I'm generally a very logical sort of bloke. I don't let sentimentality or superstition get the better of me. However when it comes to dealing with insects I have been conditioned by my girlfriend to rescue them and gently escort them out of the house. I find myself doing this even when she's not in, or when I'm at other peoples homes.
I guess it's not a bad thing. I definitely think the principle "First, do no harm." is a very good one to live by, but I know that insects are just efficient little impulse driven little robots. They don't have feelings. In fact I completely ruined ants for Cat one day by telling her how I learnt that most ants spend a huge percentage of their lives doing absolutely nothing. Literally nothing. Not even moving. Which if they really are self-aware, terrifies the living bejesus out of me.
Was reminded of this last night after a daddy longlegs spent most of the evening annoying me by flying between our two sets of lights like a maniac. Impossible to catch until it tired itself out and landed on a nearby wall (several hours after it's appearance), I was struck by how utterly ridiculous it was that I didn't just bash it with something nearby, as I'm probably more than entitled to given my much larger brain.
Still rescued the little sod though didn't I.
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I eliminate insects based on evilness. Generally the leggier insects (either by total leg length or number of legs) are more evil and can be exterminated without remorse. For example if you have a daddy longlegs flitting between lamps it's fine to hit it with a shoe without remorse (only six legs but they're massively long). Likewise a spider can be sent to the big web in the sky (or more likely a web of fire in the underworld) by use of chemical weapons with not a wink of sleep lost (due to the obscene number of legs). Wasps are often despised but if we look at the numbers and leg length we can see that they are most often un-evil and should just be let out of a window after a nice sugary snack. If we're looking at centipedes and millipedes we find that the leggy rule-of-thumb falls down, indeed Wikipedia reckons that millipedes are 'ideal as pets'.
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