Sunday, October 10, 2010

killing bugs

      This is a topic I've been meaning to blog about for about six months, since I moved into my new place.  My room is in the basement--its nice, fully finished, half bath, some windows.  Its just that bugs from the outside can somewhat easily come in--and being in the basement, I've had a bunch of visitors, mainly in the arachnid and blattaria families.  At first I felt bad killing these bugs--they were more plentiful in the spring with the change of seasons.  I became a ruthless bug killer.  I do always say a little prayer when I kill them, and pray that they skip many lifetimes and come back as a cute puppy!

      But still, with SO much bug killing, I can't help but feel a little bad.  These little spiders are kind of cute, and like to build webs in this one corner of my bathroom.  I let one chill for a while until the web had expanded and I got caught in it.  Sometimes its easy to catch them and take them outside.  Other times its a show-down, especially with those fast silverfish, and I usually win with a definitive "sat nam!"(which I say when I kill them).

    So my sister, who is in school for wildlife ecology (I think?) is taking a bug class, and since its starting to get cold in upstate NY, she asked me if I could kill and collect some bugs for her.   Funny she should ask, right?  She explained the method of execution---catch them in a net, put them in the "kill jar".  A kill jar consists of a jar with a lid, with a cotton ball soaked in nail polish remover to asphyxiate the insect.  Then I move the bug to another jar with ethyl alcohol to keep it fresh.   How many bugs does she want me to kill---oh about 20, if I can, she said.  I got my first catch this weekend---it was an injured silverfish, so it was pretty easy to lure into my jar of death.  It feels slightly more cruel to let it die a noxious death rather than just smash it.  But being a good sister, I will comply and pray for many fortuitous future lifetimes for the victims.

    Ahhhh, Sat nam, sat siri akal, my little crawly friends.....

2 comments:

  1. Nice one Joji...you sister and I went bug-huntin' yesterday in Colonie on the town park bike path. Not too successful, only a couple of specimens. Funny thing... on the way home, we stopped at Rite Aid to get a couple of items, and when we pulled up in front of the store, we saw dozens of 'stink beetles' on the front facade, just waiting to be captured. I don't know why they chose just this building, but I have since learned from a neighbor they are most like mating (I'll have to check this out with your sister). But how fortuitous for us that they chose just this Rite Aid to lay their eggs, only to give their lives for science. See, the world does provide if you only ask. Why just this morning as I sat in the bathroom after waking up, I happened to glance down into the tub to find a cute little bug wandering aimlessly in the white porcelain desert that is my evening refuge. Now I will have to find a suitable jar... I really will need to start eating more jelly. Satnam.

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  2. mommyji-- you are so right, sometimes the things you are looking for just come right to you :)

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