Yeah right, From someone who lives in a pristine manicured environment I bet.. Laser the fucking lot of them I say.

I feel you here. After living with them for a couple years I started to feel crazy when I would crush the skittering ones with my bare hands in hopes of making a dent.

After trying dozens of extermination strategies I cackled when the first generation of deformed roaches started being born when using gentrol. >:)

If you live in the tropics, geckos are a great solution. Cute too.

I can understand the issue with the latter (almost feels akin to the sadistic sort of things kids do in general to insects...) but just killing them as a means of pest control I'm not quite sure I can grasp what the ethical concern is.

Uh, sorry for possibly seeming dense, but did you mean to write "cobain" there? What does that mean, in this context?

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.

I've seen the word "cobain" being used in English as a translation to the Portuguese word "cobaia". It means an animal that is used in scientific experiments.

Autocorrect for “vermin”?

where do you work that requires ethics reviews on roaches? and where is the line for where it's considered cruel or not? tbh i have 0 issues killing bugs.

do you not believe in pest control?

> where do you work that requires ethics reviews on roaches?

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!

ok fair answers but if you "believe they deserve humane treatment" how do you square that with pest control? is laser burning less humane than poisoning (status quo)? also it is definitely more humane for the humans (like no worries about small children licking a poisoned floorboard).

I definitely didn't express myself well. What I really mean is: if you're doing scientific experiments with animals, I think they deserve as little pain as possible. I also must say I don't have much sympathy for cockroaches but playing with them like toys while inflicting pain is animal cruelty.

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.

As we set up machines do the hard work for us, why not just have the machine scoop up the cockroach in a little box and store it to be freed later far away from the house?

It would be far more impressive and "feels good news" than just one more insect-killing technological tool.

> As we set up machines do the hard work for us, why not just have the machine scoop up the cockroach in a little box and store it to be freed later far away from the house?

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.

Why is it so hard to think about releasing them in a forest or in a field?

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.

nobody is buying something that's just going to capture roaches.

I would, definitely!

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 thought about the last part before. It just sounds like we need more dragonflies (they check all the boxes).

Imagine having to transport a box with dozens of roaches somewhere to empty it

Not very difficult.

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.

there's a lot of value in no kill capture, they can be repurposed

I guess some of y'all don't remember highschool and that one teacher you couldn't stand

It usually goes without saying, but it's up to each man to exert his own will toward a spiritual value higher than that of mere vermin. Here we find one who lacks the strength to do even this.

> Here we find one who lacks the strength to do even this.

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.

> I have no problem with killing them, > What I won't do (and find ethically or morally questionable besides cruel) is to play with them while inflicting pain

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.

Well said.

Of all the problems and things to worry about in this world, the well being of roaches...

Could not agree less. Unkindness to creatures inevitably results in a devaluation of all life, including human life. Just look at the sorry state of the world today.

I am OK to kill a cockroach, but not to inflict unnecessary suffering on it, or any creature.

> I am OK to kill a cockroach

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.

Your sentiment is absolutely not a mainstream one, but I get the idea: If everyone where to think like that, we wouldn't have wars. So, I can't just outright ridicule it like some other commenters.

cool I agree. Lets put them all in your house.