GETTING UPSET OVER A WASP???

[Flavourofthemonth123]

So I was over at a friend's house today with our two LO's this afternoon for a lil New Year's celebration (mostly for them, I find new years a bit naff). We were sitting there and all of a sudden a wasp flew at her child (I was mostly shocked to see one in December!) I swatted it down on the floor and stepped on the bastard (it was on the kitchen tiles, so no squishy bug remains mushed into the carpet.) She was a little bit upset that I squashed the wasp in front of her child, saying she doesn't condone killing bugs. I said that a wasp is different from a spider or a snail because they can sting the LO's (I also squash other bugs lol but that's not the point!)

It wasn't a huge deal but I was just surprised at her reaction! Am I alone in thinking that getting upset over a dead wasp is a bit unreasonable? If there was one hoovering around your little one would you hesitate to smoosh him??

I eat meat so I have no problems killing a wasp, spider, sheep, cow, cat, dog or whatever else for whatever reason.

(Obvs not but there's some interesting logic in here).

@SoupDragon I would have moved it but I am just trying to get @themueslicamel to love them a bit more She sounds like she could get along with them if they got to know each other
Wasps are gardener's friend

I explained above how I see the big picture

I’m with those that think you We’re the overdramatic one OP. There was just no need to kill it.

I generally hate insects and spiders but decided when my kids were born that I’d try and set an example in a bid to make them confident around creepy crawlies. I decided to be calm, collected and move them away where possible (for those of you with the rediculous ‘what if it was a nest’ argument) without killing. The result has been better than I could of imagined! My eldest is very capable at removing all the bugs I hate for me. She’ll pick up a huge housespiders take them outside and have a chat with it before coming back inside and telling me all about it. She’s 5 and has declared she wants to be an entomologist. I feel like a rarely get things right as a parent but I’d be willing to wager the result wouldn’t have been the same if I had been regularly showing my contempt for bugs.

As for the, shock horror, what if it were a nest brigade, we did have a wasp nest once and obviously had to get rid. First, we (DH, I wasn’t going anywhere near it!) took some beautiful close up pictures and then we talked about why it had to go. Then the guy came in and did it and let us keep the empty nest. It really wasn’t that bigger deal.

If it were summer then you would just bring more wasps over as they give out signals.

Next time just swat it outside

I wouldn't have killed it either. I'd probably not been happy and made a small comment too if you had done this in my home. It's unnecessary.

Wasps actually do a lot of good - without them we'd have so many aphids etc and our crops would be impacted. So unless it's flying in my Face I'd leave it alone. In the summer I just move inside if they get too annoying. FYI they are more interested in meat that sugary things.

This time of year it would be a Queen as the works die off.

I would have moved it

Moved it where?

Classic soup dragon, being goady. Have fun on this “murdering animals is ok” stance you’ve backed yourself into.

Classic soup dragon, being goady.

I dont think she is being goady

She is just reacting to the 'id never kill an innocent beastie' comments

When virtually all of us would depending on the circumstances

Why is OK to destroy wasps’ nests? They don’t return to them after the season.

Could it be that having too many wasps nearby is a problem? I think one is too many. All the fuckers can sting. And killing one is less ecologically harmful than destroying a nest.

@SoupDragon I would have moved it outside, where, in my case, as I am giving my opinion, it would have gone back into the gaps they use on our external wall to spend the cold months.

I have explained above my opinion on the matter, professional and personal.

Oh my word the stupid levels are high with this one. So those that avoid directly killing insects for whatever reason HAVE to be vegan and check pavements for insects before stepping on them? Good luck getting through life with a complete black and white attitude like that!

For what it's worth, I wouldn't be very happy with someone demonstrating to my DC that it's ok just to kill anything that comes into the house that's small. I'm also vegetarian (trying to reduce dairy consumption), but don't check about pesticide use in vegetables. Guess that makes me a total hypocrite then 🤷‍♀️

Oh my word the stupid levels are high with this one.

Nowhere near as high as the levels of bogus virtue.

But it's not bogus if it's how people choose? The OP asked if she WBU, has had a mixed response. Fair enough. But to come down with the vegan and pesticide argument to anyone who disagrees is just silly.

But to come down with the vegan and pesticide argument to anyone who disagrees is just silly

From what ive read (and i may way have missed something) the vegan argument is being used to those who say they would NEVER kill an insect

not those of us who have said that sometimes needs must

Rufus we had to get rid of ours because it was the height of summer so they were very active, hanging of one of the eaves infront of the back door. They were constantly groups of them angry in the kitchen arpund our kids and dog. Had those not been the circumstances I don’t know if we would have had it removed

So those that avoid directly killing insects for whatever reason HAVE to be vegan and check pavements for insects before stepping on them?

Obviously you're not going to go round checking pavements. But it makes no sense at all to say "killing wasps is cruel" while being complicit in the killing of sheep, pigs and cows, all of which are much more complex animals that are capable of feeling emotion. A cow is much more like a human than it is like a wasp. I do think there is a strange kind of cognitive dissonance going on here.

Absolutely mama

You are like me a bit there i think

If its not a problem then leave it alone, but obviously yours was a problem

If have killed it, too! Absolutely no hesitation.

DP would have trapped it and released it.

I'm a vegetarian but I insist on DH killing all spiders found in the house. You can't just put them outside as they run straight back in!
Insects I generally put outside, wasps and bees I normally open a door or window and guide them out. It wouldn't upset me if someone killed it instead though. When DS1 was a baby I woke in the night to a wasp crawling around the moses basket. I knocked it onto the floor and killed it with my shoe (No outside floor or window availabke). I wouldn't give one the chance to sting me or my DC, wasps will often sting without warning.

*I’d

What would she think of me as I regularly drown slugs in beer traps in the garden? My flowers are more important to me and apparently there are well over 70,000 of the buggers in many gardens at any one time I'm barely scratching the surface.

I flatten flies as well, I'm a proper little murderer. I shall never be a Buddhist (harm no living thing). Your friend needs to get a grip.

That's not even slightly my point, @ginyogarepeat. As I said, I would have avoided killing the wasp. Not because I'm a beacon of moral virtue, but because I'd feel a bit guilty. If someone else happened to kill it on my behalf, I reckon I'd be OK with that. I was aiming my post at people issuing damning moral judgements on the OP but who, I would guess, don't spend a lot of time interrogating their own actions. We're all hypocrites in one way or another, we shouldn't hold others to higher standards than we hold ourselves to.

I would squash. Wasps are from hell

Sharon? Is that you??? Fucking wasps, cause so much trouble.

I’d prefer it to be squashed, but personally I would have run screaming from the room and let DH handle it. He would have opened a door and batted it out.

He doesn’t kill spiders either.

I just can’t deal with bugs. They creep me out. I don’t even like butterflies.