Killing pests in your home or yard

[Hærfest Leah]

Now I know we all follow the rule not to harm a living thing including the animal & insect world, What do you all do when you have pests you must get rid of?

I know snakes and spiders have great meaning in our faiths but I WILL kill all that I find in my yard if I have to. Mainly because I don't not want to be bitten and we have a toddle who plays in the back yard that we don't want bitten. I feel we have to draw a line when it comes to the safety of our family. Here in MO I have never lived in an area so infested with spiders in all my life. Their all over our yard and home, brown recleuse included. I'm not going to chance that at all.

We keep our grass cut very low and there are no just or wood piles near our home to deter snakes. My husban is very afraid of snakes so I would have to take it out of the yard and let it go into the field or get my marine neighbor to do it. My husband sprays almost weekly, dish soap around the house that does kill spiders but I kill atleast 1 in the house a week. And these are not snall. I''d bomb under the house but we have a parrot here that we'd have to move out 1st.

We keep our bug zapper on 24/7 and its full righ tnow and I kill all flies I see inthe house daily.

We have bunnies that come in our yard but I don't mind them as long as they stay out ot the garden or the lizards there cute but this mole we've found has got to go if I can get my hands on him.

[Venndragon]

I always get rid of spiders too, I used to live out in Cyprus and we actually found Tarantulas in the house twice, there are large house spiders here though and even the slightest sigh of them or even thinking about them too much can reduce me to tears and shaking, so i run away and dont go back into a room until i know its gone - i usually have to have them killed for me, despite feeling so guilty about it due to the whole do no harm thing.
If you have young children its even worse - I was a baby in Hong Kong and there was a spider literally the size of a dinnerplate on the back of the bathroom door, according to my mum, it literally spanned the door (although that could be a little exaggerated, either way, even my Dad was afraid to move it, we think it was a bird-eater!)
Anyways, if i ramble on anymore ill start to have a panic attack, a bit extreme i know, but im pretty sure i have arachnophobia, but dont feel guilty if you get rid of dangerous things like poisonous snakes and spiders - its survival and the protection of young.
:hairraise

[Shanti]

Living with nature can be rough..I am out in the country and dont mind what we have crawling around. Last night I went outside to look for my sons binky and my 6 yr old daughter went too. We had flash lights and my daughter got all excited when she found a baby tree frog on our picnic table!!! :)

We dont have anything like real big spiders. Basically your garden spiders. If they bite, its not much so I let them be. We all have been stung by bee's a lot this year, but thats ok to. We are just more careful.
Snakes here are not poisonous so we leave them alone. They dont like us either so they crawl away when we bump into them. Been bit once by a 4 ft garder but it wasnt bad and bled only a little.
We have coons...they are the biggest threat but we watch out for them and keep a distance, the dogs come in handy there because the coons dont want to linger in dog territory.
We dont have anything terribly threatening and my kids where never alone in the yard to incounter something wild without one of us there to intersept! So we never worrie about it.

In the house I am always getting visitors. I do set out traps for mice and I have fly swatters for killing flies. I put spiders back outside. I do try to keep the house clear of pest without using any poison...to risky for the kids and pets!

[Hærfest Leah]

but dont feel guilty if you get rid of dangerous things like poisonous snakes and spiders - its survival and the protection of young.
:hairraise

thanks, I was wondering if I was really not holding to the rules or that my reason were legit.

[IrishDancer]

I'm not a Wiccan, but I can sort of relate because I believe God made these things, spiders included, for a purpose, and who am I to take their lives away when they're creations just as I am? But you can't exactly help it if they're going to do harm to you or your children. You can't just stand by and allow it. You wouldn't allow a person to do that, so why a spider?

I have to say, though, after reading your post, Venndragon, I... well, first of all, I had to type "reading" six times because I couldn't type, and I keep jumping because I could swear I feel something on my back :( I share in your phobia, we think it's because I saw Arachnophobia the movie when I was three or so.

I was walking my puppy just a few days ago... I do it every evening lately... and I'd been looking forward to it all day. But for some reason, I kept worrying about tarantulas, I kept making plans in my head for what to do if I saw a tarantula... I kept imagining sitting on my lawn chair, then having one crawl onto me... how I'd get it off. Such things. So I'm walking outside with Milo, my puppy, and he's sniffing the ground all funny and trying to pull me back. He gets a thorny twig on him, so I sit down near the grass so I can hold him up and get it off of his tummy. Then I think, "Oh, what are these black rocks that are around me? They look a bit odd." But I didn't bother studying them at first because I was a bit preoccupied and concerned with this thorny stem on my puppy. So I sit there for a minute, then my eye is directed at one of the "rocks"... and I just see this one leg slowwwly lifting up and out and across... you know... and then I realize all the black, fuzzy rocks that I've basically sat *in* are slowly moving....

Ok... I have to stop, I just felt my hair on my arm and screamed :hairred:

I hate Arizona, I hate Arizona, I hate Arizona

[Akihikio]

My fiance is so afraid of spiders, I've seen him curl up in a corner because of them. I too am afraid of spiders. Normaly, I don't worry about them, but since the birth of my son, I do have to worry about them. Even the non poisones ones bite, and if someone is illergic to them, it could make them sick.

We have brown recluces around here (I live in Arizona), luckly, they really are recluces and prefer to stay away from people. We also have the LARGEST black widdows I've ever seen in my life. My room mate says they are bigger down south. Black widdows we kill imediately. I love them and think they are beautiful but cannot take the risk of having them in our home. We also have Wolf Spiders. They are not poisones but they do bite. I recomend just removing them from your home. They are scary and big. I've seen them get up to the size of a medium sized turanchula. Remember that most turanchulas in the states are non poisoness. They are really fun to watch. Out here they get up to dinner plate size. I hope never ever to see a spider that big. I would cower in terror.

I recomend calling Termanex. They do a treatment around the house where they go under ground and it will bring anything out of the woodwork and kill them. They arn't that expencive to have come out very much and it's not harmful to the children. Dogs they do worry about until the stuff dries but I wouldn't worry about that. It's never been a problem around here. Just make sure they don't spray around gardens.

If you feel extra guilty after killing a spider/scorpian/snake, say a prayr. That helps me cope a little.

Wow. That was a long thingi-ma-bobber. I just hope it helps.

[Deranged Hermit]

I live out in the country where there are lots of things around, but we're very fortunate to not have anything poisonous or really dangerous. I try very hard to follow the "live and let live" principal, but when it comes to ticks and mosquitoes, well....
I don't mind spiders, although any spider can bite, they sometimes eat the ticks and mosquitoes. :smile:
If I see a mosquito in the house, and notice it's male, I leave it alone. (I think I'm gonna be in trouble for this one)

[Mjollnir]

I always get rid of spiders too, I used to live out in Cyprus and we actually found Tarantulas in the house twice, there are large house spiders here though and even the slightest sigh of them or even thinking about them too much can reduce me to tears and shaking, so i run away and dont go back into a room until i know its gone - i usually have to have them killed for me, despite feeling so guilty about it due to the whole do no harm thing.
If you have young children its even worse - I was a baby in Hong Kong and there was a spider literally the size of a dinnerplate on the back of the bathroom door, according to my mum, it literally spanned the door (although that could be a little exaggerated, either way, even my Dad was afraid to move it, we think it was a bird-eater!)
Anyways, if i ramble on anymore ill start to have a panic attack, a bit extreme i know, but im pretty sure i have arachnophobia, but dont feel guilty if you get rid of dangerous things like poisonous snakes and spiders - its survival and the protection of young.
:hairraise



They have bird eaters in HK??? I thought they lived only in South America....regardless I hate spiders as well, although my reactions are not as bad as some I have read here. I usually freak when I am "suprised" by one, other than that I just sit and watch them, or if they are in the house they get squashed. I am lucky that we have no widows or recluses in these parts, and I could only imagine the shotgun blast holes in my walls if we had bird eaters around here.

[Hærfest Leah]

Tarantulas in AZ huh. Looks like I'll have a hobby when we move to Phoenix in 2 yrs. YUK

[Akihikio]

Phoenix isn't to bad. To many people. They really don't like having tons of people around. Same with scorpians. I'm also considering moving to Phoenix here soon. The only thing I worry about is Misquitos(sp?). But from what I understand, it's not to bad there. Do keep an eye out for them if you go camping here. When we moved our tent at Estrella War, there were scorpians underneith. *shudders*

[*Rain*]

Now I know we all follow the rule not to harm a living thing
Not everybody does.

If it is something that can hurt me then I kill it or get rid of it (eg wasps nests) . If it can't hurt me I leave it alone (spiders). If it bothers me or is bad for hygiene etc then I catch it humanely and re-home it.

[zakzekezedd]

Well..except for cockroaches, fleas and ticks..I'm sort of live and let live. I don't mind snakes, toads, frogs, lizards, bats or spiders...I actually enjoy watching them. I try not to disturb them, and hopefully they will leave me be. Of course if it came down to a matter of life or death--well, sorry guys. I'm a bit selfish about me and mine, so the poisonous varmits would just be SOL. It's never came to that though, at least not yet.