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.
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
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.