MetaChat - Mechazens: What's your bug-killing policy?

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16 November 2007

Mechazens: What's your bug-killing policy? →[More:]
When it comes to killing household bugs, do you kill without discrimination, or are there certain critters that you consider off-limits?

My own policy is pretty much to kill anything brown (crickets excepted), catch-and-release anything green, and leave spiders alone. The brown thing mainly covers roaches, which I hate with a passion (though I prefer catching and flushing to squashing), and the occasional battery of ants.

The reason I ask is that I recently squashed a spider that was scurrying across the floor toward my cat, and I felt a tremendous sense of guilt afterward. I think it stems from the time as a child that I read this book, the lessons of which have stuck with me ever since.

post by: Atom Eyes at: 11:50 | 50 comments

I use guns, nukes, shoes, knives - whatever will kill the bastards.

unless it sings. if it's singing, i then put it in my bug circus. little things will work for peanuts!

posted by stynxno 16 November | 11:59

My bug-killing policy is: If it scares me, I mean like....I'm terrified of it and freaked out at the thought of it being in my house and I'm sobbing with terror, I kill it. That means big scary spiders and centipedes and stuff like that. Little spiders and daddy longlegs are fine. I say hello and welcome and here's a nice place for a web. But if I can get someone to do it, I'll have any and all bugs put outside. Crickets, grasshoppers, beetles....outside bugs go back outside. And spiders and stuff too, if someone else will pick them up.

See, if they're in my house, they're on my turf, they have to play by my rules, and one of the rules is you have to die if you make me cry.

I know this is very un-vegan of me ( it's the dark side). But if you want to live, GO OUTSIDE. Once you're inside, your meat is mine.

posted by iconomy 16 November | 12:00

The bigger the bug, the more likely I am to destroy it. Small little ant sized thing, meh, maybe smush it, or maybe let it go on it's way. Small cockroaches, kill if I can catch. Big cockroaches, tear the house apart to get at it.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 16 November | 12:04

Between Atlanta and Vegas, the spiders I most likely see inside are black widows, so termination by smushing is automatic. Most everything else I capture and flush.

posted by mischief 16 November | 12:07

I have a pretty tolerant policy towards spiders - I know what the poisonous ones look like and the lil wolf spiders we get here keep the bug population down.

I used to be pretty tolerant towards ants - caulk off the entrance, remove the food source, etc. But here in Texas, we have MEAN ants. Ants that bite, leaving a itchy swelly scarry thing. My policy towards those bugs is Take No Prisoners.

For awhile, we had a couple really huge scary spiders making big webs on the side of our house. I was too terrified to even kill them - I just knocked 'em down with a broom and ran away.

posted by muddgirl 16 November | 12:10

Atom Eyes, you know cockroaches can live underwater, right? So your catch and flush plan just sends the problem elsewhere. Or possibly not, if the roach can find a place to hang out for awhile in your pipes.

I leave spiders and house centipedes alone, capture and release beetles and kill most other bugs. We had an insane infestation of small brown moths a couple months ago, during which I spent an inordinate amount of time squishing very dumb moths hanging out on the ceiling.

posted by me3dia 16 November | 12:23

I have pretty much the same policy. I hatehatehate flies but the cat usually manages to nab them before they're too much of a nuisance. Ants are usually just annoying unless they're en masse, then I get all militant on their asses. Don't have much truck with roaches either, but then I've been really fortunate not to have to deal with them much. House centipedes and earwigs squick me right the hell out. I grab a tissue and toss 'em in the fish tank still wiggling - they barely get a chance to feel the water and GULP!

Spiders, bees, pretty much anything else gets a pass or a carried-outside policy.

posted by lonefrontranger 16 November | 12:24

I kill things whose survival depends on biting me, which in this part of the country is limited to mosquitoes.

Everything else I spend entirely too much time trying to shoo outside.

I've never had roaches, though. I have no idea what I'd do if I saw a roach. Probably just turn over the keys and leave.

posted by occhiblu 16 November | 12:26

DIE!! They all must die! Ugh! Eww! Bugs! Squish them all!!

what can i say, i grew up in the tropics and finding spiders and centipedes in your bathtowels and scorpions in your shoes and roaches flying about and getting tangled in your hair scarred me for life!

posted by ramix 16 November | 12:27

me3dia, I don't know how you can leave those house centipedes alone, they scare the shit out of me! I'm not normally squicked out by creepy-crawly things at all, but those things give me the willies.

I will kill cockroaches (haven't seen one in Portland yet), flies, and mosquitos. Small spiders I leave alone. Big spiders and everything else gets the catch and release.

posted by Specklet 16 November | 12:34

My hostility towards insects is generally directly proportional to their hostility towards me. Mosquitos and agressive bugs like hornets generally get killed. I feel pretty much the same as lonefront about earwigs, house centipedes and flys. The squickiest for me are silverfish. They're so creepy and prehistoric. Something about the way they move fills me with horror. Most other creatures, including large spiders generally get traped under a glass and a piece of paper and deported to the back yard. Like occhi, if I saw a roach, I'd move. Immediately.

I'm really fond of big fuzzy moths. I am very concerned about them dying of starvation in the house so I try to catch them in my hands and take them outside. They're so fuzzy and cute with those big eyes and fern-like antenae.

posted by pieisexactlythree 16 November | 12:34

I'm pretty much a live-and-let-live type. I'll put 'em outside, if they're in the house or the workplace or wherever. I'll try to leave 'em be, if they're outside.

The one exception is any insect that's actively engaged in biting me (mosquitoes, usually). Like Omar said about Avon, that insect's got to go.

posted by box 16 November | 12:38

I take a kind of mild Jainist approach. Co-exist with spiders in the basement, as we rarely see anything poisonous in Ohio. On the main floor and upstairs I catch and toss bugs outside.

I still often reflexively kill mosquitoes. And I've been known to kill a spider after it bit me. Nobody's perfect.

Luckily I don't have to deal with roaches.

I wouldn't sweat the cat/spider incident. You're a good person for feeling guilty!

posted by shane 16 November | 12:40

Oh, and I'll kill fruit flies.

posted by Specklet 16 November | 12:43

Oh, ick, I *hate* fruit flies. They are so frickin' disgusting. I would kill them, but the thought of even touching them freaks me out. Ick ick ick. I mostly just try to trap them in the garbage can when I'm throwing out whatever overripe fruit they've invaded.

Ick.

posted by occhiblu 16 November | 12:46

Exterminate with extreme prejudice. Everything except, like, ladybugs.

My boyfriend is a "put spiders outside" kind of guy, so now instead of smushing them myself, I'll usually call him and let him put it outside. It's funny because I don't mind at all dealing with them myself - he's not doing *me* a favor, I'm doing *him* a favor by letting him save them. Ah, role reversals.

posted by Fuzzbean 16 November | 13:01

Ladybugs may live. Bugs wish to live in my home rent-free. They leave unsightly cobwebs, they bite me while I sleep, they chew up the woodwork, and creep me out. No bugs. None. Except 1 ladybug at a time.

posted by theora55 16 November | 13:01

All you people who never have to deal with roaches: NEVER. MOVE. TO. TEXAS.

Seriously. It would be like taking lambs to the slaughter.

I should really move to Portland soon.

posted by Atom Eyes 16 November | 13:02

In a rental we lived in, there was some faux brickwork over the range. Cockroaches came out of it. My wife talked to them and forged an agreement that they would stay put and not be seen, and all would be fine.

This worked well, until we went on vacation, and came back. The roaches apparently forgot about the agreement and so then had to die.

posted by danf 16 November | 13:08

ugh, roaches. They die immediately. We have never had ants - they would probably be the same. And the only good mosquito is a dead one. Everything else gets a pass. Spiders get love and attention.

posted by gaspode 16 November | 13:10

Me3dia just gave me nightmares, retroactive to my youth in Houston with the roaches, the roaches, the roaches.

As you may have figured out, my policy on roaches is kill kill kill. Luckily, here in Maine, there are no roaches. No, shut your yapper: I said there are no roaches.

Centipedes die, with extreme prejudice.

Fruitflies die, and this summer for a week we even resorted to using flypaper.

Spiders I mostly leave be unless they're in my way --- I wondered what to do about the spider in our study whose web was built right next to the bar, until he accommodatingly shifted over near a bookcase. Occasionally, I'll put a spider outside.

But spiders larger than a US quarter, I'm probably gonna instinctively whack with a book. Sorry, spidey-guys.

posted by Elsa 16 November | 13:14

Anything that's a pollinator lives, even if it's a bee, assuming I can catch it and put it outside without bodily harm to me.

Most everything else gets a pass, too, unless it's ON ME. Bugs touching BP = death penalty. We get the occasional palmetto bug, and those usually die just because they're huge and will fly in my face if I try to trap 'em in a cup. And my nemesis, the camel cricket, always meets the Swift Shoe of Fate as fast as possible.

posted by BoringPostcards 16 November | 13:18

Rescue: crickets, grasshoppers, dragonflies
Depends on mood: spiders*
Kill: ants, flies, bees, wasps
Would kill if I could: fruit flies

*SO got very upset with me once for killing a spider

posted by DarkForest 16 November | 13:19

nooo!!! BP, that's a cave weta! Weta are beloved!

posted by gaspode 16 November | 13:21

I kill pretty much everything I can - all insects, and mice.

Hey, I'm a former farm girl, and farm people are never sentimental about non-human life forms. My sister can castrate pigs without a qualm.

posted by Orange Swan 16 November | 13:21

Mosquitos are killed with extreme prejudice. Anything that vaguely looks like it might be a mosquito is killed with extreme prejudice.

Other insect I usually but not always kill, or sweep them up with a hand vacuum. Whether they live or die inside the vacuum until I empty it outside, I don't care.

Spiders I catch and put outside. It's not so much that I have any moral qualms about killing spiders--I think it's that I admire spiders. (And I'm relieved to know I'm not the only one who does catch-and-release.)

posted by DevilsAdvocate 16 November | 13:24

Now there's something you don't hear every day.

posted by Specklet 16 November | 13:24

Death. With a side of death, washed down with a nice glass of death, and death for dessert. Especially for roaches - I spray them with whatever corrosive cleaning chemical is nearest to hand and then I take my time getting the paper towels.

posted by casarkos 16 November | 13:26

nooo!!! BP, that's a cave weta! Weta are beloved!

Sorry, gaspode... they're not beloved when they're in my shower, on my bedroom ceiling, camouflaged on my couch (hopping up when you sit down next to them- yeesh) etc.

The ones that stay in their caves, though, are fine with me.

posted by BoringPostcards 16 November | 13:32

Kill. Kill. KILL. Kill kill kill. Killkillkillkillkillkill. Terminate with extreme prejudice.

posted by PaxDigita 16 November | 13:33

I've outsourced this activity to my cats. The tend to have a play with bugs for a few minutes and then kill with extreme prejudice policy.

posted by birdherder 16 November | 13:33

I'm strictly catch-and-release if I can help it. Occasionally I have a knee jerk reaction and just slap the bug, but I always feel badly. I wonder about people who take joy in killing something so much smaller than themselves. (...and most of which are harmless. Bugs are so ubiquitous that they'd kill us all if they were all harmful.)

posted by desjardins 16 November | 13:39

oh, and I should add that I used to be all squicked out and killkillkill, but it's possible to learn to peacefully coexist. I see bugs on the wall all the time (mostly box elders or asian beetles; occasionally spiders) and I just shrug. What are they going to do to me, anyway? There are no maple trees inside my house.

posted by desjardins 16 November | 13:43

I usually try to argue with them/annoy them by singing off-key until they leave/shoo them out the door. I think I dissuaded ants from hanging out by putting down fresh mint leaves at the spot where they were coming in. Either that, or they just got bored. I leave the spiders alone, but I expect them to patrol the house and take care of all unwelcome intruders.

I had a couple of flies recently, which I don't really understand, since we didn't have any during the period I would have expected them - and I admit to attempting murder. I failed, as usual. I did manage to guide one out the window, and the other one died on his own - again, of boredom, I suspect.

Roaches I will kill, if I can, because I hate, hate, hate them. Let's not even talk about it; I'm knocking on wood right now. We haven't had to deal with mosquitos for ages... I guess the city sprays or my spiders are vigilant. Too many cats 'round these parts for mice or rats, thank god.

posted by taz 16 November | 13:45

I'll kill a mosquito or a flea (don't want 'em on me or my sweet kittens) but everything else is either left alone or placed outside. I really like spiders, and they tend to be attracted to me for some reason. I can't tell you how many spiders have crawled on me or fallen (!) on me through the years. Oh, but I do hate a ladybug. We have some here in south MS that bite. How lady-like is that?

posted by thebrokedown 16 November | 13:45

Adding to my list...
Kill joyfully: mosquitoes
Happily coexist with: ladybugs

posted by DarkForest 16 November | 13:48

Spiders are my friends and I talk to them. The big ones get gently moved outside; small ones can stay. Ladybugs and most forms of beetle likewise. Wasps and hornets are not my friends but if they aren't dive bombing me I'll take them outside in a glass. (Okay, this is not because I'm nice but because I have heard that if you squush them they release a pheromone that is the bug equivalent of Officer Down, Immediate Aid! and I don't want to be in the center of that.) Roaches die with extreme prejudice. I lived in South Carolina too long to let them live, although I hate killing palmetto bugs because they leave a large gory corpse that then must be disposed of, ewwww! Squick! Ticks get burned - they pop as they light - or dropped in a jar of rubbing alcohol. Anything that bites, like mosquitoes or flies, which are just gross anyway, die as well. And things with too many legs, like centipedes? Get run away from.

posted by mygothlaundry 16 November | 14:00

You're all replicants.

posted by mullacc 16 November | 14:07

I try not to be the executioner around here. If some bug warrants the death penalty (and trust me, I'm not like that DA in Houston -- I have a pretty hefty burden of proof), then I'll try to get the little cat to do the dirty work. Then I can look at it not so much as killing, but as feeding my pets -- who depend on me for food, after all.

The recent exception was the Great Grain Moth Plague of 2007. Once the cat got tired of eating the moths (and I couldn't really blame them -- they were legion), I started swatting them myself. Saw one last night, in fact, and dispensed of it.

During The Plague, though, I had a very accomodating bathroom spider who also ate her fill of fucking moths. She was pretty awesome. I miss her.

I think I overfed her.

posted by mudpuppie 16 November | 14:10

I take a Darwinist approach, if they enter my house, they need to be taken out of the gene pool. Soon there will be highly evolved bugs that know better than to come into where I live.

posted by King of Prontopia 16 November | 14:35

I catch and release (outside) most everything, spiders are always safe with me and slow fat flies too.... Except earwigs, they freak me the hell out so I toiletpapergrab and flush those. Die freaks!

posted by dabitch 16 November | 15:27

My policy is simply to cheer on the brown anoles, and make sure I leave enough leaf litter and mulch in the corners of my yard, so that there will be hundreds of them. They're voracious, tireless, and don't want paychecks, sprayers, or poisons. And I like seeing them fly their little orange dewlap freak flags.

posted by paulsc 16 November | 18:05

One attempts to exist within the boundaries of compassion. Some beings exist which fall outside of these soft boundaries and, thus, lack importance. Crabs, for instance. Roaches.

It is okay to kill these things, as they are plentiful in any case. A few deaths only serve to make them less offensive.

posted by chuckdarwin 16 November | 19:35

We have a catch-and-release policy at our house. The only bugs who don't get that courtesy are mosquitos. DO NOT WANT WEST NILE!

I try to ignore the spiders as much as possible, since they give me the willies, but if they look like they're going to invade my personal space I'll have Science Girl deal with them. If that makes me a wuss, so be it.

posted by bmarkey 16 November | 20:23

One of my proudest moments was the Borax War against the roaches in my old apartment. My brief experience with those bugs brought out unprecedented nationalistic fervor in me; if water hurt them, I would have waterboarded them until I could use their tears to waterboard them some more. They crossed the line and brought upon themselves a nuclear winter their brood will never forget. Except that they're all dead. Ha.

House centipedes are scary, so I kill them. I hope I have the same approach when the Demonspawn of Gurg cross into this dimension.

House flies are sport. The little ones don't even bother competing, but occasionally a fat one will enter the hunting grounds and inevitably find themselves struck from flight.

The rest are free to do as they please as long as they follow the rules and don't come out when guests are around.

posted by pokermonk 16 November | 22:23

We have four cats and don't see many bugs. Any that are left are dealt with by the mister. I am such a girl when it comes to disposing of bugs. *shudder*

posted by deborah 16 November | 22:38

I've never had roaches, though. I have no idea what I'd do if I saw a roach. Probably just turn over the keys and leave.

Don't ever live in New York.

posted by jonmc 16 November | 22:55

These days, every single piece of fruit I bring into the apartment seems to breed fruit flies like crazy therefore they die.
Little spiders are ok, but I've lived in so many places in Vancouver that have wolf spiders in them. BIG ones. A legspan of at least 1-1/2 to 2 inches. Some are black, some are brown, some are reddish. Believe me, they take effort to kill. I've whacked one fucker with a steel-toed DM and it's still got up and tried to walk away. Screaming black death to them, I say. No roaches in my place (yay!), but the occasional silverfish, which is really pretty good for a building probably built in the early 70's. They die too. Skeeters die. I lived in Edmonton, Alberta for 5 years, and horseflies get killed too as they really hurt if they bite you.
Peace and love to all living things is great in theory, but in practice, well... sometimes boundaries are overstepped and then whacko with the newspaper!

posted by Zack_Replica 17 November | 00:21

In general, I leave it up to the cats to catch the bugs. Except spiders. Spiders are terminated with extreme prejudice.

posted by jjb 17 November | 12:29

We have a cat, thus our apartment is basically bug-free.
The only thing she won't touch are big carpenter ants, which I kill with impunity because, yeah, 110 year old building does not need bugs chewing away at the structure.
She also tends to avoid the rare centipedes we get (common to the neighborhood), which I kill after extended screaming fits. They're usually 2" long or more, fuck that.

On the very, very rare (like, 2x since moving here) occasions I've found bees or wasps I've killed them. I could have released, but both were found while the cat was mid-stalk, and it was faster to smash them quickly than go through finding a container to catch them in, which would have given her time to pounce and potentially get stung. Not so much a anti-bee and wasp bias as it is an anti-cat with stinger in her mouth bias.

Oh, and I smash all moths upon discovery since the last thing I need is some moth finding its way into my fabric stash! Previous years I didn't care, but that's my money and part of my livelyhood.

posted by kellydamnit 17 November | 12:55

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