I stomped a bug today, and then I thought about it
I stomped a bug today, and then I thought about it
My wife keeps our home immaculately clean. In fact she scolds me if I drop a crumb on the floor. Our windows and balcony doors have no screens, and they don't need them even though the windows are almost always open. We're on the 15th floor and all through the neighbourhood, attached to damn near every light pole is an insect/mosquito catcher。
In the two years we've been here, we only experienced one mosquito and almost never a fly, although once a wayward bee got in and we chased it out again. Our home is really free of bugs of all kinds (unless the government is listening to our conversations, but if they do they won't hear anything that interests them), but every couple of months or so I get to see some little bug crossing the floor, and I stomp it. This morning I stomped a little black bug that was only about 1/8th of an inch long - but then I thought about it. Up until now I thought it was logical that this was my home and they should stay out.
BUT, today, as I said, I thought a little more about it. What if the bugs were to say the outside is THEIR home and I should stay out of it？ What is worse is that I started to wonder if the bug had a tiny mind and tiny thoughts, maybe it had a mate and "little ones" and now would be deprived of their provider. What if it had parents who are now going to grieve over its loss? What then hit me is that perhaps my wife's Buddhism is starting to pervade my soul.
“ Life is dear to all beings, they have the right to live the same that we do. ” (Buddha)
“ All beings tremble before violence. All love life. All fear death. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do? ” (Buddha)
So from now on, I guess in order to maintain my self-respect, I am going to have to catch any insects I find in our house and release them outside, and be careful not to step on any when I'm outside. Goodbye flyswatter。Life sure is complicated.
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Has anyone else had similar thoughts?
Yes to a degree, I'm very much an animal lover and a respecter of life for just being life.
Yes every time I kill a bug I "feel"it. I still kill em usually unless its something easy to catch and relocate, But if I dont get em and the dogs see em they are toast if they're in this house anyway. I won't live with bugs. LOL Dogs yeah, bugs No.
I usually catch and throw spiders outside. I have gotten a green anole in the house. Hard to catch that bugger.
The one things I will always kill are roaches. We occasionally get the big tree roaches. Fuckers can fly.
You do know that your killing them even more tortuously than stomping them?
Indoors to a spider is like living in the desert, they are adapted to living indoors. Throwing them outside is like throwing them into the jungle where they have absolutely no survival skills.
Outdoor Spiders are the same in reverse they cannot live indoors and will die a slow thirsty death....
And it really doesn't matter, for every spider you see there are probably a half dozen watching you kill the one caught...
Spiders watch us? What a scary thought. LOL
Indoor spiders simply choose to live indoors where there is less competition,, better "weather" and fewer predators like birds, ducks, possums, etc.
If you throw one outside, just don't open the door and drop it, it will come right back inside.
Where did "indoor" spiders live before there were houses?
How do they get from house to house?
They are quite aware of the "outside", but choose their habitats well.
That's wonderful, there are opinions on both sides of that issue also. the Washington State University Extension lab here in Puyallup says exactly the opposite....
and it is only common sense that outdoor spiders have learned and adapted to living indoors. That's like asking what did man do before he invented houses with forced air heating.......
Either way I don't feel guilty. It had a chance to fend for itself or not. haha
I haven't seen a spider indoors for decades - but if I do I would probably think of 'Charlotte's Web', a story we used to read to our kids when they were very young, and eventually a movie was made of it.
Same here, however mosquito's get no mercy. Roaches haven't made it this far north yet.
The only time I recall ever seeing roaches in my life is when I took my wife, our kids and my widowed mother-in-law (I could be one of the few people who actually liked my mother-in-law) to Florida for a Christmas Holiday. We had made reservations for the Bal Harbour, Florida, hotel that was reputed to be owned by mobster Meyer Lansky. When we got to our 2 bedroom suite there was a funny smell I had never smelled before, but it was already late and we were tired, so we went to bed. I woke up during the night, turned on the light in the bathroom and there the culprits were, scrambling into the crevices. What I then did was close all our suitcases tight, and make sure none were on the floor, and waited till the morning, when we repacked, and I went to the manager's office to complain, and that we were checking out. We received no benefit, but I was happy to get out of there. We then checked into another hotel.
Years ago I worked for a rent to own company. I have been in people's houses that were infested. It was disgusting. thousands of them every where. I would get out of there as fast as I could. I was always afraid I would bring one home.
The one I got though was huge. Like two or three inches long. I have seen them outside one time when I was cleaning around a tree by my back fence.
Then he probably hitched a ride on you or family into the house....
The only time you see spiders that large inside is either sneaking in or they have grown so large there isn't any place left to hide....
There I was talking about roaches although the spider was pretty good size too. Creepy looking, I snatched a pic.
It was missing a leg.
About a year ago I also found a small frog inside my toilet. Have no idea how it could have gotten there.
Kind of odd I take pictures of these things first.
A neighbor of mine one time heard a loud splashing in her toilet. Went in there and peeked under the lid and it was a squirrel. The only thing anyone could guess was it went in the vent pipe on the roof.
In Florida they have a lot of those outdoor huge roaches. They aren't that uncommon. If one does get happen to get inside, Ya freak then realize as slow as it is it's not much of a match for a flyswatter or a newspaper or a shoe.
Note if you take your shoe off to smack it with, Don't use the same foot to then step on it without putting the shoe back on. Like we said they're huge !
Growing up in an old farm house sometimes mice would get into the house through the pipes. We'd always check before using the facilities. One time my mother didn't practice what she preached and we heard her screaming like a banshee. We still laugh about it when someone tells the story.
We had snakes show up every once in a while too.
The first time one flew at me, I almost had a heart attack.
My Aunt found a snake in her bathroom once. One person thought it was because she left the window open but I don't see one climbing up the bricks.
My cousin got there in time to see my 85 year old Grandmother walking towards the room with a shovel.
I saw my Grandmother dispatch all sorts of pests with her hoe...
LOL.. Yeah.. That is pretty rare though. Thankfully !! They are bad enough without the little bastard flying ta boot. Ugly frickin creatures ta be sure. But usually in singular in nature and slow so dealable. Just part of paradise !! LOL
Mine was not afraid of anything. Maybe the generation. Ha. One time she had field mice get into her house and set traps around. I walked over to her house one day and saw her on the back porch. She had caught a mouse and it was still alive in the trap, so she had taken the trap with the mouse hanging from it and proceeded to hit the mouse with a hammer.
Another time I went to her house and saw her hanging halfway out of the attic. A squirrel had gotten in the attic and she was throwing golf balls at it.
She was ruthless. haha Wouldn't think twice about ringing the neck of a chicken.
Now the dang olde boll weevil is defeated insects don't bother me much...
As much as I despise insects and bugs I recognize they are important to our survival.
For this reason, I agree that Buzz should do everything he can to spare the life of the bugs he comes across so that I can get rid of those I come across. That should keep a healthy balance going.
My dad came to that conclusion when I was a kid and we were fishing. He got this really large striped bass. It gave him a good battle. And when my dad finally got him in the boat, the fish looked at him kind of with all the fight out of his eyes. My dad is not a man of many words, but he said to me, "I think everything wants to live" and he let it go. We never went fishing again.
He started to look at nature in a whole different way from that point on. I doubt my dad knows a thing about Buddha, but he seems to get his jive.
I had about the same reaction after I accidentally killed a baby squirrel that I didn't know was in what I thought was an empty nest when I shot it out of a tree just for fun.
What a waste of life. I felt horrible. I was probably like 12 or 13 years old at the time and I can still see it all.
Later, I knew I would not be a good soldier and was glad when I barely missed the draft. I also don't remember ever "hunting" again even with my dad. I was done killing. I didn't like the feeling. .. At ALL.
I didn't create it , I have no right to end it's life is my motto.
So, I'm real thankful for grocery stores... cause for some reason I'll eat some dead animals. .lol
I know contradiction. O-Well I get hungry.
I try to avoid killing any bug but when I have to I figure it is released to return as a higher life form. Spiritual evolution, if you will.
That's a good way of looking at it.
We were flipping a house and first we had to repair huge cracks in the foundation in what appeared to be on old concrete deck which was eventually enclosed as a living room.
One day as I unlocked the front door there was a HUGE black spiked legged cricket emerging from one of our cracks and there was immediately a lot of yelling to kill it etc.
I said NO.
I found a piece of cardboard and a broom and pinned him against the cardboard and walked him outside, to the new front deck. Where I placed him on the new Welcome mat.
Several people gathered at the storm door to watch him and say how nice it was to spare the poor creature, give him a new lease on life etc.
Before the entire thoughts were spoken completely
a raven dropped out of the sky and scooped that poor cricket up.
Karma?
LOL, Life, sometimes is well, just a bitch eh ?
What was that song in the movie The Lion King? The Circle of Life? The Cycle of Life?
Spiders don't frighten me. I leave alone so they can have meals from other insects.
i think about insect intelligence sometimes. I often compare them to reptiles. They will let you live as long as they are not hungry or agitated.
I think of one time as a young kid playing in an orchard of an abandoned farm with some of local kids and one of them stepped into a yellow jackets nest. Not a pretty day. We ran for well over a mile and they were still chasing us.
We came to one of the parents house while the dad was washing his car. He at least delayed them a little bit by spraying them with his hose.
I "felt" yellow jackets all over me while trying to sleep that night. My mom gave me one of her home made natural treatments.
Guess I survived.
My daughter caught lyme disease from the bite of a deer tick.
I have little compassion for many insects.
On the other hand, a praying mantis was my "buddy" for a while. Several years actually, so maybe a few generations of them. Whenever I would sit on one of my rocking chairs outside, he/she would come up right next to me on the chair.
Go figure?
Go figure? If it was a female mantis maybe it was trying to figure how to make you its very tasty husband.