Do you kill creepy crawlies/insects that enter your home?

[lynnepot]

Had a nose around one of the mrs hinch fb groups this morning. They had a poll with what insects that they kill if found in their home. The majority on the poll said they kill any insect that enters the home. Top of the poll was spiders followed by flies, wasps, ants, slugs and woodlice. Someone even separately added ladybirds as something they kill. I admit I give zero tolerance to flies, wasps and slugs. I appreciate its each individuals home and everyone has different morals but I was surprised that the majority on the poll said they killed all insects. Whats the MN position on creepy crawlies then?

Spiders are immediately caught and squished to death by DH. Immediately.
Wasps, bees, beetles and ladybirds are cooed over then gently dispatched onto the lawn
Flies are sprayed to death with some sort of killer spray
Ants are squished
Wood lice, or slaters as we call them up here, are usually left to be tortured by the cats. They dry up then they get hoovered.

Slugs are immediately killed and usually put down the toilet by DH. I hate slugs almost as much as spiders.

Of the list given I don't kill lady birds but the rest get killed.

I leave spiders alone and I would leave bees, ladybirds and butterflies alone but they never enter.

I always kill flies, moths, slugs and little gross things like earwigs and wood lice.

For some reason I always have a soft spot for woodlice. They are always saved by me anyhow. Moths too I try and save. To me they are night time butterflies

Mozzies, wevils silverfish and ants risk their lives in this house.
Spiders get left alone.
Other buzzy things get ushered out through a window.

Big fat flies are dispatched swiftly if they don't fuck off of their own accord.
For some reason I'm not surprised that the Hinchettes are the sort to kill everything.

I save everything except clothes moths. I feel very guilty about squashing them, but not guilty enough to let them stay munching away....

The only bugs I ever see in the house are the occasional fly or tiny spider. And I don’t kill them but the cats do. I have five cats and they make short work of any bug that finds it’s way inside.

Only really see spiders, flies and wasps inside. Spiders get left where they are to do their thing and catch anything else that makes its way in. We like to give the big ones names and tell them to avoid the pet rats who unfortunately see them as food if they get close to the cage. The cat is old and doesn’t hunt the spiders - or the pet rats, slow old creature she is with no interest in things that move, her food comes from a tin as far as she is concerned.

Both of us have a soft spot for big spiders, and each of us has kept and studied tarantulas at some point.

Those putting house spiders outside - as much as that comes from a kind place I’m sure, they are inside because it’s warm, putting them outside will kill them so it’s acually a more lingering death than squishing them unfortunately.

Flies get dealt with quickly by the spiders, we might see one but then it disappears shortly after, thanks to either spiders or rats.

Wasps my partner deals with because to me they are scary, they aren’t killed, just trapped and put out or ushered out through the window if they are willing to oblige.

Surprised by the amount of people who kill moths.

Why kill something just for the sake of it?

I kill silverfish ( hate them!) and mosquitoes (as they'll only get another chance to attack if not and it's impossible to catch them).

Eject most insects if possible, except we had a killer fly trap for an invasion of little tiny flies we had over the summer. And I have a spider in the basement called Your Majesty who is the only one allowed to stay indoors. She keeps everyone else in line down there.

I kill mosquitoes. I will open the doors or windows to a wasp and tell it to get out, if it doesn't it dies.

We had 5 hornets arrive in the house over summer, 4 left and 1 was killed.

Spiders only get put outside if they are above the bed, otherwise they can stay in their corners eating the flies.

No. The only things that are unwelcome are slugs. I don't even kill the wasps that come in to search for food in the kitchen. I just give them some jam outside on a saucer.

I love creepy crawlies 🙂

We went for afternoon tea at a cafe last summer and I ordered some strawberry cream cake. Some wasps came to see it because we were sitting outside, so I put some of the icing sugar on a saucer for them and they ate it whilst some other people at another table screamed and flapped around at their stripey visitors.

If you remain calm they tend not to bother you. Unless you're highly allergic, there's no need to avoid them. Dh took some convincing, but we've had no trouble from them and they did build a nest under our shed.

Mosquitos and clothes moths. Everything else is shooed out or left to its own devices.

I kill nothing. The guilt isn’t worth it

Of course not.

I try not to kill anything. I’m too scared to get close enough to spiders to put them out (completely irrational paranoia that they’ll somehow climb into my ears or get tangled in my hair) so I just leave them. Quite a few have set up home and probably raising families in various corners of the house.

I have managed, on occasion, to get them onto a long duster, and sprinted across to the window to let them out, but it’s too much effort tbh.

Over summer, we had ants in the house and when sweeping the kitchen, I would go around them with the brush😂

I accidentally smacked a bee this year, while I was shooing a fly away. The bee flew straight into my hand at the same time, and I’m still not over it.

I live in a hot climate, so have slightly different bugs and flies to deal with

Instant death: things that hurt, destroy or are unhygenic. So mozzies and silverfish and termites all get zapped or sprayed on sight.

Depends: solitary ants get brushed outside (though if there's one, there's usually an army of them soon enough, but at least I gave them a warning shot first). Wasps, beetles, house flies, cockroaches all get encouraged outside, but would be killed (even if with slow suffocation under an upturned glass) if they insist on trying to share the house. Scorpions and bees fall into this category because they only hurt if threatened

Never: most spiders, though if their web gets disturbed frequently the usually decide to move outside anyway