Moral Question: [killing bugs in a glue trap]

[peace]

I have a situation moral question for you.
Say you are experiencing an infestation of bugs, which are doing significant damage.
So you purchase a sticky trap as a last resort. Say these bugs only eat in their larval stage, and do not eat as adults, so there is no chance of them starving in their short adult stage while stuck to the trap.
What would be kinder: to kill the bugs by crushing them, or allow them to live out their adult lifespans in the trap, but unable to move around?
:confused:

[borealis]

It's really hard to say with bugs. I don't imagine their thought processes are anything like ours, or if they even have something you can call thought. I don't know what their capacity to suffer is. I guess I would go with the merciful death, but more for my own peace of mind.

[kpickell]

If those are you only choices, then definetely crush them. I hate glue traps.

[Rain2lightening]

I would agree, crushing is better than being stuck on a glue strip.

[rainbowmoon]

I never kill bugs, but I've come to think that when you have an infestation, you have rights...I mean no one should live with a house full of bugs because they're into AR.
Still, I think you have the responsibility to decide on the most humane way of taking care of the situation, too. I think crushing is more humane, but also very disgusting; is there not another option?!

[frenchie]

Crush them........I must confess. For the past month, we have been infested with ants. I have been trying to avoid spraying poison out side of my house, to keep them from coming in, but I'm at my wits end. I hate ants. I have no qualms about spraying the buggers with Simple Green and wiping them all up with a sponge. God forbid if there is a f***ing morsel of bread on the ground undetectable to the eye, I will end up with a 15 food trail of ants that all converge in one spot to eat the morsel of crumb. How about the inch wide trail of ants that go straight to my sponge.....yeah, my sponge that is totally rinsed out of any debris..it just has a scent thqat attracts the ants.....but the BEST....my hamper was covered with ants one day, and I thought....what the hell are they going after in my hamper......so I investigate further. The f***ers are all over my underware!!!!! So I throw my clothes in the wash to get rid of the ants, and when I go to fold my laundry, I notice my underware has HUGE holes in the crotch!! The bastards ate my underware!!

[Rain2lightening]

Crush them........I must confess. For the past month, we have been infested with ants. I have been trying to avoid spraying poison out side of my house, to keep them from coming in, but I'm at my wits end. I hate ants. I have no qualms about spraying the buggers with Simple Green and wiping them all up with a sponge. God forbid if there is a f***ing morsel of bread on the ground undetectable to the eye, I will end up with a 15 food trail of ants that all converge in one spot to eat the morsel of crumb. How about the inch wide trail of ants that go straight to my sponge.....yeah, my sponge that is totally rinsed out of any debris..it just has a scent thqat attracts the ants.....but the BEST....my hamper was covered with ants one day, and I thought....what the hell are they going after in my hamper......so I investigate further. The f***ers are all over my underware!!!!! So I throw my clothes in the wash to get rid of the ants, and when I go to fold my laundry, I notice my underware has HUGE holes in the crotch!! The bastards ate my underware!!

omg! LOL im sorry to laugh but that funny lol Sounds like you have a bad ant problem

[frenchie]

It's funny....I laugh about it! Seriously though, it's been annoying as hell. It takes at least 30 minutes just to get them cleaned up.....then I have to deal with the straglers. I've had enough. I think ants are interesting little creature. I love learning about them, I know some bizaar ant trivia, but I'm so fed up with them invading my house. :cry:

[Rain2lightening]

Ooooo I want to hear some weird ant trivia!

[BrewingStorm]

frenchie- We too have suffered with ants all summer, it was HORRIBLE! But we finally found something that works and is fairly inexpensive. Try antbuster.com

I know ant season is coming to an end, but this stuff is great if you still have them. We ordered some more for next year in case they come back. It looks like crushed peanuts and is only harmful to humans/animals if swallowed in large doses, but you still want to keep it away from children and pets obviously. It's a hallucigen (sp?), the ants LOVE the stuff and will go to it over any kind of food. They take it back to their colony and after they eat it, they turn on each other and the colony gets wiped out. They have a money back, no questions asked guarantee. They say you won't see any ants in your house after 3 days, and it's soooooo true! We've yet to see one since we got the stuff. It takes about 1-2 weeks to arrive, but it's under $20 and well worth it.

If you have ants, try this! It's the only thing that worked for us. We tried cinnamon, mint leaves, borax, all the natural stuff, nothing worked, and I refuse to live in a house infested with ants. :spew:

Jen

[Rain2lightening]

So they freak out and kill each other? lol wow... thats like.... cool and horrible at the same time LOL

[BrewingStorm]

So they freak out and kill each other? lol wow... thats like.... cool and horrible at the same time LOL

LOL :lol:

I said the same thing when my husband told me about it. But I was so fed up with have hundreds in my kitchen at a time (and not a scrap of food anywhere, they would just be running around), that I was willing to try anything!

[Rain2lightening]

Dont blame you a bit. I would of done it too. It was just so cool yet horrible at the same time that i had a confusion of emotions lol

[misq17]

I had ants in the bathroom and the only thing that got rid of them was spraying the entire room with Raid (I used a ton of it) and leaving the door shut for 2 days.

[RedWingsFan]

At some point you have to kill them to get them out of your house. I would just do it as quickly as possible... if I come across one or two bugs (or spiders or something) I don't kill them. But I had an infestation of ants before, I tried all the nice tactics to get rid of them and nothing worked. Finally I had to get tough and kill them. Now I have no more ants... :-)

[frenchie]

frenchie- We too have suffered with ants all summer, it was HORRIBLE! But we finally found something that works and is fairly inexpensive. Try antbuster.com

I know ant season is coming to an end, but this stuff is great if you still have them. We ordered some more for next year in case they come back. It looks like crushed peanuts and is only harmful to humans/animals if swallowed in large doses, but you still want to keep it away from children and pets obviously. It's a hallucigen (sp?), the ants LOVE the stuff and will go to it over any kind of food. They take it back to their colony and after they eat it, they turn on each other and the colony gets wiped out. They have a money back, no questions asked guarantee. They say you won't see any ants in your house after 3 days, and it's soooooo true! We've yet to see one since we got the stuff. It takes about 1-2 weeks to arrive, but it's under $20 and well worth it.

If you have ants, try this! It's the only thing that worked for us. We tried cinnamon, mint leaves, borax, all the natural stuff, nothing worked, and I refuse to live in a house infested with ants. :spew:

Jen

AAAHHHH!!! Thanks!! I will give that a try. I just bought some poison this weekend, but haven't sprayed it yet.
As for some cool ant trivia........there are certain types of ants that, if their trail is broken, they will form other colonies. That is, if you find a trail of ants, and you scatter them, all of those ants will form their own colonies! That = alot of ants!!!! Did you ever know how those ants stay in such a uniform line? The "scout" will go out and track down food or follow an atractive scent. That ant, when it finds what it's looking for, will consume some of the food. Then, it will go back to the nest to tell his buddies....but on the way, the ant will leave dots of secretion all the back to the colony. The ants will then follow that trail to the big prize!!
it's late, and that's all I can come up with right now....LOL I watch alot of Discovery channel :p

[inkwenkwezi]

i am in the process of buying a smallholding, and they told me that there is a small harvester ant problem. i am in a difficult situation because we want to grow organic fruit & veg, so i don't know what to do about getting rid of them. i am owned by two small dogs, and really am concerned for them. i want them to run around, but these harvester ants bite you, and the research i have done about them says they can kill small animals if disturbed. my perogative, i think is to protect the dogs (and myself from being eaten), but i don't want to be cruel or use poisons.

would that antbuster site be a good compromise? does anyone know if that stuff leaves poison residue in the soil?

[inkwenkwezi]

there is also this company :venus organic (http://www.venusorganic.com/e-commerce-solutions-catalog.0.html)

does anyone know about them? is it ethical to use a fermented product which atacks their stomach? sorry if this is a little off topic.

at the moment, in the block where i live, we use some stuff for roaches that actually sterilises them, so the can't reproduce but they live out their life (for at least one generation). we never see any.