Bug off!

A few years ago, one day I saw a couple of ants in the kitchen.  I went on a red alert after killing them--I was sure that the two meant that more were on their way.

Sure enough, they came. In increasing numbers.  After a few more days of spot and kill, when I saw a long line of them marching, I called up a pest control guy. 

"I keep my home, especially the kitchen, really clean.  Yet there are ants," I told him.

He behaved like he had heard them all.  He nodded.  "Even hospitals have ants inside."

And then he continued with this: "You live on an ant hill."

That's the problem.  We make homes in territories where there is plenty of life, big and small.  And in our arrogance we want to clear away those other life forms.  Ants, which were the original inhabitants, are being wiped out by settlers like me.

A few years ago, when I returned home after being gone for a week or so, I found that wasps had made themselves a home right outside my front door.  Wasp spray and then hosing it down.  Wasps gone.

I kill spiders all the time. 

The occasional fly either has to find a way back out, or die. 

When I kill these bugs, I apologize to them. A sorry, within my mind.  I feel bad I have to kill them. 

A few years ago, when scientists speculated that sometime in the near future women might be able to reproduce without a need for sperm and, therefore, a male in their lives, a news report included reactions from women.  One woman said that she knows that women like her will need men because it is men's job to kill spiders that she hated.

What's with humans and spiders?  Why do we commit arachnicide?  Perhaps because of our pathological fear of things with eight legs?  Our parents scared the shit out of us about spiders when we were toddlers?  We certainly don't enjoy walking into one of their webs that we don't even see.  A complex set of reasons. 

I try my best to give bugs their space not only because they deserve to live as much as I deserve to live, but also because way back in middle or high school we learnt about food chains and ecosystems and that message stuck with me.  We are all dependent on each other.  Unfortunately, we humans have gained enough power over other life forms that we casually and easily decimate this complex relationship.  With one spray, I can kill a hundred ants all at once!  As we humans dramatically alter the natural environment, quite a few bugs are being wiped out of existence altogether.

I understand all these, but only intellectually.  Even if I didn't love bugs ...  Emotionally, I don't ever want to see big fat spiders hanging from the ceiling!