The Killing Field of The Alameda

Posted on March 24, 2006 by Gene

As I sprayed the nest they’d been building under the eaves on the back of the house, the wasps started to get disoriented, then fell to the ground. They twitched and shuddered, and within a minute or two they were dead, their legs curled up and in the air.
I felt like a murderer — which, technically, I was — and I stood there contemplating how casual it had been, how I could buy a product at the grocery store which would kill a creature — and at the same time, promoted how “green” and environmentally friendly it was. The can even has an image of a dead wasp, laying on its back with its legs curled up, a rare case of truth in advertising.
Maybe this is just my compassion for animals speaking, but I was pretty creeped out and upset by what I had done. None of us want wasps taking up residence outside our back doors, but in reality they weren’t attacking me or anything, it was just a knee jerk reaction that’s implanted in our brains. Still, is it right to take these lives, as miniscule as they are? I wish there was some way to relocate a wasps’ nest and put them somewhere away from my house.
After two massacres of ants as well, my house is rapidly becoming a site of horrors, where thousands have died since November.