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Are you interested in insects?
Yes, they interesting 76%  76%  [ 16 ]
No, I hate them 19%  19%  [ 4 ]
...meh 5%  5%  [ 1 ]
Total votes : 21

Fern
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22 May 2020, 2:33 am

My special interest turned career in entomology is a stereotypical special interest of people on the autism spectrum. Which got me wondering... anyone here like like insects???



Kiprobalhato
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22 May 2020, 3:20 am

i do like insects, appreciate what they do, though i wouldn't want a whole lot of them in my bedroom

what is your favorite insect order?


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Joe90
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22 May 2020, 6:48 am

Yeah I like insects. I try to tolerate them and give them a right to live, even ones nobody likes, like wasps, hornets, spiders, flies and mosquitos. I have a phobia of spiders but I still hate killing them. I seem to feel intense empathy for bugs, and if I see anyone trying to kill even something as nasty as a wasp, I get upset. Insects have feelings too.


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kraftiekortie
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22 May 2020, 6:53 am

I don’t like insects that spread disease.

I’m only keen on certain insects.



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22 May 2020, 7:00 am

I like dragonflies and dung beetles and butterflies and moths. Ants are interesting to watch. We don't kill things unnecessarily but we have to sometimes knock a wasp nest off when they start building on the back porch, for example. I am really interested in bees. I love to watch all the pollinators. There is a huge range of pollinators in my yard. I also like honey bees, but am allergic to their stings, so keep my distance.


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Wolfram87
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22 May 2020, 7:32 am

bugs were my earliest and most long-lasting special interest, and I still love them.


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Dear_one
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22 May 2020, 8:54 am

Many places I would enjoy are proscribed by mosquitos and no-see-ums, etc. A friend once had his tent darkened by a tight layer of hungry bloodsuckers. However, I think that the current population crash in insects is very ominous. A summer drive used to require 20 times more effort at cleaning off the windscreen. The very "best" scientific cattle feed is still not as good as wild grass and bugs.
One eminent British naturalist (Lord Russell?) was once asked what he might have learned about the mind of God from his close study of nature. The question gave him pause, but he replied that the Almighty must have a great fondness for beetles.
I once participated in the hunt for 9-spotted ladybugs, and sometimes amuse myself by turning over rocks to see what lives there, if I'm face down on gravel for a sunbath.



naturalplastic
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22 May 2020, 9:23 am

J.B.S. Haldane is said to have … said that. That God had beetlemania. An "inordinate fondness for beetles".
=================

Everyone loves lady bugs and butterflies.

And I love dragonflies and their cousins: the damsel flies. The fast sportscars of the insect world. Its very soothing to watch them fly over a pond in the woods- kinda like watching hawks circling.

Not only are they aesthetically pleasing but they are predators that eat up gnats and mosquitos.

But I wont deny the truth...I don't have much love for the aforementioned gnats and mosquitos, nor for roaches, or bedbugs.



dragonsanddemons
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22 May 2020, 9:48 am

Absolutely, arthropods (including insects, of course) were my very first special interest. My parents say that one of my first words was “caterpillar,” and one of my earliest memories is when I was about three, holding a book out to a spider on the floor and calling “Here, spider!” (I wanted to hold it but didn’t want it to bite me, so having it climb onto the book seemed like a reasonable compromise) Any arthropod found in the house gets caught and released outside, never killed (as long as I’m around, at least) (we have a cup with a lid whose dedicated purpose is for catching the wasps and stinkbugs that sometimes get in around the living room window, so we can (hopefully) catch them without getting stung or stinked).One of my favorites is the praying mantis, probably in part because I don’t find them very often (which isn’t necessarily to say they aren’t there, I just don’t come across them), so it feels special when I do.

Can’t say I’m particularly fond of the ones that drink human blood (especially ones like fleas and ticks that stay on their host instead of just stopping by for a sip like mosquitoes). No problem with cockroaches, though, one time my parents were talking to a college friend for an hour-ish and I spent the entire time occupying myself with a cockroach I’d found on the floor. And ants cleaning themselves are simply adorable (can’t say I’m fond of them getting in the house, though, because there isn’t really a way to get rid of them without killing any).


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naturalplastic
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22 May 2020, 10:38 am

:oops:



Last edited by naturalplastic on 22 May 2020, 11:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

Wolfram87
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22 May 2020, 10:46 am

dragonsanddemons wrote:
Can’t say I’m particularly fond of the ones that drink human blood (especially ones like fleas and ticks that stay on their host instead of just stopping by for a sip like mosquitoes).


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Sandpiper
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22 May 2020, 4:54 pm

Fern wrote:
My special interest turned career in entomology.....


Sounds interesting. How have you made a career of it if you don't mind my asking?

I like anything that flies, swims, creeps or crawls, or gets around by any other form of locomotion for that matter.


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22 May 2020, 5:43 pm

They're interesting. I think they're a latent interest of mine because they're fascinating but I've never allowed myself to get too caught up like I have with other topics.


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I love belko61
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22 May 2020, 7:20 pm

I am interested in anything that is outdoors. I know a lot of insects by name and a few basic facts about each, and I'm not afraid of them. I always bought bug catching kits for my kids, and borrowed bug books from the library to read to them.



CarlM
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22 May 2020, 7:41 pm

Doing a display on grasshoppers for an elementary school science fair was only of the few positive experiences I can remember from that school :roll:. I remember them being a special interest around that time. I was living with grasshoppers for awhile :lol:. I still like bugs.


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dragonsanddemons
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22 May 2020, 8:25 pm

Oh, I forgot to mention, as a kid I read insect field guides for fun (also sometimes the dictionary). The only arthropods that really bother me are ones that can spread parasites (I have a legitimate phobia of internal parasites, external ones aren’t as bad because you can usually at least tell they’re there) and, for some reason, house centipedes. Giant centipedes whose bites can hurt as much as gunshot wounds (according to a guide book I read about Hawai’i)? Meh. Little house centipedes whose bites won’t hurt any more than a bee sting? Oh my gosh, keep them away from me! Just something about the angle of their legs makes my primitive brain go “That’s not right,” and their skitters movements make it seem very easy for one to suddenly run up your pant leg or something (I enjoy holding some arthropods, especially millipedes, but only when I invite them onto me - if I’m not expecting it, I’m at least quite startled).


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