I get a lot of comments about some of my photos, where I am holding all sorts of “dangerous” critters including venomous snakes, black widows, tarantulas, scorpions and centipedes, that I have no fear of anything. In reality, it has nothing to do with fear. There are only two true emotions we have, love and fear, and I prefer love. I love all of God’s creations, no matter how many legs they have. None of the little souls I hold are inherently dangerous, unless you do something where they need to defend themselves. The pesticide industry likes to instill “fear” so they can sell pesticides, which in reality are far more dangerous.
A black widow like the one crawking on my arm simply makes a home, builds a web, has eggs and then protects her family, like we do. When you have a black widow in a corner minding her own business on one hand and you have someone going around the whole house with a can of bug spray killing everything they don’t like or understand, who is the true pest? Certainly if you have children in your home, you need to relocate anything that bites, but there is no value whatsoever in polluting your house with pesticides which will do more harm to your children than any spider. The centipede I am holding did not come after me. I picked it up and it tried to bite me, but I would expect that. When I got done taking a photo, I put it on the ground and it ran off as fast as it could. It did not try to attack me.
I have nothing but love and respect for all of God’s creations. He/She didn’t create anything that deliberately kills other creatures except for humans. We are the least civilized and least evolved species on the planet when it comes to moral values. Am I afraid of anything? Yes, politicians, who like to invoke their “moral” values on everyone for nothing more than corporate greed. I cringe when I see a politico like Ted Cruz posing with a dead tiger skin. This fellow claims to be a Christian, but can anyone imagine Jesus posing with some trophy kill? Can anyone imagine Jesus stepping on a centipede or using poisons or traps to kill animals or eating hot dogs, hamburgers or other remains of tortured animals? No, I can’t. There isn’t a spider, a centipede, a scorpion, a bug or a snake of any kind on the planet that I wouldn’t pick up if I encountered it. But I will never, ever take a bite out of the dead flesh of an animal just because I can. Eating meat and being exposed to pesticides is far more dangerous than handling rattlesnakes or venomous spiders.
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I have two locations in my house where black widows reside. I keep trying to spray them back in the laundry room and I tend to forget them under the fish tank until I service the tank. I can’t spray under the tank during servicing so, there’s a time bomb.
As you know, the only solution I have found against ticks and mites is free ranging chickens.
Posted by Cindy Madrid | January 5, 2015, 4:20 pmHi Dick. I think that this post is a beautiful expression of the biologically-informed way of living you have created. Thanks for sharing it as the New Year begins.
Posted by Scott Carroll | January 17, 2015, 3:39 pm