Just As I Thought

The Killing Field of The Alameda

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.

2 comments

  • Don’t you ever watch the Nature channel? Animals kill each other all the time, life is cruel, death is always just around the corner.

    I’m sorry but I feel no remorse whatsoever about such things. I don’t seek out animals to kill, I don’t hunt or kill for sport. But if an animal invades my home I’ll kill it, just as a bear would kill you if you invaded his home. Not for pleasure, not for sport but to protect his home. Which is exactly what you did.

    That’s the way its been for a thousand years and thats the way it will be for another thousand years.

    By the way…
    How many animals did you SAVE by killing the wasps?

  • After, did you eat all vegetables for dinner or did you have meat.
    Just wonderin’.

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