Do you deem gratuitously killing insects immoral?

[We Are The Witches]

I'm curious about your ethical standards when it comes to (intentionally, carelessly or maliciously) killing insects.

Obviously there are many scenarios in which this would happen, and for an innumerable amount of reasons, so I'll provide some examples afterwards. I know it's also not a topic of great interest to the public (generally), but it is a question nonetheless.

- Is it immoral for you to kill a fly on your room, that would otherwise most likely take you like 2 minutes to just get out?
- The same scenario but with a mosquito.
- The same with a mosquito, but the person tries to intentionally cause pain/torture it before killing it.
- How about intentionally stepping on a beetle or ant on the street?
- A bee?
- A bee that for some reason cannot fly and pollinate?
- (You can add any scenario you like that differentiates moral from immoral)

I know some people do not care at all since it's generally believed that insects in general have less degree of sentience than other lifeforms, which can make it into a grey area at best. But that's why I'm asking Kiwis, the smartest bird out there.

 

[National Defense Advocate]

If a bug is useful or otherwise harmless, I try to keep it alive. Flys, mosquitos and wasps get the fuckin gas chamber.
Bees are bros.

 

[rel=alternate]

- Is it immoral for you to kill a fly on your room, that would otherwise most likely take you like 2 minutes to just get out?

Yes. But most likely is not good enough. Sound like it's mostly not gonna happen and they're going to lay eggs.

- The same scenario but with a mosquito.

See above, but even more annoying.

- The same with a mosquito, but the person tries to intentionally cause pain/torture it before killing it.

I don't think there is anything good about it to begin with, but this just sounds stupid.

- How about intentionally stepping on a beetle or ant on the street?

Retarded and immoral.

- A bee?
- A bee that for some reason cannot fly and pollinate?
- (You can add any scenario you like that differentiates moral from immoral)

Same all over.

I don't get any joy out of killing animals, but I don't mind doing it if I feel like I need to. Even when that need is not that great. In theory, I could live my life like cows, my eyes infested with flies.

I feel bad about killing animals, and I try not to. But it is what it is.

Same goes for food. I don't relish the death of an animal when I look at my meal.

Killing an animal if you don't need to is always heartbreaking if you really want to think about it. When it comes to flies and mosquitos, I chose the compromise where I neither go out of my way to kill them if they don't bother me or think about what I have done if I do. It works for me.

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

I guess I'm pretty arbitrary about it, admittedly. I saved a moth from a spider the other day, but was it good to do that? I dunno. The spider has as much right as the moth. When my kitchen had ants in it, I didn't feel any real remorse about killing them, worried more about infestations. Same with other pests. They're lower on the "ladder" than something like a mammal or a human.

All things equal, I guess I wouldn't say killing bugs is immoral, even on a large-scale like with farming pesticides, given the alternatives of having your home filled with them or getting diseased or starving. But I'd still be wary of anyone that relished in the killing, particularly if it was of the "pulling the wings off of flies" variety. Personally I just detest bugs, and I'd rather try to avoid interacting with them at all. Wish I could just have some accord where I setup a compost bin outside and they promise not to come inside.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

I have zero qualms about killing beelzebub's minions. Fuck flies and the diseases they spread. Spiders I do not like, but I do not kill them anymore because in reality spiders kill the bad insects in arguably one of the most brutal ways imaginable. Liquifying their insides while they are still alive and eating them slow. Go Spiders, insects after my own heart.

 

[WelperHelper99]

Bugs are bugs. They might as well be aliens. I don't give a fuck if you screw with a ant hill or squash a beetle, there's always more of them.

 

[LazyLizard]

i try to avoid killing them, i leave the spiders alive to deal with any bugs in my apartment and if an annoying fly comes in i try to get it out without killing it though sometimes it's do damn annoying and i just kill the fucker.

 

[Tom Myers]

I'm from Buenos Aires and I say kill em all!

 

[Ebonic Tutor]

Now I just want to build a torture chamber for ticks.

 

[DumbDude43]

the only insects i kill on sight are the ones that are (or can become) pests in the house, like flour moths and roaches, and of course mosquitos.
also i keep picking ticks off my poor cats body every other day during spring and summer, i kill those too. nasty little parasites.

if it isn't something that hurts me or my cat, or contaminates my food, then i tend to leave it alone. bees, wasps, grasshoppers, various beetles, when those accidentally get in the house i try to catch them and release them outside.

 

[The Last Stand]

- Is it immoral for you to kill a fly on your room, that would otherwise most likely take you like 2 minutes to just get out?

No. The fly is invading my personal space. Leaving the window open would just invite more.

- The same scenario but with a mosquito.
- The same with a mosquito, but the person tries to intentionally cause pain/torture it before killing it.

No. Mosquitoes want my blood and leave an itching sensation.

What do the kids say? Total Bug Death.

- A bee?

Bees can sting me as a defense mechanism. I try to leave them alone. They don't lend that same courtesy sometimes.

 

[WelperHelper99]

grasshoppers

You welcome locusts? My guy those fucks cause famines. They ruin crops and spread plague. Not to mention they love running through the yard all the fucking time. Kill grasshoppers. Behead grasshoppers. Roundhouse kick grasshoppers.

 

[DumbDude43]

You welcome locusts? My guy those fucks cause famines. They ruin crops and spread plague. Not to mention they love running through the yard all the fucking time. Kill grasshoppers. Behead grasshoppers. Roundhouse kick grasshoppers.

not my problem
they dont bite or sting me, they dont eat my food, they dont spawn nasty worms in my house, so i'm cool with them

 

[umami's milk]

Now I just want to build a torture chamber for ticks.

Let me introduce you to the medieval-style execution tick playlist. Nevermind, YT has censored most of it. Leaving the link up still if you want to watch it anyway.

they dont eat my food,

Are you the type that thinks food just magically spawns in a grocery store?

 

[WelperHelper99]

not my problem
they dont bite or sting me, they dont eat my food, they dont spawn nasty worms in my house, so i'm cool with them

Yeah... they just eat the farms food so there's less for everyone and thus higher prices.

 

[Ebonic Tutor]

Let me introduce you to the medieval-style execution tick playlist. Nevermind, YT has censored most of it. Leaving the link up still if you want to watch it anyway.

Are you the type that thinks food just magically spawns in a grocery store?

Can't even splat ticks on the internet w/o google being faggots now.

 

[DumbDude43]

Are you the type that thinks food just magically spawns in a grocery store?

the type that lives in a place where locust plagues haven't been a thing since... decades? centuries? i don't even know, definitely since long before i was born.

 

[Grub]

Is it immoral for you to kill a fly on your room, that would otherwise most likely take you like 2 minutes to just get out?

No. Flys spread shit everywhere. Their feet spread literal shit particles where ever they land. Also, some flies bite and it fucking hurts. Also fuck horseflies, they should be killed with fire immediately. Those little fuckers'll follow you around and take big chunks out of you and they won't stop.

On a side note though, one time there was a fly in my bathroom, so I sprayed it was a random spray bottle I had sitting on the counter and it landed on the top of the faucet. It tried to fly a couple of times but couldn't, then, I shit you not, the fly looked at me, looked down at the drain in front of it, looked back up at me then walked off the faucet and dropped like a stone into the drain. That's the only fly I've ever respected. It chose to take the plunge instead of getting murdered by me.

The same scenario but with a mosquito.

Fuck that shit, mosquitoes actively want to drink my blood.

- The same with a mosquito, but the person tries to intentionally cause pain/torture it before killing it.

See above.

How about intentionally stepping on a beetle or ant on the street?

I try not to mostly because I don't like killing things unless there's a good reason to, but I don't get sad about it if it does happen. If they're eating my plants though, or I get swarmed by the ants I'll kill the shit out of them.

A bee?

Bees are good and shouldn't be killed.

- A bee that for some reason cannot fly and pollinate?
- (You can add any scenario you like that differentiates moral from immoral)

There's not really much reason to kill them so I probably wouldn't.

And it's not on your list but fuck ticks. They're gross, they carry diseases that will fuck you for life and I think it's immoral not to eradicate them, preferably as painfully as possible.

 

[WelperHelper99]

the type that lives in a place where locust plagues haven't been a thing since... decades? centuries? i don't even know, definitely since long before i was born.

That's because of pesticides killing the fuck out of them. I repeat. Kill grasshoppers.

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

It's only wrong if it's disproportionate to need, just like killing anything that isn't a human being.

Insects of all kinds are extremely important to the ecosystem and it's best to leave them be unless absolutely necessary. Unless you REALLY want to live in the pod and eat the bugs, that is.