Why are insects and other small creatures the subject of so much hatred?

[KungFuCthulhu]

My kitchen was infested with ants and I think it would be impractical to capture and remove all of them. Mosquitos want my blood and I don't want them to have my blood. Flies are disease carriers (and so are mosquitos and cockroaches and more I can list). Other than that I find them incredibly fascinating and understand they are a vital part of the ecosystem and won't hurt any that don't have any direct negative impact on my part.

 

[NoDamnNames]

I have no problem with spiders, they capture mosquitoes and other nuisances in my garden. I never kill them on sight, even if they are black widow. I adore spiders around my yard.

Wasps, I have a fatal allergy for, and kill on sight. capturing them poses to much of a threat as they are swift and instead of fleeing hold grudges and attack. I don't necessarily like killing them but prioritize my life over theirs.

Flies - unhygienic, I have no problem swatting them. I encourage spiders to catch them.

Mosquitoes - I have about as much compassion for mosquitoes as I do for lumps of sand. In fact I am more fond of lumps of sand than mosquitoes because THEY DON'T TAKE MY BLOOD. In my books, any feral creature who draws my blood has given me grounds to end its life.

 

[DragonChi]

Spiders are the most hateful, ugly, creepiest thing on the planet that could have only come from the deepest depths of hell.

i know all creatures serve a purpose..but..seriously....WTF?!

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

To keep up the flow FUCK WASPS

i'll explain :
they traumatised me in a rollercoaster
it was the first time i was allowed in the biggest rollercoater of a nearby Sixflags (now walaby world or something)and i was around 7 or 8.
a wasp stung me, in my neck, at the start of the ride.
(that wasn't too bad, it just wasn't pleasant)
but i found the SAME wasp 60 minutes later IN MY SHIRT!
it scared the hell out of me (knowing it crawled there for that long)
now they terrify me, along with all of them flying small ugly F*ckers
so they die, i don't care about "putting them outside" i make them suffer if they enter my room/house because one of them made me suffer.

i kill them because they burnt our crops pillaged our village raped our women and poisoned our wells.

they do? *freaks out**mumbles* they can't find me here, they can't find me here, they can't find me here, they can't find me here*mumbles*
another reason to hate them

I was mountain biking and found myself on top of a wasps nest that my brother had disturbed on his way past. At least 30 stings, and a 20 foot drop into a river(which turned out to be about 4 inches deep)later, I don't react well when a wasp is near me. Being in the woods, I had to walk myself a half mile out to where the paramedics could find me...sucked. Similiarly to your story, one flew out when I was taking my clothes off at the hospital too...I freaked.

man... your story makes me kinda sad... that was truly a bad thing.
it made my story look like eating icecream.. , or playing on a computer
we need to stop wasps from attacking humans! they must be exterminated Or they have to find out a way to scare the hell out of them with a special noise, so they leave in panic!
btw, do you still like your brother after this happened?

It was an accident, a below ground nest...he couldn't have seen it.
I guess that I was trespassing(accidently), and the wasps just overreacted. Maybe because I'm not a wasp too...racists.

 

[^=ash=^]

Spiders have too many legs!

I try to catch most with the paper - glass technique; However flies are a pain and disgusting so I tend not to bother, if near a window I will encourage them out, if they don't go then they get the newspaper treatment.

 

[Chummychanga]

Because ants are the most annoying and one of the scariest things on the planet to me.

Spoiler: Just look at this

Otherwise, I love small creatures.

Agh shit, why the fuck would you post that?

Anyways, I don't like bugs. I think they are yucky, and I'm deathly afraid of them. I'd rather jump off of a cliff than having to deal with a bug..

And spiders are worse, because everytime I see one my mind goes to all those close up shots of them and their ba-million eyeballs and that freaks me out somethin` fierce. ):

 

[Maibus]

I, like many people, have Arachnophobia, an intense and over inflated fear of spiders, infact now that spiders are on the mind I'm keeping a stern vigil for the little bastards now. This phobia makes people either panic and cower or attack out of primal fear, or in one case I lured the cat over and it went to town... yeah... the cat saved me >.> it was a really BIG spider O_O, it was epic though, let me tell you. Back on track though, mostly I think its plain human tendency to attack the unknown out of misplaced fear, the average human is unaware of just what insects and arachnids do for us, flies for instance get rid of rotting garbage as food for their larvae and spiders kill flies, however killer bees and wasps, even normal bees, provide painful stings that aren't very helpful at all. Then finally it just comes down to it just being way easier to kill something than it is to capture it, though I did catch a mouse once...

 

[shroomz]

I kill basically all insects and arachnids that are inside.

Cockroaches.... disease
Flies.... disease
Wasps.... pre-emptive strike (followed by fumigation of loft)
Mosquitos....just plain wrong.
Spiders.... I loved them as a kid and kept any random ones i caught in jars feeding them fruit flies until I saw arachnaphobia when I was 7... Now they freak me out, and I kill them if I can; it's about the fact that you will never hear them coming, they're suddenly just THERE. Moving to a country with a massive redback problem didn't help

 

[Avatar Roku]

snip

I hear what you're saying, and I agree with you on an intellectual level, but a few things:

-I have a mild phobia of spiders. Small ones just make me uneasy, but anything bigger than a quarter and I'll move to the other side of the house to avoid it.

-My house is infested (mildly) with stink bugs. I wouldn't have a problem with that (they only smell when squished), but they have the annoying tendency to try to nest in my hair, which causes me to freak out.

So yeah, although I can recognize the logic of what you say, I can't really do anything about it.

 

[Toaster Hunter]

Because I've seen Starship Troopers. I know what happens if we let them get out of control.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

They are annoying and ugly. And it's faster to kill them than capture them and take them outside, when they'll just come back inside anyway. If they didn't want me killing them they'd have stayed outside.

For the record, I do try to capture bees and wasps. Anything else, though, is getting out of my house on its own or getting smushed.

They (insects) are among the most beautiful and majestic of all natures rich tapestry.

Spoiler

What is so amazing about them is you can find them anywhere and everywhere. You don't need to go on safari, you don't only see them in wildlife documentaries, you can walk out into your park, your garden, even around your home, and find thousands of the wonderful little critters living there wonderful little lives.

 

[Azraellod]

-snip-

I understand that some people have phobias of small insects and spiders. I don't blame you for that at all, I have a phobia of my own, so I know what it feels like.

Thing is, by the sound of it, you seem able to control your fear of them quite well. You move rooms to avoid a spider rather then just stamping on it or something, which is one of the main things I object to.

And you know, it doesn't really sound like you regard insects purely as things to hate. You don't like insects getting in your hair, but then neither do I, and I'd say that's true of a lot of people. You might not like being around spiders, but that's not the same as hating them, or regarding them as worthless.

 

[Taneer]

And I kill them simply because it's easier for me.
I don't want to spend an extra minute or two making sure the thing is okay.
There are so many of the bugs that killing the three or four I might find in my room is hardly even a dent in a small percentage of the population.

Well, I COULD try and get around this fat guy, or I could shoot him in the head. Ah, whatever, there's like, 6.5 billion people, and around 2 billion fat people, I'm sure killing one couldn't hurt.

 

[Avatar Roku]

-snip-

I understand that some people have phobias of small insects and spiders. I don't blame you for that at all, I have a phobia of my own, so I know what it feels like.

Thing is, by the sound of it, you seem able to control your fear of them quite well. You move rooms to avoid a spider rather then just stamping on it or something, which is one of the main things I object to.

And you know, it doesn't really sound like you regard insects purely as things to hate. You don't like insects getting in your hair, but then neither do I, and I'd say that's true of a lot of people. You might not like being around spiders, but that's not the same as hating them, or regarding them as worthless.

True, but the point I was trying to make was that recognizing something intellectually and recognizing it emotionally are two different things. I know that I have literally nothing to fear from the insects (save bees and other stinging insects) in my area, but, although I have no phobias of insects besides my arachnophobia, they still all make me uneasy. I've actually pondered this and decided that bugs are worth enough that I won't squish them unless I can't leave for whatever reason and it makes me that uneasy, but most people don't think so much about this sort of thing. The way most see it, if it makes them uneasy, kill it, which, simple minded or not, I can't begrudge them.

 

[Neonbob]

And I kill them simply because it's easier for me.
I don't want to spend an extra minute or two making sure the thing is okay.
There are so many of the bugs that killing the three or four I might find in my room is hardly even a dent in a small percentage of the population.

Well, I COULD try and get around this fat guy, or I could shoot him in the head. Ah, whatever, there's like, 6.5 billion people, and around 2 billion fat people, I'm sure killing one couldn't hurt.

As I mentioned earlier, that reason was just the first thing that came to mind.
though that does make sense
BAD SMARTASS REACTION! BAD!
But seriously, you cannot equate an insect's life to that of a human's.

 

[e2density]

Kill an ant, then go out and gut a deer. Which one is easier?

 

[BlumiereBleck]

spiders. they creepy...

 

[Jezzascmezza]

You try just allowing a massive cockroach to scramble around your house at night without feeling the urge to completely smash the hell out of it. Anyone whose had a huge cockroach in their house knows how damn near impossible it is to just pick it up with a piece of paper and "gently place it outside." No, you want to hit it really freaking hard, well at least I do...

 

[ShockValue]

Spiders are evil abominations which seek to destroy humanity. So I'm doing everyone a favor when I kill them.

 

[Azraellod]

True, but the point I was trying to make was that recognizing something intellectually and recognizing it emotionally are two different things. I know that I have literally nothing to fear from the insects (save bees and other stinging insects) in my area, but, although I have no phobias of insects besides my arachnophobia, they still all make me uneasy. I've actually pondered this and decided that bugs are worth enough that I won't squish them unless I can't leave for whatever reason and it makes me that uneasy, but most people don't think so much about this sort of thing. The way most see it, if it makes them uneasy, kill it, which, simple minded or not, I can't begrudge them.

Ah, sorry I missed that.

I kind of get why an arachnophobe may want to kill spiders. I don't agree with it, but I do understand that they have a reason for it, even if it's an irrational one.

The issue I have is with people who just kill insects out of either cruelty or laziness. If you saw [user]Starnerf[/user]'s post quite early on in this thread, that is the kind of thing I am referring to. He's got no reason for killing them aside from the fact that he cant be bothered to pick them up and put them outside.

Although it is massively encouraging to see some of the responses from arachnophobes in this thread. Both you and [user]Jamash[/user] have mentioned that you are able to think past your arachnophobia, and that's a really nice thing to hear, so thanks for that.