Neutralisation means killing. Where I work it must pass by an ethic committee before experimentation. People may think of cockroaches as expendable garbage, but they deserve humane treatment like any other cobain. I remember a kit which was sold as a toy and allowed remote control of a cockroach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLTntnFeGE0 , sold as a toy this is pure animal cruelty.
After trying dozens of extermination strategies I cackled when the first generation of deformed roaches started being born when using gentrol. >:)
All I can find searching the word is of course about Kurt Cobain ... wondering if you somehow abstracted "all living beings" to "a bit like Kurt Cobain", or something, which would be quite an impressive jump and one I haven't seen before.
Or it's a typo I can't figure out, of course.
do you not believe in pest control?
A university.
> and where is the line for where it's considered cruel or not?
I don't know. I never needed ethical committee approval and was never part of it and never asked this particular question.
> tbh i have 0 issues killing bugs.
I'd bet the same about the ethical committee members.
> do you not believe in pest control?
Sure I do believe!
About pest control... well, I don't really care that much about roaches; but I'd do really care if they were, for example, dogs. So, the fact that I don't care that much doesn't means it is not ethically questionable.
If anyone has a good simple idea to develop pesticides which minimize suffering, I wouldn't be opposed to it.
It would be far more impressive and "feels good news" than just one more insect-killing technological tool.
And members of my family who do not like roaches also agree that it would be better to not kill them.
But I really do need that for mosquitoes, with a tiny vacuum mounted on a quadcopter with a high-precision camera and a GPU for edge AI.
I guess some of y'all don't remember highschool and that one teacher you couldn't stand
If it disgusts you too much, why not let the drone do it for you.
Then again, if it disgusts you that much, you probably prefer killing the poor beasts.
Far away where? Assuming we could airlift roaches anywhere - the location they get dropped off will be significantly impacted. In the best case you've condemned the roaches to await starvation (they will canabalize each other too). Which is like killing them with extra steps and wasted energy. Most likely they will impact the other living beings around them negatively.
Just quickly kill them when they are in areas that negatively impact your quality of life and don't feel bad when you do. Nature doesn't let you be neutral.
They don't eat wheat or corn, so that would be a solution, also they don't eat trees, so the forest is safe.
They will always find what they need in a forest, and in a lesser extent in a field, as they can lunch on whatever decomposed food or smaller animals they find. Very unlikey that they starve to death, at worst they just don't have enough stamina to reproduce, which is the natural way to autoregulate.
And a starved insect will slow down its metabolism and then die peacefully, there is no need to "show mercy" by putting it to death lol.
Of all the problems and things to worry about in this world, the well being of roaches...
I am OK to kill a cockroach, but not to inflict unnecessary suffering on it, or any creature.
I don't see where our disagreement is then.
> inflict unnecessary suffering on it
I don't believe I've said anything to that effect. Perhaps you're insinuating that based on my dismissing of the well being of roaches. My statement is in the context of this thread, using lasers for pest control. I'm saying it's ridiculous to worry about the well being of roaches in the context of pest control. Besides, I would think lasers result in instant death which is more humane that most pesticides.
> Unkindness to creatures inevitably results in a devaluation of all life, including human life.
I would agree with that to an extent. If you think pest control falls under the category of unkindness, then I would disagree because if you think that, you're valuing roach life more than human life. If that is your value, you have a right to that belief, but I vehemently disagree.
Picturing me as someone who "lacks the strength" "to exert his own will toward a spiritual value higher than that of mere vermin" is offensive.
Ok, I don't think commenting about "cockroach well being" on this thread was a good idea on my part. I want to make myself clearer: I have no problem with killing them, not even (actually specially) for scientific or pest control purposes. Summarily killing them is exactly what I do when they appear around me.
What I won't do (and find ethically or morally questionable besides cruel) is to play with them while inflicting pain. They have nerves and neurons and they surely feel pain. The kit I linked, sold as a toy, is pure animal cruelty. No matter if it tortures a cockroach or a dog.
Nobody here is saying it's ok to torture roaches for fun. The article doesn't say that either. The lasers are for pest control.
So you're kind of arguing with the air here.