I hate magpies!

[mountainm]

Many flies are not health risks. Cluster flies for example. Granted on occasion 20,000 or more will invade a house in a given autumnal day, but they pose no health risk unless you are an earthworm.

Should people not learn to distinguish between flies so that they only kill those that are a health risk?

Reducto ad absurdum - but of course everybody kills. As was mentioned earlier, if their kids have head lice or worms. Now neither is likely to kill you - but we kill them anyway. We kill every time we wash our hands.

Most objections to killing seem to revolve around "I like creature X so others should not kill it, however its okay if I kill creature Y". It may be emotionally satisfying, but it isn't logical.

Cluster flies can be a right pain if they decide to hibernate in your house. I think that's a legitimate reason to swat them. I don't think we're disagreeing here. Just coming at the same line of argument from opposite ends. Like and dislike should play no part in wether end the life of another creature. I don't like house cats.... But believe it or not I don't think that gives me the right to shoot them even if it was legal. However having wasps buzzing round my kids is just plain going to end in trouble so I will take action.

 

[mountainm]

I work closely with RSBP and other ornithological bods. General consensus is that the magpie population is out of control. Closely followed by gulls.

Nature works in balance. We unbalanced it. It no longer works.

Theres an interesting philosophical debate right there... Are we not part of nature?

 

[Harvestman]

I object to people swatting at wasps, but only because I believe that it increases the risk of being stung. Wasps retaliate. Well, you would if you were a wasp, wouldn't you?

 

[mountainm]

I object to people swatting at wasps, but only because I believe that it increases the risk of being stung. Wasps retaliate. Well, you would if you were a wasp, wouldn't you?

I tend to just squash em in a hanky once they've landed, but I make fake wasps nests which "seem" to keep them away so rarely have to.

 

[HillBill]

Don't get me started .... but heres another one for you...

If everything in existence is only energy, and energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed..... then do we ever kill anything?

Theres an interesting philosophical debate right there... Are we not part of nature?

 

[mountainm]

Don't get me started .... but heres another one for you...

If everything in existence is only energy, and energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed..... then do we ever kill anything?

Yes, unless you believe energy is life.

 

[Harvestman]

Wasp flies into room where there are people. People immediately start trying to kill it. I ask them why.

"Wasps sting. They're vicious and nasty!"

"But you are trying to kill it, whilst it is just passing through"

At work I am the one who catches the wasps and ushers them back out of the window. My colleagues think I'm brave and saving them from the wasp. I'm not. I'm saving the wasp from them.

 

[widu13]

I find red squirrels a much more challenging target, so small and nimble. Great crested newts don't like being launched from a badminton racquet either...

I'm not going shooting with you down in the New Forest again, it's just too far/expensive. Plus you keep missing and peppering the deer with the .410.

Keep your eye on that badger.

 

[Niels]

I object to people swatting at wasps, but only because I believe that it increases the risk of being stung. Wasps retaliate. Well, you would if you were a wasp, wouldn't you?

I always catch it in a cup and put it outside, or let it go outside through a window. I must say wasp stings never hurt to bad for me though. Not much worse than a nettle sting.

As to wether or not we're part of nature, I don't think so. We've come to a point were natural selection no longer applies to us. Most of us survive, and we have cultivated animals like cows in a way that they can't evolve further to defend themselves against us. If we are still part of nature we're definately on top.

As for the magpies, I think I can agree with what JD said. Nature isn't the way it's supposed to be in Western Europe due to humans, so it's up to humans to try and regulate it a bit. Problem is, humans tend to want to regulate and change nature too much, and that's what got us here in the first place

 

[mountainm]

Wasp flies into room where there are people. People immediately start trying to kill it. I ask them why.

"Wasps sting. They're vicious and nasty!"

"But you are trying to kill it, whilst it is just passing through"

At work I am the one who catches the wasps and ushers them back out of the window. My colleagues think I'm brave and saving them from the wasp. I'm not. I'm saving the wasp from them.

If its buzzing around my kids food then it gets got I'm afraid...

If its in the house then I usher it out a window.

Is it true a squashed wasp emits a "help me" pheremone?

 

[JonathanD]

Theres an interesting philosophical debate right there... Are we not part of nature?

We were and should be. We removed ourselves from it and pillaged it to our own ends. The vast majority of the population think the countryside is just a quaint place to spend sunny days walking. Too many of us. Nature will win out in the end, but the end result won't be anything we recognise. The balance is lost while we maintain the current population levels and keep on growing.

 

[mountainm]

As to wether or not we're part of nature, I don't think so. We've come to a point were natural selection no longer applies to us. Most of us survive, and we have cultivated animals like cows in a way that they can't evolve further to defend themselves against us. If we are still part of nature we're definately on top.

We are part of nature, we just like to think we're special. But we're not. Natural selection still applies (we're all taller, ginger people are getting rarer etc)

Other creatures farm. (Ants for one)

We just like to think we're centre of the universe. Truth is even if we wipe out 99% of species on the planet including ourselves it'll all bounce back, just without us. We are more subject to its whims than it is to ours.

 

[treadlightly]

As i said earlier, we lived with wasps nests over three years. Nobody was stung and the wasps were not a problem. I don't swat flies or squash spiders but I have killed lice and fleas in my time. And who knows how many micro organisms I kill every step I take?

 

[Harvestman]

Is it true a squashed wasp emits a "help me" pheremone?

More of a "DANGER" pheromone, which means any other wasps nearby immediately become MUCH more likely to be aggressive and will sting on minimal or no provocation. Another reason not to have a go at them. Bees do something similar.

Incidentally, one of the best protections against wasps is to wear a hat. The reasoning is that wasps are often swatted at by mammals (horses tails, cattle, people, etc), so wasps have learned to be more aggressive around 'hairy/furry' things. A hat hides your hair.

The other rule with them is that generally they only sting in defence or if they think you are prey. The latter isn't likely. I once went 20 minutes with a wasp on my shoulder as I walked around, and it did me no harm. In the autumn they do become more aggressive as they are trying to stock up on food for overwintering and are short of time and so have reduced patience.

The other little factoid about wasps is that weight for weight, the common wasp is the most venomous animal in Europe. They certainly pack a punch (sting) and they do kill people every year through anaphylactic shock, so I do understand why people are afraid of them

 

[British Red]

Is it true a squashed wasp emits a "help me" pheremone?

They emit an "attack" pheromone when squashed, yes. Bees do as well when they sting.

 

[Chiseller]

Just a random........anyone else heard the tale of the fabled Noah's Ark? Allegedly if such a person existed and had such a ship.....the magpie was the bird that never went onboard......so how did they survive the foty days n neets?

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[Niels]

Just a random........anyone else heard the tale of the fabled Noah's Ark? Allegedly if such a person existed and had such a ship.....the magpie was the bird that never went onboard......so how did they survive the foty days n neets?

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I don't think the bible says that. It's a myth kind of like Judas hanging himself from an elder tree. Those sort of things were made up long after the bible was written.

 

[Chiseller]

Just summat that I'd heard an thought the thread needed a break lol

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[BearInTheWoods]

Magpies are only a qualified legal quarry, you must believe that your reason for killing them is valid under the terms of the licence. Killing them because they might kill songbirds in the area around your garden would probably not be a valid reason

Actually it is.

THE PURPOSE(S) FOR WHICH THIS LICENCE APPLIES
1. Subject to paragraph 2 and the licence conditions, this licence is granted to:
(i) Conserve wild birds, and
(ii) Conserve flora and fauna.

 

[JonathanD]

Just a random........anyone else heard the tale of the fabled Noah's Ark? Allegedly if such a person existed and had such a ship.....the magpie was the bird that never went onboard......so how did they survive the foty days n neets?

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It was a flood. Plenty of other stuff floating. And they can fly. Although, if indeed such a ship existed and the animals went in two by two. The genetic diversification would have seen all species unsustainable in the future.