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I have killed rats with the flat side of a broom, spiders, roaches, wasps, etc. and I'm a woman. My mother once killed a snake that was in the house with a hoe and caught a field rat also in the house so big she had to tie the huge trap down to a table leg--disposed of it, too. She was not a big, burly woman, but hated having anything in her house that didn't belong there!
My father, who was not at home at the time, commented after the snake incident that the snake died a horrible death, as she chopped it into itty-bitty pieces! That probably was a harmless and even helpful creature--my father said it was (he thought from the remains) a rat snake.
We only have one dangerous spider where I live. Yet when any harmless spider, or other harmless creature, shows itself I have had romantic interests behave like world war 3 is breaking out.
I actually find it rather amusing, funny rather than anything problematic. I'm sure there are women on here who behave the same and can help me understand it better.
I find it amusing you think that's such a strongly specific gender issue and the hyperbole, really?.
But OK, PARTLY because little boys love to play with bugs and girls really couldn't care less - IF one were to generalize.
The word arachnophobia was invented by the Greeks without a gender connotation.
I owned a pet store with exotics including 11 foot pythons.
Not sure why people squash bugs. It's the nastiest thing you can do - get guts all over the surface and on whatever you used (if not disposable). Keep a top-half of a CD spindle cover around, or something like it. Trap the thing underneath and use cardboard to lift it up and out of your house or toss it in the toilet. Clean and quick. I've rid everything from mosquitoes to silverfish this way.
I don't mind bugs. Had plenty of them in Hawaii growing up. In fact, I would spend hours fishing interesting bugs out of my grandparent's pool. We had geckos running around in our house since they were good insect catchers and kept the bug population down. Never bothered them and they never bothered us.
Things that gross me out.....snails. I think it had something to do with a kid shoving a bunch down my tee shirt and squishing them on my back when I was a kid. I won't scream, run or cry but I do have to suppress a little shudder. Hideous things.
There are so many bugs that can bite or sting so I don't like them....I'm not afraid of
something like a ladybug though.
Ladybug:
Today I was doing housework (yes, I do that) and became aware that something was biting the back of my neck.
SMACK!
A Ladybug! Really! The little beast was biting me! I didn't know they would. Or could! I knew they ate aphids and the like, but this one evidently decided to try a new diet.
So, beware. They are coming......
As for Lizzyst whose mother killed a rat snake: Those are HUGE snakes! Look it up. They grow to about 10 feet and we have one in our neighborhood that is a good 7 feet. Harmless, though. We all just leave her alone.
I have a water garden that I designed expressly for the purpose of raising dragonflies. They each catch about 50 mosquitoes daily, and I have six different species. We have very few mosquitoes.....
I'm okay with spiders, depending on how big they are. One of my friends posted one of those Buzzfeed lists of Australian spiders, and one of them was so large that it can span a toilet seat. That's not a bug. If I walked into the bathroom and saw a spider the size of a cat in the sink, I would just walk out of the house and never come back.
As for Lizzyst whose mother killed a rat snake: Those are HUGE snakes! Look it up. They grow to about 10 feet and we have one in our neighborhood that is a good 7 feet. Harmless, though. We all just leave her alone.
Most rat snakes are no larger than 5-7ft, but yes, they are completely harmless! And that story (of the snake-killing mama) made me sad.
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We have very few mosquitoes.....
Re: Harmless Creatures
