotion, while spiders are more simple, but I don't think that makes their life any less a part of the Goddess nor does it make it okay to murder them. It's like saying it's okay to murder an autistic person because their mind does not work the same as a genius...

I have a natural affinity and connection to bugs, so the idea of killing bugs thoughtlessly kind of offends and scares me. My user avatar is of my two pet roaches, Pit and Hades, whom I love very much, even if they don't have the mental capacity to love me back. I feel if I were to have a spirit animal, it would be a roach (though not the same species as them).

And that is my rant about killing bugs lol I'm nto trying to say those of you who kill bugs are bad people, but maybe you should reconsider, even if they scare you.

[Skyleaf]

I unapologetically kill bugs. Spiders and earwigs in the house are dead. Spiders terrify me. Poisonous spiders and harmful bugs in the garden (like flea beetles and aphids) get gone. Otherwise I leave the bugs alone. I've been known to stop my weed whacker so I can move a lady bug out of its way. I put up some fake wasp nests and a yellow jacket trap this week. There are a lot of yellow jackets around here. They're aggressive, and I don't have the means to pay for an emergency room visit. The bees never bother me, even though I am a little afraid of them. I had a bee swarm on my peach tree one year. I tried calling around to see if someone could give them a good home, but no one called me back. The next day, they'd left. They must not have gone too far, though, because I always have bees in my garden. This was a bad year for spring flowers, though. A late spring cold snap (temps down close to zero) trashed most of the spring flowers, and the sweet peas haven't started blooming yet. That's why I tend to leave the dandelions alone. They feed the bees.