I was sitting at my desk studying, and two flies kept buzzing around and pissing me off. After brushing them away every second minute for an hour, I cracked out the fly spray. Then I watched as their nervous systems shut down over a period of ten minutes until they died. And I felt kinda bad; they really looked like they were suffering. It made me think. They weren't exactly harmless. They have the capacity to spread germs and plant maggots into my food. The fewer flies there are in my room and house, the better. But they weren't causing my immune system to shut down. It felt kind of out of proportion. Maybe I should have just spent five minutes herding flies out of my room. It would have the bonus of making my room not smell like fly spray.

So, do you ever feel bad about killing insects? Do you rescue spiders before you run your bath? Shoo moths out the window? Or do you just kill with impunity and unacknowledged human hubris?