How do you prefer to kill insects, rodents and other pests around your property?

I had my second, very large, brown recluse this summer in the tub yesterday.

Those, I kill..... with sadness and guilt. The one yesterday fought for his life. I felt bad.

I need to fill in some cracks and mow the meadow out back.

Depends... for flying insects by the window (often wasps), I will sometimes just pop the screen out to let them fly outside. Mostly, I just ignore insects. If we get a lot of them on the counter or something (we get ants like this someties), I'll put out a trap. I will kill them with my hand or foot sometimes. I actually used a fly-swatter last week, but that's rare. For cluster flies, I will swap them and feed them to my cat Pekoe. Pekoe will often just track them down and eat them on his own too. Cluster flies are slow/stupid (and tasty).

Swat them with something (my hand). We don't have many insects, rodents, or other pests, though.

I smack bugs. We don't really get rodent problems, just that one time there.

Trap them and flush them down the drain.

Insects that is. Not rodents.

I don't kill things.

a small surgical thermo-nuclear explosion

I don't kill animals. Insects and rodents are the pests that are destroying all variety that life currently holds.

> I had my second, very large, brown recluse this summer in the tub
> yesterday.
>
> Those, I kill..... with sadness and guilt. The one yesterday fought
> for his life. I felt bad.
>
> I need to fill in some cracks and mow the meadow out back.

What's a recluse and why did you kill it??

A brown recluse spider. Scary little bastards with a very nasty bite.

I was bitten once by one and required weeks of steroids to stop the necrosis, pain, itching, and flu-like symptoms. Google image search 'brown recluse spider bite' if you want to see why I kill them.

This area seems to be infested. I'm sure it has a lot to do with my tall grass.

> A brown recluse spider. Scary little bastards with a very nasty bite.
>
> I was bitten once by one and required weeks of steroids to stop the
> necrosis, pain, itching, and flu-like symptoms. Google image search
> 'brown recluse spider bite' if you want to see why I kill them.
>
> This area seems to be infested. I'm sure it has a lot to do with my
> tall grass.

What about capturing it and letting it go in woods away from humans?

I am lucky, no poisonous spiders in the UK

I can not do that due to a paralyzing fear of them. It's lucky enough that I can get close enough to kill them.

Like I said, I feel terrible about it... and poisonous spiders are the only bugs I do kill, normally... but they are frisky, large, and seem quite intelligent. This last one tried to take me out also.... he really fought for his life. Sucks.

I have cats that would try to play with them, and a kid.... so unfortunately, they have to go.

Normally, I'm very humane..... I slow down when driving through my neighborhood when the 17 year cicadas come out to play.... when they swoop in front of me.

Lighter fluid and matches are great with anthills. My dad did that.
Beer is good for killing snails. They get drunk and drown (seriously)
Alcohol is really fun for killing snails - spray it on them and they disintegrate into a green goo...

Reality now is - I only spray the yard to make sure there are no fleas. There are no other bugs to speak of. I ignore anything outside. If something comes inside I'd never know because the cats likely dispatch them.

Damn if I didn't just have to kill another one. I REALLY need to seal up cracks in this old house this weekend and mow the backyard..... in jeans... and sleeves.

These things are really big. Far bigger than a quarter with their legs. Freaky. Unfortunately, Mary saw the last one and is now afraid to get in the shower

I only kill poisonous spiders in my home with a flip flop....I leave everything else to live it's life

> Normally, I'm very humane..... I slow down when driving through my
> neighborhood when the 17 year cicadas come out to play.... when they
> swoop in front of me.
>

I know you are. I don't blame you

For waterbugs and termites, I use Orex. For roaches, I smoke them myself.

I hate ants tramping anywhere in my house so I use the bait that they take back to their place and kills the nest, it works! I hate slugs but leave them alone for the most part (probably not classified as a bug). Other bugs I really don't mind. I catch them and put them outside. I really like the bee, dragonfly, mantis, butterfly, most bugs are cool!

I'd rather catch things and put them outside than kill them.

Oh, I have salted a few slugs though. In the Spring we had so many coming under the back-door and into the kitchen - they would be everywhere in the morning - that I didn't think just putting them outside would be very effective.

> Oh, I have salted a few slugs though. In the Spring we had so many
> coming under the back-door and into the kitchen - they would be everywhere
> in the morning - that I didn't think just putting them outside would
> be very effective.

Effective in what way?

Preventing their return.