Poll: Harmless insects

[Vilcus]

If it's in my home then I'll first try to get it outside, if it doesn't leave then it gets squashed. The reason for this is most "harmless" insects multiply and get into your food, they then begin to pick away at anything exposed (Have a steak you just cooked on the counter? A fly will land on it, and probably drop off some nasty bacteria).

Also they're incredibly annoying, and I have a massive fear of all things insectoid (this includes spiders, bees, and a whole bunch of other gross critters). However, I have been known to have a fly or two long on my arm and walk around. I do this only when I'm in a good mood, most of the time I'll just shoo it away, or if I'm feeling angry I'll just smash it.

 

[Enzeru92]

I'm OK with anything that isn't trying to bite me but if an insect is I will go ape shit on that thing!!!!!!!!

 

[SilentVirus]

".........It's a fly......"
GTFO FLY! [HEADING=2]Squash![/HEADING]
Thats how I roll

 

[SoranMBane]

I won't go out of my way to kill it, but if it's been annoying me and lands in front me, I'll take a swipe at it.

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

Inside my house or dorm, it dies.

Outside, it lives.

I don't want it buzzing around, bothering me when I'm eating, laying eggs, or investigating my food.

 

[Abengoshis]

First off gnats actually bite.

Secondly, I'm ok with the normal fat furry flies buzzing around somewhere but as soon as they get in front of my face they've crossed the line. The other day I was playing online with my friend on my Wii (which makes it worse since I needed to be accurate with my gun instead of flailing around everywhere) and a fly kept going for my ears and I eventually just whacked it.

Also the class of creatures with the really spindly long legs which fly around lights and...towards me most often (I must be a bright one har har -.-') I just can't stand and I have several smudge marks where I've obliterated them.

If I find any beetles or other small creatures like spiders (they're not insects but they still class as harmless) I just put a cup over them and either a) let them outside or b) keep them in the cup on top of a newspaper in my kitchen for my parents to find in the morning. >;D

 

[Gigaguy64]

Depends on how freaky the bug is.

Like spiders.
I love my Spider Bros but, if a big freaky looking one comes up then its go time.

Though most of the time i let them live.

 

[Jamash]

I try to catch them in a glass or jar and release them outside.

Luckily I live in a climate where the insects are pretty small and harmless, so merely being an annoyance isn't a good enough reason to kill something... even Bees and Wasps which have a nasty sting, or Spiders which trigger my arachnophobia, aren't threatening enough to warrant death.

 

[Zhukov]

I'm one of those people who carefully picks the bug up and puts it outside.

I see absolutely no point in killing something I'm not about to eat.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I think I'm like most people here in having a hit list.

flies, and various nondescript flying bugs... meh, leave em be, shoo em out the window if possible. Most crawling stuff, pick em up and fling em out the window.

Wasps, anything like a wasp, and daddy long legs and moths - kill them, kill them all, and then kill them again just in case.

If you're on my hit list, and I see you, you're losing one of the three essential dimensions you had.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Provided it doesn't sit on my food or something, I am beyond caring and will not kill it - hell, it didn't do anything wrong and I don't really want to scrub away the mess left of it.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I try my best to shoo insects out of my house, better than having guts and dried bugs all over the place.

 

[Billion Backs]

Kill the fucker and it's family.

Centipedes are an exception, I love those little guys. They don't bug you, don't really eat food you do, and only come out at night to hunt for spiders and whatever else. They're amazing at keeping your house spider- and cockroach-free.

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

Mmmm, well I'm not trying to sound all high and mighty and take the high road here, they are insects for God's sake.

But really I feel horrible whenever I kill/see someone kill an insect/bug whatever.
I don't know why.

On a side note: One of my friends knows I feel this way and he is a jackass, so whenever he sees an ant or something he does his best to kill it then say "You know what? That ant probably had a family and stuff, and I just killed it."
Douche.

 

[War Penguin]

I just ignore the little thing. It's not bothering me, no reason to bother it. However, if it bites me *squish.* That thing is dead.

 

[guyy]

I usually just throw bugs back outside rather than squashing them. My room's constantly full of daddy-longlegs...es, which get tossed out sometimes, but really that's almost pointless; they're the dopiest spiders I've ever seen (they'll happily sit in one spot for weeks, eating nothing...what do the danged things live off of, nitrogen?).

Exceptions are mosquitoes and excessively poisonous spiders, which are doomed the moment they set one foot or, er, wing in my house. Also the fire ant that bit me years ago, which met its squishy end 1/10th of a second later.

 

[Zyxx]

I more or less agree with this. Even more so I actually enjoy presence of bugs. I find most of them, even the most common fascinating. So no, I rarely ever kill bugs. I don't think the killing of a bug is that bad a thing though. For one they can not feel pain of any kind. So any death you give them is totally painless. Also, they do not feel emotion. They are strictly instinct driven animals.

Never having been an insect to my knowledge, I make no claims as to their capacity for pain or emotion.
I do think they can feel fear, or fear's most basic primitive root. Just watch a cricket trying to escape a spider web - that survival instinct, the pressing primal need to escape from a dangerous situation, is something most critters have, humans included. We may feel it more elaborately, but it all stems from the same basic desire to survive.

But that's really beside the point. The fact that it's a living thing is enough for me to treat it with respect and not end that life without some kind of cause.
And, like you said, bugs are fascinating anyway.

 

[Ashsaver]

To me,They're food.

....SNAKE~~~ EATER!

Spoiler

I hope you get the joke,but seriously some of them are kinda delicious,like the grasshoppers

 

[Zyxx]

Exceptions are mosquitoes and excessively poisonous spiders, which are doomed the moment they set one foot or, er, wing in my house. Also the fire ant that bit me years ago, which met its squishy end 1/10th of a second later.

Just one fire ant sting in years? Wow. Where I'm from, if you manage to avoid being stung by them for more than a week, it's because you haven't left the house.
Poisoning fire ant mounds falls under my "Self defense" excuse for killing. Stupid things don't belong in this ecosystem anyway.

 

[katsumoto03]

*Texan accent* "I kill all them sons a' bitches."

Whenever a fly buzzes by I tend to go karate kid on them and use chopsticks.