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I've decided to not kill any more bees


pallidin

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Given their lowering population, their enormous contribution to food supply, and, the fact that I am(thankfully) not allergic, I have decided that I no longer consider them as "pests" as I once did.

Over the years I have gained much more respect for those critters, and will no longer put up traps, etc.. to kill them.

I do understand the issue with those allergic, and certainly your life, or your babies, come before the life of a bee.

Just throwing my thoughts out here...

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I never killed bees or spiders.

Sadly,flies that get into the house . Fleas on the cats ...they just go . I feel guilty about it ,but we cannot cohabitate .

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Given their lowering population, their enormous contribution to food supply, and, the fact that I am(thankfully) not allergic, I have decided that I no longer consider them as "pests" as I once did.

Over the years I have gained much more respect for those critters, and will no longer put up traps, etc.. to kill them.

I do understand the issue with those allergic, and certainly your life, or your babies, come before the life of a bee.

Just throwing my thoughts out here...

I kill bees ONLY when they are in my house. Bee allergies run in my family, so I don't want to take any chances with my little boy. But even if your not allergic to them, when they sting you it hurts like all get out!

I never killed bees or spiders.

Sadly,flies that get into the house . Fleas on the cats ...they just go . I feel guilty about it ,but we cannot cohabitate .

I kill all spiders....They are creepy....

I hate fleas. I remember, the first year me and my husband lived together, us, our in laws, and our neighbors had horrible fleas!! You could walk across the living room, and in seconds be picking fleas off your socks! It was pretty awful. After the first cold front came through though, they all died. I haven't had any problems with fleas since.

Ticks are nasty! My husband's dog, who is a purebred Blue Tick Hound, is always running around in the woods, and he keeps getting them! I have to pull them off with tweezers....Ewwww.......

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I avoid killing bees, will try to catch them and put them out if in my house. Spiders and wasps watch out if your in my territory.

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I've never killed bees, even though I'm allergic to them. They just tend not to be aggressive enough for me to feel threatened. Wasps and especially yellow jackets are another story. The yellow jackets here are very aggressive and come after you if you're anywhere near them.

I don't go into shock or anything if stung, but the pain and swelling is very intense. If I were stung on the neck, for example, it could close my windpipe. So they have to go.

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Good for you.

I love bees and wasps. I think bees are like holy and if you're lucky enough to have them around you're blessed. I think of wasps in the same way(and most things to be honest). I had a paper wasp living inside my mailbox for awhile and I loved to see her everyday. She would just sit on her tiny nest and would only move slightly when I put my hand in to get the mail. So she wasn't aggressive at all and I was quite sad when I saw ants had found her nest.

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Yeah, and I should balance my comments with the issue of VERY LARGE nests, or nests close to home entryways, play areas of young children and such. In those cases, eradication is necessary, since they can not be easily moved.

EDIT: I think(not sure) that there is a non-toxic spray that one can apply to certain outside areas(under eves, under deck benches, etc) that discourage nest formation but safe to bees, humans and pets.

If the treated area get's wet, however, say from rain or sprinklers, it needs to be retreated when dry.

Edited by pallidin
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Maybe I'm being too easy on wasps, those nasty, aggressive creatures. As opposed to bees.

I did just read this on wasps though:

The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant.[1] Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers, or natural biocontrol. Parasitic wasps are increasingly used in agricultural pest control as they prey mostly on pest insects and have little impact on crops.[2]

And...

Pollination

While the vast majority of wasps play no role in pollination, a few species can effectively transport pollen and therefore contribute for the pollination of several plant species, being potential or even efficient pollinators;[3] in a few cases such as figs pollinated by fig wasps, they are the only pollinators, and thus they are crucial to the survival of their host plants.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp#Pollination

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I won't kill any of the aforementioned critters. They all need their place.

And I'm a huge fan of spiders. Killing them doesn't make sense. It's like a farmer killing all the wolves and coyotes to protect his chickens and afterwards complaining that the rabbits are eating his crops.

Years ago I rented a small house in the city that didn't have any silverfish and I was surprised, until I saw the spider pair. HUGE!

We had a pact. They had the basement.

Edited by Likely Guy
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We enjoyed watching a potter's wasp build her cute little pots on our sliding door and stuffing them each with a spider and then her eggs.

I rarely ever see a bee in our home, almost always wasps. And they stay at the windows, mad as heck, trying to get out.

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Maybe I'm being too easy on wasps, those nasty, aggressive creatures. As opposed to bees.

Can I ask, why did you ever consider a bee a pest in the first place? Was it simply because they can sting?

Here is one of my favourite pics of a wasp. I think it looks cool and like he loves the pollen. I use this as an avatar in the gaming community. Look at his little face.. how could anyone want to kill that? He's only lil.

post-33493-0-78814400-1369636015_thumb.j

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I usually open a window or door, get a magazine and guide bees or wasps out the door.

Spiders i run out the room its in close the door and wait for Husband to come home :cry:

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Yeah well, I am allergic to them and the bee you set free may be the one that gets me. Did you think of that huh? Well, did ya? :cry::P

Seriously though, I think I've only ever killed one. Most incidents with me and bees is me running and waving my arms like a mad woman to keep them as far from me as possible, probably made some entertaining CCTV footage at some point I'm guessing.

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back in the eighties and early nineties I had a couple beehives. they are remarkable creatures. I would sit in a lawn chair and just watch the front of the hive sometimes for hours at a time. like honey bees Bumble bees are also good at pollination but their hives don't get as big as a honey bee hive can get ( roughly 2000 honey bees per pound and at least 3 pounds for a healthy hive usually 5 to 7 pounds per hive Vs. 200 to 300 bumble bees or hornets or black jacks per large hive if that hive is healthy

wasps and yellow jackets and even black jacks are just as important in their own way as honey bees, the big differences are that the honey bee stings once per Bee the rest can and will sting multiple times. and honey bees are vegetarians. the others are not

I remember the year that we got over a hundred pounds of honey from the single hive we had that year. Tasted like blackberries. Almost broke my back lifting the hive boxes

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Spiders on the other hand I can't stand, as long as they stay outside they stay safe, if they come indoors they get nuked.( tiny little mushroom clouds rising from all over the house) I react to spiders physically the same way that some people react to bee stings. swell up and turn blue and green and purple. have problems breathing, etc.

Edited by mysticwerewolf
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Has everyone here read 'Leiningen Versus the Ants'?

...The Brazilian official threw up lean and lanky arms and clawed the air with wildly distended fingers. "Leiningen!" he shouted. "You're insane! They're not creatures you can fight--they're an elemental--an 'act of God!' Ten miles long, two miles wide--ants, nothing but ants! And every single one of them a fiend from hell; before you can spit three times they'll eat a full-grown buffalo to the bones. I tell you if you don't clear out at once there'll he nothing left of you but a skeleton picked as clean as your own plantation."

Leiningen grinned. "Act of God, my eye! Anyway, I'm not an old woman; I'rn not going to run for it just because an elemental's on the way. And don't think I'm the kind of fathead who tries to fend off lightning with his fists either. I use my intelligence, old man. With me, the brain isn't a second blindgut; I know what it's there for. When I began this model farm and plantation three years ago, I took into account all that could conceivably happen to it. And now I'm ready for anything and everything--including your ants."

The Brazilian rose heavily to his feet. "I've done my best," he gasped. "Your obstinacy endangers not only yourself, but the lives of your four hundred workers. You don't know these ants!"

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Maybe I'm being too easy on wasps, those nasty, aggressive creatures. As opposed to bees.

Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers, or natural biocontrol.

Indeed, this was a problem for Darwin too.

"I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars. -- Charles Darwin

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"I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars. -- Charles Darwin

Until you see the decimation that something like forest tent caterpillars can do, then you'll welcome our new wasp overlords! :)

Edit: + :)

Edited by Likely Guy
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Me too I used to kill bees and spiders every chance I could get and I am allergic to bees and used to be very afraid of them but now they are my friends I love them and am not scared of them at all I wish I could pet them lol but oh well at least I can say "hi little bee" I like watching them fill thier little sacs with pollen I really thing flowers are sexual for them because it looks like they are humping them. Usually the go so fast you cant tell what theyre doing but last summer I got the chance to watch a slow bee and sure enoung he was making love to the flower! No joke

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...I really think flowers are sexual for them because it looks like they are humping them.

Yeah, they do that. But it's a insect/blossom/pollination thing.

That, and it's never really sexual if they don't make breakfast in the morning (well, except honey bees, they do that).

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Spiders on the other hand I can't stand, as long as they stay outside they stay safe, if they come indoors they get nuked.( tiny little mushroom clouds rising from all over the house) I react to spiders physically the same way that some people react to bee stings. swell up and turn blue and green and purple. have problems breathing, etc.

You react to spiders? To the sight of them, or are you claiming they bite you? Lol

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Yeah, they do that. But it's a insect/blossom/pollination thing.

That, and it's never really sexual if they don't make breakfast in the morning (well, except honey bees, they do that).

Thanks for correcting my spelling ;)

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Not sure why you killed them in the first place. Dont see the point in harming anything myself...

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I put spiders I find in my house outside. If I ever found an interesting spider I might keep it as a pet otherwise I think they belong outside. I throw them in the grass where at least they'll have a fighting chance. They eat other bugs and I welcome them into my domain. Throwing them in the neighbor's yard might satisfy those worried about allergies.

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We don't see that many bees here except sometimes there'll be one hovering outside the kitchen window, but have never come in the house. Wasps on the other hand, we get plenty of those and have even had a nest or two around the house and garden. If a wasp comes in the house it's usually me that 'escorts' it out but I've never killed one and don't intend to.

I remember once a long time ago, my mother was hanging out washing and a wasp stung her on her wedding ring finger. She had to have her ring cut off because her finger swelled up so bad.

Funny too, I have no fear of either bees or wasps which can actually sting, yet I'll run a mile from a spider! I'm a real coward with spiders, my husband has to deal with those for me, he catches them in a glass and lets them go outside. I don't like them in the house at all.

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