entomology

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who else is interested in studying insects ?

I don't have a strong interest in them, though they are fairly interesting.

It was my earliest and most long-lasting obsession. Not as much anymore, but I still get up to it on occasion.

I was fascinated by bugs and insects as a kid, but I don't think I would enjoy killing and stabbing them with pins to a board, especially the really big bugs. As a kid I was terrified of the sight of dead insects, but not living ones. Maybe because they reminded me of my own all-too-fragile mortality? Entomonecrophobia?

i ONLY study them LIVE. I could NEVER kill them ! !! !

That was actually my very first obsession, certainly at least from the time I was two or three. I also never kill them (even insects and spiders inside - I catch them and let them go outside, and insist other people don't kill them). I took an entomology class in college for fun (the other entomology classes offered were mostly how to deal with "problem" insects, which I, of course, am not interested in), and I got special permission to take pictures of insects instead of kill and pin them. It was a lot of fun.

I also NEVER KILL them

^ Not even blood-sucking, disease carrying mosquitoes? Or pestilence-ridden houseflies? Cockroaches? Don't tell me you'd rather be savagely stung all over by fire ants than kill them.

I don't. I shoo mosquitoes away, and catch houseflies and cockroaches and let them go outside. I haven't been attacked by fire ants, so I can't say for sure what I'd do, but I'd probably try to just brush them off. To me, they're living things, just like us, and I don't want to kill them for simply being what they are. Female mosquitoes need blood to produce eggs. Fire ants would just be trying to protect their nest. Houseflies and cockroaches are just living their lives. Granted, I've never had to deal with a major animal-related problem in the house - just the occasional undesired arthropod that can easily be released outside. I really don't know what I'd do if I had to deal with something like a cockroach infestation.

I like the way you think.
I had a roach infestation when I lived in the city. It was awful - my place was very clean, I did nothing to encourage them, but the flats above and below me were pigsties and the whole building was infested. You'd turn the lights off, and when you got up to go to the bathroom at night and turned them back on, the walls were literally covered with roaches. They'd skuttle away from the light, but you knew the moment it went back off, they would all reappear. They would come on the bed and crawl on me.
I hated spraying them ethically, and anyway, they seemed immune. It didn't stop them.
I ended up moving on for other reasons but the roach thing was definitely part of it. I really don't know what you could do except move.
I like bugs in general. I suppose I never grew out of it. They're interesting and their behaviour and anatomy is interesting. I don't like all kinds of bugs on me, but I have a problem with things touching me in general.

Yeah, I only like them on me if I invite them. Otherwise I will be very startled and frantically brush them off. Some insects also have very pointy feet that hurt even when all they're doing is walking or just sitting there, like cicadas. I love the feeling of a millipede walking on me, though - I considered getting one for a pet, but they're actually a fair bit of work to keep. I get a piece of paper or a jar for things that might bite or sting. There are also bug vacuums you can get that will suck them up, and then you can release them outside completely unharmed (if probably a bit frightened). They carried them at the store I used to clean at. I've considered getting one for things like spiders and the wasps we occasionally get in the house.

Bugs make me uncomfortable. Especially bees. I hate the buzzing that comes from them, the sound is kinda scary to me, which is one of the things I don't like about going outside.

-LegoMaster2149 (Written on September 22, 2017)

Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes include malaria, yellow fever, West Nile Virus, dengue, chikungya, and many more!
Letting a mosquito live so it can lay its eggs is basically like setting a serial killer free.

Botflies also catch mosquitoes, attach their eggs to the mosquitoe's body and then releases it, so that when the mosquito bites someone the eggs get into the bite and hatch into botfly larvae, living in your flesh.

Certain species of cockroaches carry salmonella, botulism, E. Coli, and their feces can cause allergies in some people. The also ruin books by eating the glue that holds the pages together and smell bad. People can say all they want about roaches being around for millions of years and being able to survive nukes and whatever, but at the end of the day. they. Are. Gross!

Humans are also destructive and disease carrying vermin, destroying the world the way bugs would if they were all allowed to live their full life cycle, but the difference is that you can't squish, spray, trap, or exterminate humans.

I never kill an insect that doesn't do something to me.

Of course I swat mosquitoes, because if they aren't biting me, and haven't bit me, they're soon going to. Flies, from a dog-dropping, landing on my dinner-plate? I swat flies if necessary when they're a problem. But first I try to chase them out. When there are just a few occasional flies, that don't bother our meals, I don't bother them.

Fire-ants? Of course at times when I've had a dozen or more swarming onto me and stinging me, I'd squash-rub them off. Ok, maybe even if it's only just one, because of angry impulse. But otherwise I never bother them.

Live and let live.

Once, when I caught a fire-ant, to identify it, and was returning it to its nest, some of its sisters bit me as I knelt by the nest.

(By the way, did you know that "Fine Arts Center", when you switch the "n" in "fine" with the "r" in "arts", becomes "Fire Ants Center"?)

Other than mosquitoes, and fleas, when they were in the house, or flies, when they can't be chased out, I always put insects out instead of killing them.

Spiders? I squash spiders--unless they're so big that I can't do it quickly, cleanly and tolerably humanely. I question the humane justification for sparing spiders, because each spider that you spare is going to kill lots of insects in a particularly horrible and gruesome manner. How humane is that?

Though i don't believe in squashing big spiders, I once squashed a gigantic 3 or 4 inch leg-span tarantula-like wolf-spider that bit me when I put on a robe that it was in. That was just out of impulsive anger. The spider just thought it was defending itself, and its bite is only like a bee-sting.

I should have just put it out, out of relief that it wasn't a black-widow or a brown-recluse.

Michael829

I read that if humans became extinct, then cockroaches, house-mice, and Norway rats would soon become extinct too, because they depend on humans, and couldn't compete in the wild.

I once lived in a neighborhood that had roaches. I didn't bother them unless they approached my plate. What can you do? Use a powerful roach-spray that's worse than the roaches?

But I've read that Borax works on roaches, and isn't so toxic. ...justified when they become a big problem.

Also, dried, crumbled Chrysanthemum, or the relatively low-toxicity sprays made from it.

Mosquito-repellent skin-spray will work on ants, when you spray the areas where they come in. But sometimes just blocking their entry-places is enough. Of course keeping your apartment completely free of food-debris is the best anti-ant measure. My girlfriend is adamant about cleanliness and neatness, and we have no ants.

Once I wanted to let a Brown Stinkbug stay in the house in the winter, because I'd read that they come in to get out of the cold, but my girlfriend wouldn't agree with that.

Michael829