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Is it morally wrong to kill ants?

stigzy

stigzy

TS Member
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Maverick CP
I'm almost certain that if I were the size of them and just merrily waltzed into their home they wouldn't think twice about using me in their weird bdsm games before dishing me up to the queen for pudding, tbh what species wouldn't?! I really dislike killing things, but they won't leave my swanky kitchen alone and they have taken my obsessive compulsive disorder with bleach and cleaning to the extreme. Just the other day a friend said to me "your knuckles look chapped". As a metro sexual 21st century male who strives to have sumptuous soft knuckles, you could imagine how disgusted I was :(. If I could round them up, hold their hands and lead each and every one of them to a new suitable home I would, but given that I don't want to come across as being an antophile and I'm 5 foot 11 inches tall that is realistically unfeasible.

So I hold my chapped knuckerly hands up and admit, I killed Anthony, Andrew, Agnetha, Apithany & Aisha (token black ants), André, Andrew 2 and many more ants who's names clearly begin with an 'A'. I wish not to divulge how I killed them here, that is not important. What's important is, they invaded my clean kitchen and I sobbingly squished them, bleached them and on one occasion trapped one in a steaming hot pan lid. Earlier I went rummaging through my junk draw for some batteries ( also contains other useful boyish items like a slingshot and a helicopter ) and found a magnifying glass. At that moment I started self justifying why I needed to kill ants with a magnifying glass. So now, not only do I feel vile because of my chapped knuckles but also because the ants are turning me into some sort of asphyxiating tyrant who gets off on 'offing' ants.

I feel like they are now the victim and it got me thinking, are they? Have they been the victim all along, (it's been going on for a few months). Is it morally wrong for me, (an intelligent species) to kill the ants who are doing nothing more than doing what they are destined to do? Is it my fault they are in my kitchen? What is the right thing to do?
 
I keep lizards, I buy sacks of crickets and locusts to feed to my pets on a regular basis and joking aside at times in the past I can remember asking myself if I was being cruel!

Nowadays I'm highly desensitised, and AFAIK the majority of scientific evidence still suggests that insects do not have a nervous system and therefore do not feel pain. :p

Interesting (and amusing) post tho.
 
Predators killing prey to live is a fact of life, albeit when I think about it, it's a bit morbid (that's why I personally believe people who dedicate their lives praising some sort of God who gave animals the ability to eat each other to be a bit of a crazy dedicated belief. That's a different touchy sort of topic though, lest we never venture down that path). What I'm doing is butchering tiny little ants, granted they are pushing me over the edge, but they're defenseless against me, and unless I start garnishing my daily salad or bowel of exotic morning fruit with dead ants, or make ant burgers (Eww, read this article
images
) surely it's morally wrong to just off them with no purpose other than to eradicate them from my habitat? But then again they are after all invading my pad with the aim of stealing my food for their greedy fat queen and their precious fungus garden, so is it morally wrong? Despite this, I consider it high on the list of bad things to do, especially after months of doing it and now coming up with newer more inventive ways to slaughter them. Mainly because after months of doing the deed I've had time to reflect on what I'm doing. They do after all have every right to be on this planet regardless of their size or if they do or don't have a nervous system and can or cannot feel any ounce of pain when I steam them to death with my hot pan lid. I am a bad man :(.
 
stigzy said:
Predators killing prey to live is a fact of life, albeit when I think about it, it's a bit morbid (that's why I personally believe people who dedicate their lives praising some sort of God who gave animals the ability to eat each other to be a bit of a crazy dedicated belief. That's a different touchy sort of topic though, lest we never venture down that path). What I'm doing is butchering tiny little ants, granted they are pushing me over the edge, but they're defenseless against me, and unless I start garnishing my daily salad or bowel of exotic morning fruit with dead ants, or make ant burgers (Eww, read this article
images
) surely it's morally wrong to just off them with no purpose other than to eradicate them from my habitat? But then again they are after all invading my pad with the aim of stealing my food for their greedy fat queen and their precious fungus garden, so is it morally wrong? Despite this, I consider it high on the list of bad things to do, especially after months of doing it and now coming up with newer more inventive ways to slaughter the little sh..things. Mainly because after months of doing the deed I've had time to reflect on what I'm doing. They do after all have every right to be on this planet regardless of their size or if they do or don't have a nervous system and can or cannot feel any ounce of pain when I steam them to death with my hot pan lid. I am a bad man :(.
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That's deep! But very true!
 
Don't sweat it, when I was little my nan used to send me out into her garden with a big cup of salt to get the slugs! :D ;)
 
My theory is that if you're just walking along and one gets in the way and you deliberately stand on it, that's bad. But if for example your having a picnic and they keep trying to get in your food/clothes, it's self defense. :p
 
Oh my gosh, I feel I'm touching on my own experiences here. Did you do a ring of salt around the slug? :eek: As a man of environmental things it's in my duty to say ants are in fact not willyheads, as gosling aptly put it, but y'know what, upon going into the kitchen this morning and witnessing my pineapple swarmed with them, they are in fact willyheads and probably have a boob for a brain. I wonder, if I wasn't here, would they be?

Adam said:
My theory is that if you're just walking along and one gets in the way and you deliberately stand on it, that's bad. But if for example your having a picnic and they keep trying to get in your food/clothes, it's self defense.
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This is how I justify my actions, or have been doing. But recently I've researched them and drawn the conclusion that as an individual they are no more intelligent than a thick person or a leaf on a Japanese White Birch tree. Therefore given that they are not fully aware or aware at all of the ramifications for their choices in life, I've also drawn the conclusion that it's morally wrong for me to steam them to death because I don't want them to eat my pineapple. What a awful paradoxical issue!

(N.B. DON'T DO A RING OF SALT AROUND A SLUG, EVER. SLUGS ARE GOOD "PESTS", allegedly).
 
Ants are clever, strong, organised and there's a lot more of them than us. I maintain that they are willyheads, partly because they creep me out, mostly because I find them quite threatening.
 
gosling said:
Ants are clever, strong, organised and there's a lot more of them than us. I maintain that they are willyheads, partly because they creep me out, mostly because I find them quite threatening.
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I did read today that there are only 3 animals in the world that create armies.....and two of those are ants and humans!
 
Blaze said:
...

Are you suggesting, that we go to war...

... with ants?
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I'm referring to them being clever and organised!

That's would be weird.......and scary if we were to go to war with an animal species :-s *shudders
 
badlydrawnkelBel said:
gosling said:
Ants are clever, strong, organised and there's a lot more of them than us. I maintain that they are willyheads, partly because they creep me out, mostly because I find them quite threatening.
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I did read today that there are only 3 animals in the world that create armies.....and two of those are ants and humans!
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What's the third? :p
 
I hate killing anything. Despise it in fact, but... If a creature is causing you harm or concern, and you have exhausted all methods to make them go away unharmed, then it is acceptable to explore the most humane and painless way to kill said creature. It's not nice, but as long as you have taken the morally obligatory steps that I have mentioned, and do not take any pleasure from the act of killing, then you have done all that you can and that's the most anyone can realistically ask of you.
 
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