Saturday, September 18, 2010

YEECH SOME BUGS DESERVE THE DEATH PENALTY

Tom and I agree on most things--politics for instance. We both are progressive, but not slavishly Democrat.  We have voted for a Republican before (rarely) and are supporting a Green candidate this election cycle. It is truly about the issues and the person.

We also agree on movies--musicals, movies with a message (or sappy movies as Jeny calls them), quality cartoons, like Up, movies with a historical theme.


We both like sports, especially basketball and soccer. Tom loves football; I love tennis. We are CRAZY for the Tar Heels, hate Duke, enjoy USC and are interested in Clemson. We follow the NBA.




Tom and I like the same food--basically all food, except that I don't like beets. I can't stand beets. 
 



                                                 
  
                                                         Yuck to beets.






There are some things we do not agree on, but that would be the subject of a different post.

Well, it is sort of, in a way, relevant to this one.  Tom and I absolutely agree about the sanctity of life, about the worth and dignity of every person and the interdependent web of all existence. In some cases that means the same thing to both of us.  We do not believe in the death penalty.  We do not hunt for sport. We do not believe in using fur or exotic animal skins for designer accessories--fancy fur coats, leopard Prada handbags, alligator shoes, meat dresses.

 
Tom and I also agree that we should not destroy animals or insects that invade our home.  Though their natural habitat is outside--in the yard, forest, or garbage or whatever/where-ever, on occasion a creature will come into our house uninvited.  There have been many times when the visitor has been drug in by the cat--as they say,  ungrammatically. Muck is the hunter one of our two cats, who likes to bring her prey in through the cat window, usually still alive. She brings in crickets, grasshoppers, baby rabbits, birds, snakes, frogs, mice. Other creatures wander in on their own--ladybugs, spiders, bees. We always try to get the creature back outside, by picking it up, which works for ladybugs, spiders, even snakes sometimes. We shoo them out through broadly open doors.  That works for birds, rabbits and bees. If we can put a container over the top of them and carry them out, the crickets, grasshoppers and frogs make it outside.  Even the mouse is treated humanely.  We use the type of trap that draws him inside an enclosure with peanut butter bait, slams the door behind and allows us to transport him outside and release him far far away from the house, far away. We respect the sanctity of all creatures, including insects.

........except one.........


When I see a COCKROACH, I step on him. I step on him with a vengeance.  I grind him into pieces. I run him down.   I have no mercy. I am glad he is dead.  If I see one outside, sometimes I kill him as a preventative measure.  That is one cockroach of the 200,000,000,000 in the world that will not be coming into my house. 

Cockroaches abound in South Carolina.  It is hot and damp, which makes an ideal breeding ground for them.  Euphemistically we call them Palmetto bugs.  And, in fact,  there is a slight difference between the two.  Palmetto bug are larger and they can fly!

 
Tom argues that we should treat them as we do other 
 creatures, that they should be carried outside and set free to live their cockroach lives. This is one thing that we have argued about pretty consistently.  I don't think they deserve to live and the thought of picking one up is so revoltingly repulsive that I can taste the bile in my mouth at the thought.  I try to educate Tom about cockroach facts. They spread filth; they cause allergies, including asthma. He maintains that is all Orkin propaganda.

 Recently, I was at the computer in our home office.  He was in the den watching the news on notFox. I heard him   say, rather loudly, "Woooow."  Then he said "Umph."  In a minute he remarked, in a peculiar voice, "The oddest thing just happened!  A huge cockroach just landed on my head. When I tried to knock it off, it kinda got tangled in my hair."  I was incapable of a response.



I do not anticipate that Tom will, upon sighting the next cockroach, be carrying it outside to continue its cockroach life.  In my opinion, some bugs deserve the death penalty.  I wonder if  Tom now agrees.

10 comments:

  1. LOL. I'm with you Judy but I'm even too squeamish to kill the darn things.

    When I lived in Houston, which has your climate, the dang things were so big we could have put a leash on them and taken them for a walk. You could hear them scurrying around when you had to get up in the middle of the night and turn on a light.

    I rented a house with several college friends. One evening my girl friend and I were watching TV. She had just showered, washed her hair and rolled it up on those huge 1960s curlers. This roach creeps by. She runs for the broom while I jump up on the bed to offer support by screeching "hurry". By the time she returned we couldn't find the little bugger.

    We sat back down and continued watching the show for awhile. I noticed my friend was starting to shake her head. Pretty soon she was jumping around and shaking it like she was doing some kind of African folk dance. And then she started yanking out the curlers practically tearing out her hair. Finally one fell to the floor and that damn roach crawled out.

    I think I spent the night twitching. I hate the things.

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  2. Do you think this little poem will change your attitude?

    HILDEGARD COCKROACH

    Hildegard Cockroach lives in the city
    And lives a life that's not very pretty.
    She spends her days down in the drain
    Of a smelly old sink. It's really a pain.

    At night she crawls onto a sticky plate
    or a stain of gravy that's second rate.
    And if she's lucky, she's sometimes able
    to feast on leftover food on the table.

    "Nobody likes me," Hildegard thought,
    "because of the life I lead, and it ought
    not to influence how the feel.
    It isn't my fault I must scrounge for a meal.

    They jump when they see me, they run and yell.
    They reach for the bug spray, and I can tell
    how they hate me. But what did I do?
    Just munched on a moldy old crumb or two.
    O, it's true. The life of a cockroach is very hard,"
    sighed the sad little cockroach, Hildegard.

    --Shaw Kenawe

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  3. Shaw: That's a good one, but no, it doesn't change my mind.

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  4. This was hilarious. I completely agree.

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  5. Judy has harangued me with her hatred of roaches so much that I have reluctantly begun killing them rather than putting them outside. I have become a killer of innocent insects rather than continuing to feel her relentless wrath.

    Roaches are demonized into being far more evil than they are by the likes of Orkin and Terminix who make big bucks by exaggerating their danger to people and scaring you into believing they cause every illness from a common cold to the bubonic plague so you will pay them to spray their poison around your house. God know how much cancer and other illnesses their poison causes to your dogs and cats and maybe even you.

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  6. In. My. Mouth. -that's all I'm saying.

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  7. Those critters must learn to follow the rules so the penalty is severe. They must stay out of my sight or start paying rent.

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  8. Jenny thats nasty why did you have one in your mouth????????

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  9. OK, I am most impressed about all that you and Tom DO have in common. That is a fairly inclusive list. What is it about roaches that makes humans hate them so much. It is almost primal. While I don't go out of my way to kill them outdoors, i can't stand the sight of them inside. Spiders? No big deal. But cockroaches?! That's another entire level of disgusting.

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  10. They deserve a good squash under a high heel strappy pair of sandals

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