I decided against posting this to c/vegan as I want some negative feedback.
For the record, I absolutely am not saying that my not killing bugs is a noble act. Frankly it’s just vibes. I’ve been on this planet for 40+ years as a bug murderer. I would not be invited to the Bugs are Friends convention.
I’ve just been feeling a lot of personal stress this year. A lot of stuff has been going on in my personal community, and I’m seeing a lot of hostile stuff from the state as well as a lot of people are struggling more. I do mutual aid but it just feels like a drop in an ocean of need. On top of that, a situations happening that cause me to be homeless is not far from the realm of possibility. I’m unsure if I’m overreacting, but I can imagine myself being homeless. (Sorry homeless comrades if this feels like I’m trivialising it).
Obviously the attacks on vulnerable groups are terrifying, and as active as I am in orgs to agitate against it, I feel hopeless to do anything about it.
doomer shit
Impending climate catastrophe and austerity is so stressful that I’m shut off to most things now. I feel like a death row inmate, just watching TV and waiting for my execution date to come
So with all that happening, I just have this dude chilling in my room:
He’s not hurting anyone. He’s responsible for non of the shit that’s going on right now. He’s just living. Why should I give a fuck about him???
Previously I would occasionally spray and leave traps. I’d squash a bug if it was annoying. Now I just keep my place clean. If I see two that means there’s maybe many more under the sink and shit. But are they hurting me? (That is a real question if you want to answer.) I’d probably slap a mosquito if they got close, as I don’t want a disease, but wearing long trousers and long sleeve shirts when in nature takes care of most of it. In fairness, many a friend and comrade how commenting how I’m weird that I can wear long sleeves/trousers in 40 degree celsius weather.
I’m a middle aged guy. You’re not gonna hurt my feelings by critiquing me. BTW I’m not yet advocating for not killing bugs, this is 100% my feelings at this point.
I try my best not to kill bugs, but I will to avoid an infestation in my home or on my body. At that point I feel like it’s self defense and justified, but I’m open to critique.
I will never bother a bug that mistakenly finds it way into my home, other than taking it back outside.
There are some that want to be inside a home and then reproduce rapidly (cockroaches, mites), I’ll take action against those because we cannot share this space.
That said I wouldn’t use physical force or glue traps, killing individual bugs in an infestation won’t solve anything.
Once went to a philosophical retreat hosted by my master’s thesis advisor (yeah I know). And one of the invited speakers was this guy who had written extensively about ecology and connection, and a whole other bunch of cool, hippie shit. This was in the middle of summer and all of us were really struggling because of the heat and mosquitoes. And this dude just lets himself be bitten by the mosquitoes, staying zen throughout, arguing that he knows they don’t really pose a threat to him (no transmissible diseases where we were), and that a small discomfort is not worth killing over. I don’t necessarily agree with his view, but I aspire to that level of ideological coherence.
no transmissible diseases where we were
I was literally about to say like maybe he’s trying to change that
I was in a safe area in SEA and kinda just accepted it after awhile. What’s cool is that you stop having really harsh reactions to the bites over time. Eventually they aren’t very noticeable at all.
And this dude just lets himself be bitten by the mosquitoes,
Lol ya I wouldn’t have done that. I’d have on long clothes. Rarely do I need bug spray, like mosquitos pick other people before me, but I’d use it to avoid the fear of an unlikely mozzie disease.
Welcome to the bug club, we have weevils!
spoiler
Things do indeed suck. I can’t say anything to change that, but know you have your fellow inmates here to listen at least.
weevils
Wow, I can’t believe that you wouldn’t open up a wound to feel the weevils :'(
/s
To be fair, I’m very in the city and bugs are much less of an issue here.
Yay another hexbear who won’t kill me. I’m proud of you.
I’m still offering you unlimited food and watery things and safe haven, as long as you make a habit of breaking your volcel pledge.
My private life is not your business! But thanks for the food.
I can see what you’re saying; Bethesda also hates killing bugs
Killed the first bug in like 5 years via windshield and I was shocked that even happened still
That’s fine but i’m not going to live with bugs
We have house spiders at this point so i hear you. The one in our bathroom even has a name. It’s a he for some reason and is very smart in dodging us most times. I read that these guys are territorial so we just let him be.
My pov has shifted a lot with this and I’d argue it isn’t just feelings. I’m lethally allergic to bees and wasps, but I just gtfo if a wasp is being aggressive. Bees are typically friends anyway. I used to live on a farm and the horseflies love me, so I hated those until this year when I read that they too are becoming rare and are so important in the ecosystem (because of course they are).
This is mosqitoue country and the final straw for me was seeing all the boomers and liberty hippies going into NATURE with a bug killing device strapped on their belt. They carry no pathogens here. It literally kills insects all around the device everywhere they go and they don’t give a single fuck about it. My supposedly “friend of nature” dad is one of the people who stubbornly uses this thing when he has the need to sit outside and get drunk in the summer. Of course in capitalism this thing also wasn’t banned because profit. People take these things to a fishing trip, to camping, berry and mushroom picking. Because they have to be that comfortable sitting in the literal forest which is the home of these insects and the birds who eat them.
I’ve turned into an absolute hater of these casual killing machines and as a result I let all the bugs be, all that I safely can. Saving a bee from a window or letting a spider outside makes me feel a bit better although I know what all the insectisides and shit are doing.
If we would get roaches or bedbugs I’d do the killing, but I realize this is all climate disaster related and the bug issues are capitalism in decline. It’s not the bugs, it’s the system. Same with tics. It’s entirely a problem created by the powers that be. But I have to kill the tick so I don’t get sick.
I am old enough to remember how car windows used to look like in the summer, that has ended years ago now. Like totally does not happen anymore…The world is just way too silent in the summer now, it scares the shit out of me.
I think the windshield thing and general bug population decline is moreso due to “fogging” and boomer landscaping practices than climate change (at this point). I’ve seen lots of sensationalist videos showing no bugs under the rocks or bemoaning the lack of fire flies in the summer. However the former seemed to be a video during the winter in a cold climate which I think is misleading and as for the fire flies, I heard they lay their eggs in fallen leaves.
I left my leaves out last year and now I’m seeing more fire flies than I’ve seen in a long while. We’ve also been letting our lawn just do its thing, no chemicals just cutting and trimming here and there and planing/leaving native species. Let me tell you, my yard is absolutely lousy with bugs and it’s really a tiny yard.
Maybe so. Around here though there isn’t that much boomer landscaping and population is sparse, but the car thing still no longer happens.
I’ve also planted a tiny meadow in front of our rental. It does get some bees, but very little butterflies (this whole summer has been grim for them, last summer was a bit better). It is a lot more silent than basic lawns with blooming dutch glover used to be.
The soundscape in the evenings does feel different too, the constant background buzz is mostly gone even in the forests and around lakes/pastures. One reason is probably the end of pastures and meadows, but it seems like the insects are struggling. This year for example the weather has been so erratic that first it got so cold that all the mosqitoes and other hatching insects died and now it’s so hot that nothing survives. It either rains too much or is so hot that it becomes a drought.
The basic arctic summer is mostly just gone, it can’t not affect insect populations that in turn have an impact on birds, fish and just the whole system.
I got a shitload of bugs in my yard and based on my intentional, genocidal actions to kill them and their continued presence I find it really really really hard to believe that mosquito repeller thing 1) kills anything or 2) even repels mosquitoes honestly
shit just uses allethrin? sounds weak af
with a bug killing device strapped on their belt
Sorry, but what is this?!?
It’s this thing.
It’s sold in many types and the manufacturer of course claims it is harmless. https://www.thermacell.com/products/category/fuel-powered-series
I’ll just add that behind this casual marketing they don’t tell you that the chemical they use in these, prallethrin, is extremely toxic to insects, reptiles and fish. And if you use this thing, it won’t segregate on what it will kill. In my country it is supposed to only be used on someones yard/terrace and banned elsewhere, yet people take them along to their fishing trips etc. all the time because it isn’t sanctioned in any way. And that is exactly what the marketing promotes. One of those pillows you can see inside it has so much of the insecticide in it that it has the potential of killing millions of insects. People dumb these pillows outdoors sometimes or dispose of them by ditching them near water sources.
It’s also not at all clear how harmful it might be for humans to be around these fumes for prolonged periods.
There was discourse about this here when it came to market, but in neoliberalism they of course could only wiggle their fingers and try and educate people on how it could be dangerous even to humans.
I like most kinds of bugs, except for mosquitoes, horse flies, bed bugs and others who suck your blood. Stingy bugs can be annoying too, but for the most part they’ll just leave you alone.
I just think bugs are pretty cool, and I don’t want to kill them if they’re not harming me.
spoiler
Climate change is doing a way better job of that than I ever could
Stingy bugs can be annoying too
Cheap ass arthropods making me pay for everything
Now I just keep my place clean. If I see two that means there’s maybe many more under the sink and shit. But are they hurting me? (That is a real question if you want to answer.)
If you’re talking about roaches they can literally carry the actual plague
I have no idea. I spent five seconds Googling and found this.
God maybe it does spread the plague. This is still very early in my no bug killing journey. Maybe you can enlighten me.
Bro do not allow a cockroach infestation it does not help your karmic balance
Cockroaches will poop everywhere and you can smell them and their poop though the walls
deleted by creator
You’re literally Pinochet. When you’re in your 80s, the bugs, having restored bug liberal democracy, will try to have you extradited to face trial for your numerous bug crimes.
spoiler
/s
I actually don’t want to hurt your feelings
The first request, I’d like to note, is that bugs be given the right to
!With six trillion names at the voter rolls, we’d have lots of clout at the polls.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
You have a right to self defense but if you’re premptively attacking buggy friends you are essentially swearing allegiance to the USA
Congratulations on attaining enlightenment! Bugs are just minding their own business living their lives. It’s not right to kill them unless they’re losing some threat such as ticks which can be vectors for dangerous diseases. They have a right to live their lives.
Plus they’re cute.
if yer gonna kill a bug
don’t do it jus because
I like bugs
and i’ll tell ya why
they’re alive
and so am i
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I don’t really go out of my way to kill bugs but I will sometimes brush a moth or fly into a spider web. I like to keep a couple big scary spiders fed by my back sliding door so no bugs get into my apartment since I’m always going out for tokes.
The real question: is it more fucked up to sacrifice wild bugs to my spider gods or to go buy feeder crickets from the pet store to feed wild spiders?
Grats on enlightenment. I relocate bugs that are a problem but generally try to solve issues through hostile architecture rather than poison or violence. Like food in jars in the pantry, bookcases with feet that discourage climbing to prevent silverfish, ventilation, sweeping etc.
Most creatures just want to leave you alone. Even the scary ones usually warn you and try running first, and very few represent serious danger.
