to have told this girl off today...

[ImABadGirl]

was a lovely sunny day today so I went bike riding with my family, as we waited in the queue for an ice cream, this girl screams and flicks a bug off her shoulder (we're in a country park)

anyway after a couple of minutes she looks at the dragonfly that she flicked off and promptly stands on it.

I'm quite at this and tell her so, there were a lot of kids around. My mum said I shouldn't have had a go at her so WIBU?

Good for you OP!

Soupdragon
You are not going to win any discussion by putting words into peoples' mouths and then deriding them.
What has actually been said is that dangerous pests should be got rid off, but harmless creatures ought not be destroyed on a whim. Is that so very hard to understand?
Dragonflies don't sting, and are not capable of biting human skin. So there is no reason to hurt them. We go walking in the country to enjoy what's left of the natural world, not to destroy it.

I'm not trying to win anything and understand perfectly, thank you very much. There is a clear hierarchy of insects.

They are "dangerous" only by perception - I am not sure there are any truly dangerous insects in the UK (allergies excepted)

Oh, and you can't win a discussion anyway.

musical have just seen your post, I'm 34 and my mother was with me, she's never had a go at anyone in the street before and was shocked that I did...

also do young children post in mumsnet??

Yabu but then you do have to a amuse yourself on half term don't you op.

...putting words into peoples' mouths and then deriding them.

You're right, of course. Absolutely no one on this thread has said they wouldn't kill a butterfly but would go out and stamp on snails. No one at all has said that they (and many others) consider it OK to kill some boring insects but not pretty ones.

Oh, hang on though...

None of this means I don't think the Op should have pulled up the original woman though. It's just the hypocrisy that makes me laugh.

pearly, I've been on mn since 2009, please stop with the troll hunting

IMO YABU she may be panicked by insects and given the chance to understand her OTT reaction may not do it in future but appreciate bugs, especially the prettier ones!

It was me who said I'd let dragonflies flit free while stamping on snails in my special snail-stamping shoes.

I'm completely unrepentant because I'm all that stands between my helpless hostas and those raspy-tongued little fuckers.

I'm abivalent about butterflies because they're pretty, but I hunt down and squash caterpillars. They're green on the inside too.

It's really satisfying staring patiently into green foliage for ages and suddenly noticing that what you thought was part of the plant is actually the big fat hungry caterpillar that's been devastating them.

I imagine it's how snipers feel.

limited

It's not murder if it's an insect

icbineg it's not murder if it's not human.

But sometimes it's mean.

And sometimes it's not

ImABadGirl Sorry, I thought you were posting tongue in cheek. There have been posts in the past from "toddlers" before, just in good fun.