I had three separate wasp nests under the siding and soffits of our house. There was two types , the common yellow jacket and the mud dabber. They would build a huge nest before summer was finished . Something needed to be done. I profess to love 'Life' and I do believe that in its very essence, all life is 'one'. But what is 'one', ( pun intended) to do when you know you have an infestation being built into your house exterior. I know a person who does not believe in killing mice ( he's a Buddhist wantabe) and his house is infested with these creatures. He has mouse dropping all through out his house and it doesn't seem to bother him. I don't share his love for mice.
Where is the balance??? I wish I could flick a switch and get rid of the wasps without killing one of them. But, the option to do nothing, and let the problem grow, from past experience, I concluded, was not the best choice. The best I could do is destroy the nest early, before they multiply, and by sealing off all holes in my house, I will prevent them from coming back.
To kill or not kill them was the choice. I bought a can of hornet and wasp spray and got rid of them. I feel somewhat bad about it but relieved that I may have alleviated a greater hazard to human life. It was the lesser of two evils in my thinking. Life decisions are not always black and white . There are gray areas of our human existence here on this planet, and getting rid of some creatures that produce a threat to our families is one of them.
Was it the right thing to do, destroying the wasp nests....maybe or maybe not?
There are a lot of issues in life that I say 'I don't know' about these days . I believe 'I don't know' is the best position to take on most of life's tough questions. To say 'I know' closes us off from further truth. It is also somewhat arrogant. So, if you ask me, was it right to kill these wasps?...........my answer is .........I don't know for sure.
I know what you mean. I have questioned myself about why I so carefully catch spiders in my house and release them outside, but at the first sign of ants on the counter, out comes the poison! I can rationalize it all sorts of ways, but I have to admit that I value spiders' lives more than ants'.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the question isn't whether it's "right" or not. It's just what we do. We make choices. We can be mindful of our choices and their consequences. I'm mindful of killing the ants, and I choose to do it.
By the way, yellow jackets seem unusually aggressive this year. A friend was stung in my back yard just a few days ago, and I was out recently and two people close to me were stung. Several times while outside, they have been very persistent in buzzing close to me. So regardless of karma, I would have gotten rid of the nest like you did!
Thanks Galen for commenting.
ReplyDeleteMost humans value life, some we call pests others beneficial. Where is the cut off point. Sometimes there are certain plants growing in my garden. They may be considered weeds but it may be beautiful to me. Eventually we choose order in our garden over what we consider disorder.It may be the same with mice,ants,wasps. If we do nothing they take over your living space. I am sure we both understand the Buddhist/Taoist value of all life. I hear India is overrun with rats and many other animals because they take this belief to an extreme. You are right about choice. We are on this earth, I believe as co-creators, we have choice, and freewill. I have a family of toads living in my window well. Everyday our cat and I look out in amazement, and observe how they behave. They eat little insects and other bugs and there seems to be enough little creatures for them to survive. My only interference was to provide a little water from them in a shallow pan. Well they think its a swimming pool...its so funny. I could go on but I will end here by saying ...I love life overall and I do hate to destroy any form of it . But logic dictates different at times. We can be mindful as you say of our decisions to destroy or let live, Karma or not.