BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Buddhism Killing Bugs in Buddhism

I have been wanting to bring this up. It's been kinda hot here and I have been leaving open the windows and doors at night. With lights on, the bugs come in. They land on me, om my laptop screen, crawl around on my couch, etc.

Harmless winged night bugs. And I don't kill them, since that would be harming living creatures. But they are still annoying. Before these conversations on this forum I might have killed a few of them without even thinking about it. I am trying to be more mindful about not needing to kill them even though they land on my fingers and face while I am trying to type.

I usually am the one who relocates spiders, for example, but the spiders aren't usually crawling on me, so this has taken more restraint.

When I first moved into this house, we had a carpenter ant problem. Someone came in and killed them. There are also termites. What do Buddhists do? Let termites eat their homes? Calling an exterminator can't be good for my karma.

And while I will move spiders without killing them i have no compunctions about slapping mosquitoes.

How do people feel about these things?

Although I am not officially a Buddhist, I do have qualms about intentionally harming living creatures, which is why I also make a habit of relocating my tiny, uninvited guests when I can.

The other day, one of my high school students spotted a roach in my classroom and made a dash to squash it but I was luckily able to intercept just in the nick of time. I nudged it into a plastic cup and escorted it outside. Needless to say, this created quite a commotion in class. My students simply couldn't understand why I would not allow them to kill a "disgusting bug". While I don't think my spontaneous lecture will prevent them from killing bugs outside of my classroom, I hope that it will, at the very least, make them think twice about it when they do.

I can, however, completely relate to your dilemma, Jilly. As reluctant as I am to purposely kill most insects, I can't say that I have ever felt much compassion for mosquitoes and am also guilty of the mindless swat when they invade my personal space.

The summer season in Miami tends to come accompanied by plenty of mosquitoes so I think I will use more insect repellent and try to at least be more mindful of the little vampires!

The first precept indicates quite clearly that one should refrain from killing or harming.
My partner, (ex Military police, fairly burly and very strong) is utterly squeamish and idiotic about creatures, and will have a fit of the screaming ab-dabs if anything so much at looks at him....He's quite proud of the fact that now, if forced to do it (because I'm not there, or something) he can catch them and put them out, rather than swat them with a rolled up copy of "How to fight your way out of a paper bag"....
There was a case where monks in a monastery were eventually forced by circumstances to get the exterminators in for an invasion of cockroaches... but it took much heart-seaching and consultation with the Head Monastery of their order, before they did so. For them it was a most gut-wrenching and heart-breaking decision... the votive offerings and prayers they offered up for their little bretheren is probably still going on as I speak.
Not only is it a violation of the first precept, to kill, but it is a violation to even get someone to do the killing for you.
In the end, it became insanitary, dangerous to health and unavoidable.
Mosquitoes and flies, I'm still personally a bit on the fence about, with regard to the diseases they carry....
But I do try to avoid it as much as I possibly can.....If I can show them the door, I really do prefer it.

Jill - is there any way you can put up a screen, or a very sheer curtain that you somehow fasten into place? That way you get the fresh air, the critters stay outside where they belong, and everybody is happy

Ah this brings up a funny story for me. Years ago I lived on the second floor of a house above a doctors office. It was a beautiful house! Well one night i hear this scratching and squeaking in the walls near the ceiling. It lasted for alittle while. For a few nights after that, it happened. So I told the doc about it. He sent someone up to climb into the attic to see what was going on. A big fat raccoon decided to make a nest up in that corner. It was on one end of the attic opposite this grating for ventilation. So the doc decided to call someone to come catch it. The 'coon catcher as I called him set up his little trap on top of the roof. He comes down and tells me the 'coon was watching him the whole time and expected it to not take long for it to get curious and go see what was out there. I said that would be great for him (the 'coon) to be caught then let go in some woods where it will be happy. The 'coon catcher looked at me funny and said "no, ma'am we gas 'em"...."gas 'em??" i said in horror...."yea, we take them back to our offices and they are put in a thing that looks like an oven and turn on the gas." I started crying like a little baby. "No no no you can't do that! He just wants a place to live! Go take that trap down!" he said he couldn't because the doctor is the one paying for it. So 'coon catcher leaves, i fly downstairs to tell the doc about this. He was horrified to and said he had no clue they would do that. I told him I was going to go up and somehow close the trap, he said he would call them back to get their trap.

So I get my little step ladder and call my mom. I climbed up into the attic. It wasn't a finished attic with a floor. It was beams i had to stay on or land in the apartment below. So imagine me, with a broom stick climbing through this attic keeping an eye out for the 'coon so it doesn't attack me in case it has a nest of babies somewhere up there. I couldn't reach the trap with my hands so my mom went outside to help me locate the trap as I swung the broom around. I tore up shingles, i knocked the grating out of the hole it was in, i banged up the siding, i didn't care. Did I also mention I am terrified of heights and I was 3 stories up?? This 'coon was going to live dang it!!! LOL

I finally got the trap to shut. My mom called someone she knew who had traps and would set the 'coon free. As i was coming back through the attic to get out, he stuck his head up from his corner and watched me. I hoped he knew what I was going through to save him. So mom's friend came and caught the 'coon, set him free out in the country....

The End LOL

Wow, what an ordeal! That was great of you to go through all that trouble to save the little racoon though.

But I can't believe that company would rather kill the creatures they catch than put in a little extra effort by releasing them back into the wild where they belong. It makes me wonder how many more such companies engage in these kind of practices. It just seems so unnecessary.

The only thing I can think of, is there tends to be a high incidence of rabies among raccoons, and it is very costly to run the test on each individual raccoon to test for rabies before setting it free (especially considering it is no-one's pet, nor an endangered species).

This may be why there is a policy of automatically putting them down when captured.

I wonder if the company could then be liable? Imagine there's a raccoon in an abandoned house. They take it and put it in woods, and that raccoon goes to a school and bites a few children, who get rabies. They might blame the company for "moving a danger closer to our kids". You never know what the legal ramifications are nowadays.

It sounds like they need to develop a cheap rabies test!!

Jeannette - that is a GREAT story. I would have done the exact same thing. Good on ya!

Lisa, that is a good plan. We went and put the screens back on our windows. I will look into a screen for the back porch door. They make kinds that you hang from the top and can walk through, like screen 'curtains.' That will be better for us - the dogs will be able to walk through and we won't have to put in a door.