Deb Lewis

I love bugs. Not in the "fry them up and eat them with hot sauce" way
(that's freakin' crazy!) but in the
"respect-them-as-intelligent-life-forms-pausing-briefly-on-Earth-before-m
oving-on-to-conquer-distant-galaxies" way.

I'd discourage bug squishing by a little kid for the same reason I'd stop
them from squeezing a cat or stomping a bunny. I figure Lady Bugs really
want to go about their bug business without being squished. I'd aim in
that respect-for-living-things direction. If she still wanted to eat
them then, I guess I'd buy her a recipe book and myself a bottle of
tequila (wormless) and try to contact the mother ship with my sincere
condolences.

Deb L

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In a message dated 5/26/04 2:55:17 PM, ddzimlew@... writes:

<< I'd discourage bug squishing by a little kid for the same reason I'd stop
them from squeezing a cat or stomping a bunny. >>

Holly and I were out earlier this evening with a flashlight, seeing whether
maybe tomorrow is the day the day lilies will bloom. Holly's going to be gone
for five days, and might miss the first bloom.

We saw a few cockroaches. Not the little brown zippy ones, not the flying
flat kind, but the black ones (a.k.a. asian water bugs; gross). Holly, who
loves all little things except mosquitos and cockroaches was yelling KILL THAT
ONE! MOM! GET THIS ONE!

Only she was the one with the flashlight and she kept taking it off of
whatever I was supposed to be stomping.

I got five. That's dozens to hundreds prevented. (Maybe thousands, but I
don't like to think about that many.)

Holly asked if I knew why people seem so particularly grossed out by
cockroaches, and I said I didn't know, but it did seem to be a fact. And another
thing that lots of people were grossed out by, but not as many, would be snakes.

That was the end of our musings at that moment, but I'm sure it will
continue, and if any of you have ideas I'll be glad to pass them on to her.

Sandra

Deb Lewis

***That was the end of our musings at that moment, but I'm sure it will
continue, and if any of you have ideas I'll be glad to pass them on to
her.***

Space invaders. They get right into *your* stuff. We have better ways
to store food today but folks used to have to be diligent about keeping
roaches out of their food supply. And I think people are nervous about
things that scurry around at night. If we're sleeping we can't know what
their up to or where they've been. It feels like a violation.... little
burglars, stealing your food. It's the same with mice. Mice were
scarier because, well, their more like rats and with fur bearing critters
you get fleas and with fleas you get plague. Not so much now but humans
are a lot like Velociraptors. They remember.

I held a Madagascar hissing cockroach at a bug fair and fell in love. I
came home and researched where I could get one (Madagascar, of course!
<G> No, Carolina Biological Supply) and priced a habitat and got it all
figured out. I told David I was going to get a pair of them. He said
something about dying before he lived deliberately with cockroaches and
cashing out all the credit cards and disappearing into the Arctic. <g>
He grew up in southern Arizona. I grew up in Montana. He had WAY
different feelings about cockroaches than I did.

In defense of roaches, they are the worlds little garbage disposals. If
there were no roaches, all the dead and decaying things in the world
would have to be eaten by Uni-bomber hermits and Vultures and those are
MUCH harder to stomp.

Deb

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In a message dated 5/27/04 9:41:54 AM, ddzimlew@... writes:

<< In defense of roaches, they are the worlds little garbage disposals. If
there were no roaches, all the dead and decaying things in the world
would have to be eaten by Uni-bomber hermits and Vultures and those are
MUCH harder to stomp. >>

Hey, when I stomp a roach, ants come and take it away what's left within a
day.
Dead bird in the yard? Give the ants a few days. Maybe the cockroaches help
them. Maybe if the ants aren't fast enough something will lay eggs in it.
But soon, gone.

On That 70's show, Fes didn't get rock/paper/scissors, so Hyde taught him
foot / atomic bomb/ cockroach.

Sandra

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Hi, Sandra,

Perhaps it's a natural instinct because they carry so many diseases and there
are so many of them? If we're grossed out by them then we might not be so
squeemish about killing them or at least removing them. I'm that way
w/flies...but only since Shane was born. I can't stand them and just want them gone. Not
so much w/fleas (some carry plague, here) or mosquitoes (who can carry West
Nile Virus), but after many years of letting the black widows live... after
having Shane and finding our house overrun w/them when he was a baby, when I see
them, they must die and that's that. It's the mama bear protective thing.
Interestingly, that's not my attitude about rattlesnakes. I don't feel the need to
kill them, just relocate them, but they don't gross me out and I've only run
into a few. I do really like all the non-poisionous snakes we have around.

Debbie~:)



Holly asked if I knew why people seem so particularly grossed out by
cockroaches,



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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In a message dated 5/27/04 11:54:54 AM, Rosybluestar@... writes:

<< I'm that way
w/flies...but only since Shane was born. >>

Me too. After I had Kirby I didn't feel that tender affection toward the
vermine I had once admired. <g>

After I quit nursing Holly and she got old enough not to pick things up at
random that might be spiders, I started to think they were fascinating fellow
creatures again. Except cockroaches. For them, I hope for reincarnation so
they can come back as something happier and prettier.

Sandra

Deb Lewis

***Hey, when I stomp a roach, ants come and take it away what's left
within a
day.***

Ok, roaches and ants are the worlds little garbage disposals. And
carrion beetles. And about a hundred thousand other bugs and insects.
And my dog.

Still, a world without of cockroaches would suffer some terrible impact,
I'm sure. Like, that movie "Men in Black" would seem totally unrealistic
and impossible.<g>

***Dead bird in the yard? Give the ants a few days.***

I've been wondering how I could get rid of my mother in law...
We had three ant hills blossom in our front yard this spring. They're
black ants. They're busy. They bite when we pick them up, even though
we gave them lunch meat in a gesture of friendship. They'll probably
grow to the size of small dogs and take over the town.

Deb L, who watched Starship Troopers again the other day.

Mark and Julie

***Dead bird in the yard? Give the ants a few days.***

I've been wondering how I could get rid of my mother in law...

And mine's coming to visit on Sunday. <beg>

Julie, on her way out the door to look for ants...