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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Taking wings off dead fly = psychopath?

101 replies

gezelligheid · 11/02/2023 20:05

I sprayed a housefly with spray and left it to die. Later I've come back and it has no wings. Although he denies it, I know DS11 removed the wings. When I asked about it he got nervous and started laughing and denied it.

Should I be worried that he is pulling the wings off a dead fly? Is it psychopath behaviour?

YABU - not psychopath behaviour
YANBU - psychopath behaviour

OP posts:
Original poster
gezelligheid · 12/02/2023 04:47

BatshitBanshee · 11/02/2023 23:24

Your son wouldn't hurt a fly. You on the other hand...

Unless there's a massive dripfeed about your neighbourhood cats going missing and your DS's pet hamster having strange amputations, I think he's fine.

You on the other hand need to get a handle on yourself; when you hear hooves, think horses..not zebras. You'll give the kid a complex if he can't do normal curiosity things without you diagnosing psychopathy.

No, no drip feed. He's very much a normal boy other than this - likes football, music, Minecraft, does his homework reluctantly - the usual 😂

I think I just got a bit weirded out because I've read that this kind of thing leads to that but I've been very reassured by this thread.

OP posts:
HoppingPavlova · 12/02/2023 05:05

Don’t worry. We use fly spray and I don’t feel at all ashamed. As for ‘just open the window’?????? All windows here have flyscreens on them, if not your house would be riddled within the hour. Even opening the front/back door to come in/out brings them in. I’m not having my home as a fly sanctuary. We did get electric bats at one point and they are great, they look like tennis rackets with electric currents in the wire heads that electrocute fly’s when you swing and connect. There’s always ‘that fly’ that won’t be caught that way though so we spray those. Especially blowies, they are just disgusting. None of us have psychopathic tendencies, just don’t want to share our house with flies. We gladly suffer them outside though, it’s just a constant arm dance when eating.

HoppingPavlova · 12/02/2023 05:06

*flies

CoalCraft · 12/02/2023 05:20

user40643 · 11/02/2023 20:35

We have a dead mouse in the freezer because D(12 at the time) wanted it kept so she could learn taxidermy... She's since decided she's too squeamish and has started buying animal skulls on Etsy instead.
I should probably fish that mouse out of the freezer now.

Thats vile. Unhygenic doesn't even begin to describe this.

Lol. I have pet snakes so a whole drawer of my freezer is dedicated to dead rats and mice.

MrsMikeDrop · 12/02/2023 05:39

He might grow up to be a surgeon! I'd say it was just curiosity and nothing sinister.

XenoBitch · 12/02/2023 13:38

HitTheBars · 12/02/2023 04:23

Also, none of us pull off parts of dead creatures or cut open our dead pets. Some very fucked up posters.

It is not fucked up to be curious. Kids curious about such things may go on to be vets or surgeons when they are older.
Not everyone is a potential Dahmer.

HitTheBars · 12/02/2023 14:00

XenoBitch · 12/02/2023 13:38

It is not fucked up to be curious. Kids curious about such things may go on to be vets or surgeons when they are older.
Not everyone is a potential Dahmer.

Show quote history

I haven’t said anything about potential Dahmers. It’s still fucked up. Pulling wings off flies or cutting up animals is not a pre requisite of being a surgeon or vet.

Marylou62 · 12/02/2023 19:52

summermist · 11/02/2023 23:13

This is so funny. All I can think is yuck how gross to play with flies.

Show quote history

I know..but we were the generation who didn't wash hands before eating, swam in the Thames (in fact any water!)..wore clothes for ages (obviously had clean underwear 🩲) We had a bath once a week.. Mum first then Dad then oldest kid first... I was clever and asked to get in with Mum! My youngest brother (we were 5 siblings) still remembers the scum! But we were hardy kids and very rarely ill...
Could write a book about our 60/70s childhood..the younger generation would be horrified!

Crumpetdisappointment · 12/02/2023 19:54

a school friend did nasty things to insects,
no idea what happened to her as an adult

i think it is just childhood curiousity
different when it is puppies and kittens.

dawngreen · 12/02/2023 19:57

My dog eats them or grabs and watches them crawl before eating them.

WhiteArsenic · 12/02/2023 23:08

HitTheBars · 12/02/2023 14:00

I haven’t said anything about potential Dahmers. It’s still fucked up. Pulling wings off flies or cutting up animals is not a pre requisite of being a surgeon or vet.

Show quote history

I posted to reassure OP because I did indeed go on to become a vet. Which involves cutting up lots of animals, initially, when training, dead or (these days) virtual simulations, but eventually live anaesthetised ones whose lives you are sometimes saving in the process. Of course most children don’t cut up dead animals, but then most people don’t want to be surgeons when they’re adults either. Fortunately we’re not all the same. Not sure how an interest that led me to a useful and fulfilling career would make me fucked up, really. Unusual, sure. But that’s not the same thing.

Saschka · 12/02/2023 23:16

We did get electric bats at one point

I initially assumed this was some other kind of pest getting into your house (like an electric eel, but a bat), and was getting increasingly confused by the rest of the description.

MagicMojito · 13/02/2023 00:24

Saschka · 12/02/2023 23:16

We did get electric bats at one point

I initially assumed this was some other kind of pest getting into your house (like an electric eel, but a bat), and was getting increasingly confused by the rest of the description.

Same thing I initially though 😂

007DoubleOSeven · 13/02/2023 00:32

Might have been my cat. She disappeared for a while earlier and has a history of depriving spiders of half their legs (one side only).

I think she enjoys watching them get dizzy.

WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps · 13/02/2023 00:34

Where are you where you're getting FLIES in the middle of February? Confused

misses point of thread............

Roseyposeypudding · 13/02/2023 03:37

Unless taught otherwise, some perfectly healthy and nice children might experiment with this once or twice in their childhood. It’s only if it becomes a personal interest, source of enjoyment, and is done often/move onto other animals that it becomes very worrying.

Roseyposeypudding · 13/02/2023 03:38

FWIW, my grandmother - very sweet, kind and gentle for her whole life - enjoyed pulling the legs off daddy long legs as a child. It meant nothing and didn’t continue after a certain age!

Fourcandleforkhandle · 13/02/2023 06:27

My Eldest Son who was 10 at the time pulled off the Fins of the Goldfish we use to have after it had died. I came down one morning to see the Goldfish floating in the water without it's fins. I instantly like the OP taught what a psychopath my Son was.
I am glad to say Son is 20 yrs old now and hasn't done anything like that again ( to my knowledge) and is as normal as can be.

LittleBlueBrioTrain · 13/02/2023 06:33

How else do you think raisins are made?

OnaBegonia · 13/02/2023 06:42

Thank you all for pointing out that fly spray is not a good way to deal with flies. I wasn't aware so now that I am I won't use it again.
Does your house have windows? why do you need to kill a fly?

LoveMAFS · 13/02/2023 06:46

QueenCamilla · 11/02/2023 20:19

I used to throw earth-worms to ants and watch the nature take it's toll (worms being sucked out until they shrivel).
I'm much less fond of that idea these days... 😁

Do ants eat worms?Shock

LoveMAFS · 13/02/2023 06:48

007DoubleOSeven · 13/02/2023 00:32

Might have been my cat. She disappeared for a while earlier and has a history of depriving spiders of half their legs (one side only).

I think she enjoys watching them get dizzy.

I hardly want to ask but I'm curious if they still crawl after that?😬

liveforsummer · 13/02/2023 06:51

WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps · 13/02/2023 00:34

Where are you where you're getting FLIES in the middle of February? Confused

misses point of thread............

I had a swarm of fruit flies last week. Had a couple of bin bags of broken toys, birthday packaging/wrapping paper etc sitting waiting to go to the dump and unbeknown to me until they appeared, dd had chucked a couple of apple cores in it. I'm afraid I sprayed them rather than try to herd 300 teeny flies down the corridor, round the corner and out the small landing window 😬

liveforsummer · 13/02/2023 06:55

I agree. The thread is very ‘off’. I didn’t hurt any creatures as a child or adult. My kids were taught to respect all creatures, but being nice to all creatures seemed to come natural to them anyway thankfully. What a horrible thread.

The thread is about pulling wings off a DEAD fly though - that's not hurting it

Badbudgeter · 13/02/2023 07:07

I once pulled the wings off a dead fly (it died of natural causes) and got dc to look at them under a microscope. Hopefully I haven’t damaged them too much.

I agree with PP it’s pulling the wings off live ones you worry about. I personally kill flies with an electric tennis racquet so don’t judge you for the fly spray.