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

[Vault boy Eddie]

I kill everything except spiders and lizards, they take care of the bugs I don't see.

 

[monkey_man]

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?

 

[Falru]

They're repulsive, they vandalize your property (spiderwebs), they steal your food, and they won't leave even if you ask them.

And they're not capable of wondering about their own existence or mourning their relatives. Any guilt about their feelings is purely conceived within your own human mind.

 

[gim73]

If you look at history you see that evolution started the war between vertebrates and invertebrates hundreds of millions of years ago. You tend to see a rise in the size and aggression level of invertebrates when temperature and oxygen levels increase. It won't be much longer before swamps cover the earth once again and giant dragonflies roam the sky, looking for weak mammals to carry away.

We're doing our part, are you?
Would you like to know more?

 

[Jamash]

I think it's a hatred born out of an instinctive primal fear, a genetic remnant of a time when most insects were a mortal threat and it was better to be safe than sorry.

The fear and revulsion most people experience with insects isn't logical or a conscious decision, it defies logic and automatically affects us in a nano second. As soon as our eyes detect the insect and our brains recognises the shap, adrenaline strarts coursing through our veins, long before we have time to logically think about the tiny, harmless insect we're seeing.

I think there are quite a lot of things which can still evoke a 'flight or fight' reaction in us, inherited from the dawn of man.

I suffered a similar reaction once when I was clearing out a wardrobe and an old leather strap startled me, causing my brain and body reacted like it was a poisonous snake, which was completely illogical since there aren't even any snakes where I live.

On the topic of insects and spiders, I always attempt to remove them safely with a glass and piece of paper despite my arachnophobia, because I believe it's immoral to kill something just because it scares you, and by confronting and removing the insect I'm conquering my fear.

 

[Jewely2951]

Wasps will try and sting you if you begin bugging them with a cup(No pun intended I swear!), so your argument there is weak. But I have to say yes insects aren't a valued life form, yes they can be useful but they are bugs and thus not the same as people, so no I won't feel bad if I crush them. They are gross, I don't want to have to go near them. Moths are the most discusting thing in the universe to me and I feel no shame in squashing a freakin bug.

 

[Jewely2951]

Any being that enters my territory uninvited must face me in mortal combat!! Luckily, bugs and spiders don't really stand a chance...

Your mailman must hate you.

 

[Umberphoenix]

I try to catch an insect to release it, especially spiders. Spiders aren't going to get anything to eat in my house, so it's best if they get let outside.

I personally love bugs. They fascinate me.

 

[Neonbob]

-snip-

I'm glad you added in that disclaimer, even if you removed it shortly afterwards.

Anyway, that's not exactly a very strong reason for killing them rather then releasing them. How difficult can it be to trap a spider in a glass, slide some paper under it so it cant escape, and then put it outside? Even if you kill it by accident while you're doing that, at least you tried.

Also, killing something and then saying that the species as a whole wont take much of an impact doesn't seem like a very good defense to me.

Heh. Yeah, I added that in as an afterthought, then realized that I didn't like how it sounded.
Rest assured, I don't have that much dedication to many tasks.

And I do not have any glasses in my dorm room, which means the time it would take to find one would make keeping a bug alive too much of a bother to worry about.
There was only one exception to this scenario.

Spoiler: It was too cool to kill

Your last point is a very valid one.
But it is not something I really dwell on that much.
Honestly, that was just the first thing that popped into my mind while writing that post.
An actual real reason I kill them?
I don't know. Probably because it's what I've done my whole life.

 

[Lemon Of Life]

I don't get that many bugs to be honest, but when it's Daddy Long Leg season, they swarm my bedroom. I'm ready.

 

[hotacidbath]

I don't really care about spiders since the only ones that I ever see in my house are Daddy Long Legs. I kill any wasps or centipedes though since I'm allergic to stingy insects and I have a strange hatred of anything with an unnatural amount of legs.

Spoiler: I get these in my house all the time and I just can't stand them.

Come on! Why do you need 15 pairs of legs?

 

[JBarracudaL]

Because they look like little monsters that exist only to enter your ears and or urethra to infect you with the heebie-jeebies.
Obviously.

 

[aww yea]

generally i do try and catch insects and set them free. im fine with spiders in the house, just not in my bedroom. its hard enough to sleep peacefully.

people are lazy and insects are weak. thats your answer right there. plus the sheer number of insects combined with their incredible ability to annoy makes them fairly hated. really, i dont have anything against insects though

but seriously. fuck wasps

 

[Grand_Arcana]

Because I've lived in a rural area I believe that when a person steps outside of their home they are at nature's mercy. If a bear eats your mum I don't think you have any right to hunt that bear down. You're food to the bear (very squishy food), not God's perfect creation.

I tend to take the same approach with insects. Sometimes I'm merciful toward ants and spiders, especially the latter. Sometimes I've even conspired to prevent them from being seen by my mother or sister. I've no toleration of wasps and bees. I don't know if I'm allergic because I've never been stung, and so I'd rather not have the chance of finding out. I kill flies, mosquitos, and cockroaches on sight if I can. Everything else (crickets, grasshoppers, centipedes, millipedes) are pretty much safe.

 

[Acier]

well I used to live in the middle of the woods, so bugs were everywhere.


And we had fucking fiddlebacks, I'm not dealing with that shit.
tick have disease
Ants eat your stuff
cockroaches are just plain nasty, but it's the german one's I despise.
Leeches, just...ugh
Grub/wooly bears I would only kill them if i was going fishing, make great bait.

I'm okay with daddy long legs, tarantulas, dragonflies and what not.

 

[Azraellod]

-snip-

Well, I wasn't thinking that you were likely to attack wasps, just that they were something that you couldn't have in your house, so someone else would have to get rid of them somehow if they saw one. Maybe I should have made that clearer...

I cant say I hold it too much against people for killing a housefly. As much as I like insects, I still fine them rather annoying. Perhaps that short life expectancy is caused by people getting frustrated and killing them so often. I'm frequently unable to catch and release them because their eyesight is too good, and they seem to keep going for a great deal longer then that.

The marching soldier ants seem interesting though, even if it's the sort of interesting you want to watch from a distance.

 

[Azraellod]

Wasps will try and sting you if you begin bugging them with a cup(No pun intended I swear!), so your argument there is weak. But I have to say yes insects aren't a valued life form, yes they can be useful but they are bugs and thus not the same as people, so no I won't feel bad if I crush them. They are gross, I don't want to have to go near them. Moths are the most disgusting thing in the universe to me and I feel no shame in squashing a freakin bug.

Unless you're allergic to wasp stings, or it's a particularly dangerous type of wasp, I don't think that's a very big risk to take. It's not pleasant, certainly, but nor is it that much of an issue.

And what you say seems to imply you have no compassion for any animals aside from humanity. I hope that's not true.

-snip-

That sounds pretty reasonable. I've had similar experiences with relatively mundane things that managed to get my heart racing because my brain automatically assumed they were something else. One story that springs to my mind at the moment is the time a large toy cat fell out of my wardrobe when I opened it, and I nearly screamed because I thought it was something else.

Also, I really like the fact that you release spiders despite your arachnophobia. Reading that made me smile.