Ants

[kajarainbow]

I really don't like killing them. I don't like making them go squish. But if no one does something about them, they'll overrun the house and carry germs into our food and so on. My mom has set out traps to kill them.

The problem is, if I accept the ant traps but not squishing them, I'm essentially saying it's okay to kill as long as you're distanced from the act. On the other hand, squishing them is very, very yucky (more so than the ants themselves). I'm saying this as someone who can handle earthworms with my bare hands without being grossed out.

What would be the most ethical way to deal with this? Does ethics even apply to ants?

Comments

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Well, from my perspective... ants are prey to all sorts of other critters. It's natural and part of their daily lives, so I doubt from whatever very limited perspective they have there's any real ethical issue with people squishing them. To whatever extent ants can be resigned, they're probably resigned to this. :)

So any qualms that you have are purely for your own sake -- not because they're important to themselves, but because their status as living beings is important to you. So I guess from there you have to decide how much their lives are worth to you, where your qualms about killing them come from, and what you can do to accommodate them. Unfortunately, they're not like mice, where an infestation could actually be a comparatively small number and you have the option of capturing & releasing them humanely. Ant "control" is generally gonna involve genocide, no way around that. :)

But I'll betcha if you peeked around the web you could find some pacifist resources for dealing with the little buggers. It might be ridiculously expensive, but there's got to be some kind of humane ant-control resource out there.

[kajarainbow.livejournal.com]

I think I accept killing them, I was just worrying about the moral hypocrisy in being okay with a less direct way but not a more direct way, but in the end I think it's just the grossness of crunch squish that gets me, and asrinmoore below suggested a reasonable way to kill them quickly.

[alfador-fox.livejournal.com]

Consider this: You might find the squishings icky without them also being morally repugnant. Disgust and revulsion are gut reactions, while ethics are a matter of the intellect. They need not correlate.

Though I remember at one point, I successfully suppressed certain feelings of revulsion by thinking on the fact that they were illogical. Eh, never mind.

[strawcat.livejournal.com]

I think it would be very difficult to come to an ethical compromise when it comes to ant "invasions", since respecting the interests of the ants and satisfying your own interests in keeping them out of your home are mutually exclusive. You cannot easily transport them outside, and even if you could, they would come right back in as long as it is physically possible for them to do so.

[relee.livejournal.com]

I don't intentionally step on ants outside of my home. That's their home, that's where they live, and I'm okay with that.

Ants that choose to come into my home against my wishes reap what they sow. While it's likely true that they don't understand the magnitude of their transgression, they cannot be allowed to overcome my boundaries.

I don't dislike ants specifically, they have their place in this world and their right to live, but all things die and anything dumb enough to be unaware of my unconquerable might yet strong enough to be unremovable by force is ultimately a threat to be eliminated.

[asrinmoore.livejournal.com]

I spray ants with windex. The ammonia's difference in PH is enough that they die relatively quickly, with out really harming person-food preperation serfaces.

[kajarainbow.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That's actually helpful. Better than just letting them be and hope they stray into one of the ant traps, or grossing myself out with squishing them.