I get a little sad when I inadvertently snuff out the life of those small critters

You know the ones Ants and Spiders and the like.
The simply act of walking can be responsible for the taking of life.
For 2 days there has been a small white moth, most likely Acyphas semiochrea, - omnivorous tussock moth, fluttering around in my home.
This morning as I was showering I noticed said moth swimming in the water below me. Then down the drain it went. Dieded.
Poor moth. Did not deserve death before it’s time was due.

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Everytime you wash your hands you are killing bacteria.

I think if I lived in Australia I would not be far too worried that a spider is poisonous. Over here I catch them with cup and paper and throw the whole lot outside. I also hate killing flies and try to guide them out of the house, but have to be ruthless with those little black flies that multiply in your food waste bin. There is a jar trap you can make with vinegar honey & water covered with perforated cling film. They die happy.

I once made a vegan friend question whether she should be eating bread because yeast is a living organism…

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I’ve sometimes thought about the life of insects. They must have feelings to some degree …or is it instincts? They appear to feel fear (much the same as we) do when they take evasive action from life-threatening situations. I avoid harming them unless they are a threat to my well-being but they can’t help being what they are and acting the way nature dictates.

Why do they all think I’m scary
Because my legs are too long?
Or is it because I’m quite hairy
Now how can that be so wrong!?

I’d love to run round and play
Yet I’m forced to be a good hider
So I live in the cupboard all day
Well, such is the life of a spider.

========================
I went inside our shed
And found a bee, stone dead
What a shame it had to die
Never more to buzz and fly

No more making honey
That ends up in a tummy
Or flying around some ears
Having fun with human fears

Gone from the nest for hours
After visiting the flowers
It must have caused a buzz
Like missing family does

Lots of words in ‘bee’ were said
But I bet no ‘bzzzz’ ever lead
To the fact the bee just flew inside
Our shed and simply went and died.

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I blame the Boots

These boots are made for walkin’
And that’s just what they’ll do
One of these days, these boots are gonna walk all over you!!

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I do kill clothes moth, mainly because I have a lot of mohair & other natural fibre teddy bears & the moths love them. I had to throw in the dust bin two really nice & expensive stuffed animals as the moths got them. I was gutted & I had got moth repellent sachet everywhere too. Other moths get rescued & put out.
Spiders I put out doors, safely, whether they want to go or not. One spider I will kill is the False Widow, evil little bugger that one. I hate those.

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No need to exterminate if you deter them from entering your wardrobes. I use cedar oil which moths hate and I never see moths anywhere near my clothing👍 Also my wooden hangers are made from cedar for double protection.

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Used that still got eaten. They don’t eat my clothing they eat my bears & animals.

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Do you use that in your Wallet? :grin:

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There are only two venomous spiders really (ignoring the white-tailed) the Redback and the Funnel Web.

No one has died from a spider bite since the 1970s they are easily treatable. I have coexisted with a colony of Redbacks living in my garage door since it was built over 40 years ago. There are Redback somewhere near my back door because I see their odd webs (not really webs just strands)

The worst spider in my opinion is the Orb Weaver which builds incredible, sticky webs across passageways that you walk into. They are not a danger to humans just very sticky.

The biggest spider is probably the Huntsman, their legs make them about as big as your hand - I like them in my house. One scared the crap out of my visiting sister in law when she saw one on the ceiling and I had to trap it and put it outside to calm her down. I like them because they don’t build webs and live on cockroaches and the like.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/al_YCEL9BRI

Most spiders are venomous but few have fangs that can penetrate human skin - basically only the two mention at the beginning of this post

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All spider are venomous, but only a few have medically significant venom. As you say some have fangs which cannot penetrate human skin. Others we just do not know about. Some spiders may simply not be inclined to bite. Others not come into contact with humans.

I used to keep both tarantulas & true spiders & no tarantula has medically significant venom. Although, a few are capable of spoiling your evening. And there is not one recorded incident of an allergic reaction to a tarantula bite. So no one needs to worry about a bite from a tarantula. True spiders however are less clear.

One species of Huntsman can induce an erection in men so extreme that it can cause real harm & extreme pain. And some like Linothele, a species of funnel web spider, are not true spiders but primitive spiders. I kept a few of these & some have venom we know nothing about. But which are belived to be medically significant.

In total 10 species of spider are regarded as having medically significant venom & using common names, rather than scientific names can cause confusion. As, for example, there are multiple species called false widow, but most are harmeless to humans. One or two are not.

I kept Tarantulas, spiders & a few scorpions for many years & never experienced a bite. Invertebrates offer little for us to fear, but much to respect & amaze at.

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eek! this thread’s spider discussion has resurfaced just in time for Halloween

I’m pretty sure there are more than just 2 spider varieties that can penetrate the human skin because I have friends/relatives/colleagues who have over the years suffered from the effects of a spider bite here in the UK. They don’t kill you but the bites can be quite horrible to look at and take a while to heal.

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And there was me thinking it was safe to let them creep into my house, make a cosy web and stay with me for winter. The furrier their little body the cuter they looked.

Okay, I know it’s the UK but after reading this thread they can rough it outside.

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Yes, sorry I was referring to only Australian spiders, UK spiders can take a leg off with just a glancing blow… :icon_wink:

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The Huntsman in the garden are better than any weather forecaster.They are hiding in the house the day before any rain.

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We need to figure out a road sign that wildlife easily reads to stay off Route #1
during nighttime hours especially. They aren’t stupid but they don’t understand
Headlights on vehicles at night shine times. They see after dark well and thas
their dead zone understanding of it all. One 500-mile trip last fall I counted 17 deer
Massacred along the highway. This trip last week it was nine in 135 miles. Probably
10 Possums, skunks and Coons.

It’s easy to estimate 10’s of thousands of creatures are slaughtered every summer by autos!

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A friend of ours went on a highway in the middle of Oz recently and said they lost count of the number of dead Kangaroos and Koalas

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Tassie is the place for road kill, there is one every 50 metres or so. on the mainland they are not as often but it is rare to go far without seeing a dead roo. I suspect it is most foreign visitor’s first sight of a kangaroo.

Personally I avoid driving at dawn and dusk because there are lots of big animals on the move, they have no road sense at all

Several years ago a friend brought me a copy of What Bird Did That?: The Comprehensive Field Guide to the Ornithological Dejecta of Great Britain and Europe by Peter Hansard & Burton Silver.

9780948817496-uk

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