[ecshafer]

I think there are some really good responses from the polyculture movement in agriculture. I am not a biologist or farmer or chemist, so this is at best my five year old explanation. But different organisms use different chemicals, and produce different chemicals as byproducts. Polyculture farming is when you plant multiple types of plants in a single field. So one row might be beans, one row corn, one row squash (the classical example is the "three sisters" plants from native american agriculture). These plants make use of different chemicals, so there is less destruction of the soil, and requires less fertilizers and chemicals to successfully grow, because the plants aid each other instead of fighting over the same resources. The ecosystem itself, which is impossibly complicated, is a large scale example of this. There are cycles of different organisms consuming resources, and creating new resources which are then consumed, etc.

[pvaldes]

I heard about a man at his forties that found some insects in their room. He was not interested on entomology. No time to study their family or type. Just dosed them with a generous dose of insecticide, and got to sleep in the same room.

That man was unable to walk on the next morning by a 'mysterious' irreversible nerve damage, and is still in a wheelchair since that day. Bad things happen, sadly. But happen more often to those that don't care about biodiversity

Maybe people should start to care.

Maybe if something kills animals is in our best interest to understand that we don't want this stuff around. We are animals too.

[radicaldreamer]

Do you know what insecticide he used?

[RoyalHenOil]

Many common insecticides work through a neurotoxic effect, particularly general insecticides that kill a wide range of insects and arachnids. You want to be very, very cautious using neurotoxic insecticides because most of them can cause neurological damage in mammals as well.

The safest insecticides tend to be slow-acting and target only particular species, but most of these are rare outside of agricultural use. The average homeowner does not want to whip out a magnifying glass and a field guide to identify the species, sort through a broad collection of specialised insecticides to select the one that targets it, and then wait a few days for the bug to die. They just want a basic spray that will kill everything, and fast.

Unfortunately, such sprays come with a risk of neurological injury to yourself, your children, and your pets if you don't follow the safety instructions to the letter. You don't want anyone eating any of it, breathing it, or getting it on their skin/fur.

I recommend just getting a flyswatter instead.

[pvaldes]

Obviously a neurotoxin, but I don't know the specific product. He is a relative of friends of a friend; and happened some decades ago.

People don't need to know if an insect is harmful or inoffensive, but just "it has more than four legs, kill it with fire!" is a moronic way to deal with this planet of arthropods. And it can destroy your life.