Humanely Euthanizing Spiders

[pannaking22]

I do not condone keeping brown widows because of how invasive they can be to our native widows.

I see them reasonably often around here, so I pop any I find into a vial with the eventual destination of the freezer. The more I can help the native species the better. Overall it probably doesn't do much, but it makes me feel a little better at least.

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

I see them reasonably often around here, so I pop any I find into a vial with the eventual destination of the freezer. The more I can help the native species the better. Overall it probably doesn't do much, but it makes me feel a little better at least.

Kill them quicky with needles. Once they bleed out they pretty much go unconscious and die shortly after. Freezers are inhumane as the ice crystals forming in the open circulatory system of the spider would be a rather painful way to go.

 

[Joogvanhedel]

Kill them quicky with needles. Once they bleed out they pretty much go unconscious and die shortly after. Freezers are inhumane as the ice crystals forming in the open circulatory system of the spider would be a rather painful way to go.

This is not true for spiders, someone i now from a forum askt a good biologist and this was the answer.

To take the lack of active thermoregulation to declare the nervous system of reptiles and spiders is related is quite a stretch since there are absolutely no other similarities between the two groups. One main divide in the animal kingdom is between vertebrates and invertebrates, reptiles belonging to the former and arachnids to the later. Their nervous systems are fundamentally different, not only in their complexity but also in their general organization. In all vertebrates, obviously including reptiles, receptors will gain information and nerve fibers will transport this information to centralized structures, like the spinal cord or the brain. Pain receptors are called nociceptors:

Nociception thus represents theperipheral and central nervous system processing of information about the internal or external environment as generated by nociceptor activation. This information is processed at both spinal and supraspinal levels of the central nervous system, providing details about the nature, intensity, location, andduration of noxious events. […]

Noxious stimulation triggers multiplephysiological and behavioral responses, only one of which is the generation of the unpleasant emotional state of pain. Other behavioral and physiological responses include withdrawal reflexes, increases in heart rate and bloodpressure, and other parameters.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK32655/

Invertebrates have a completely different nervous system that provides much less centralized processing. The conclusion that invertebrates feel pain because other cold blooded animals do so is therefore invalid. As seen above, nociception, as in the avoidance of noxious stimuli, does not equal the feeling of pain.

Still, can spiders feel pain? A mammal with an injured leg will limp, trying to minimize pain. A spider will not limp but use the injured leg to its full physical potential - and possibly amputate it if it gets in the way, but there doesn’t seem pain reactions involved.

It is not clear if spiders can feel pain – we have no indication that they do but absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence. If they do feel pain they will definitely experience it differently than vertebrates.

No, spiders don't have a central nervous system. What would you want to cut off with a spider, then? Still, cutting the abdomen off is a quick way to kill a spider as it will bleed out pretty fast. Is it painless? Well, if spiders do feel pain they will definitely feel being cut in half as pain. If they don't feel pain you can as well use a less messy method.

 

[basin79]

As sad as it is for me to type this if you have to kill a spider just stand on it. Whilst it may not be pretty it's instant death for the spider. And that's all that matters.

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

Please don't kill them. Love them, and cherish them. If they must die, make their deaths more meaningful than stepping on them or burning or freezing them. Give them the warriors death of impalement if such is absolutely necessary.

 

[MintyWood826]

Why would the way they die matter as long as it's instant so they don't feel anything uncomfortable (if they do)? Genuine question.

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

And though the clockwork is not as complex as ours, it still has the same function to enable survival. Primitive emotions could be very possible, and indeed, likely within some araneomorphs. I would not even exclude the possibility of short term memory in some species. I see it, but others do not, and it will be a formidable obstacle to prove, unless others begin the labor intensive research that I put into observing my specimens as well.

It matters, because they are not mere insects. They are sacred in many cultures, including our own here on arachnoboards. We feed them, care and nurture them, for what reason other than the thrill of doing it? We are guided by invisible hands to be the caretakers of the spiders. We do not choose to be what we are, the spiders often introduce themselves at a young age, and from there on, the chosen few are given the task of guardianship.

 

[Ungoliant]

Moderator note: I split this off-topic discussion from What's everyone's favorite small spider species. Carry on.

 

[The Snark]

Well, how about euthanasia that takes about 5 microseconds? .410 shotgun loaded with corn meal. Extremely effective, doesn't need a direct hit, deals with them in hides and behind corners in holes, and gets the danged job done so you can move on to the nicer aspects of life. Also safe to use under houses, in garden sheds etc. Just use a face shield, long sleeves and gloves.

 

[antinous]

Please don't kill them. Love them, and cherish them. If they must die, make their deaths more meaningful than stepping on them or burning or freezing them. Give them the warriors death of impalement if such is absolutely necessary.

Wouldn't impalement be worse? Stepping on them is instantaneous and pretty much the best way to go.

 

[draconisj4]

Wouldn't impalement be worse? Stepping on them is instantaneous and pretty much the best way to go.

Absolutely, I just had to do that to a severely injured house spider my cat got a hold of.

 

[MintyWood826]

Absolutely, I just had to do that to a severely injured house spider my cat got a hold of.

And cats impale with claws/teeth...

they are not mere insects.

They are arachnids.

 

[MintyWood826]

You said insects...of course I said something...

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

That's because everybody else treats them like they are in the same league as mosquitoes, flies and wasps. They are the single greatest allies we have against total obliteration from disease and famine, and we must treat them like it with honorable deaths, not gory smashing's or prolonged suffering through freezing or improper burning. If you just work on your aim, you can impale the brain and heart of the spider and still have a memorial corpse to put on a shrine or other safe-keeping methods.

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

Seppuku isn't the best way to go, but it's more personal, and it preserves the exoskeleton. But apparently, instead of seeing the logic in it, you attack my beliefs and sentiments towards the creatures that are more important to me than my own family.

 

[antinous]

Seppuku isn't the best way to go, but it's more personal, and it preserves the exoskeleton. But apparently, instead of seeing the logic in it, you attack my beliefs and sentiments towards the creatures that are more important to me than my own family.

I didn’t mean to attack anyone, and I apologize if I had offended you by what I said.

 

[MintyWood826]

That's because everybody else treats them like they are insects you doofus.

So...if I treated my cat like a human he'd be a human?

Seppuku isn't the best way to go, but it's more personal, and it preserves the exoskeleton. But apparently, instead of seeing the logic in it, you attack my beliefs and sentiments towards the creatures that are more important to me than my own family.

I'm not trying to attack your beliefs. I am having trouble understanding why you don't go the way that causes the least suffering.

I apologize for whatever made you think I was attacking your beliefs.

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

I didn’t mean to attack anyone, and I apologize if I had offended you by what I said.

Not you good sir. You merely asked a question. It was MintyWood826 whom offended me. Keep asking freely, as that is welcomed. It is when my words are taken and twisted into other's words and philosophies that I take offense. Much like anyone else really. Nobody wants to be treated like they are idiots or psychotics, no matter if the former and latter are true.

 

[MintyWood826]

Not you good sir. You merely asked a question. It was MintyWood826 whom offended me. Keep asking freely, as that is welcomed. It is when my words are taken and twisted into other's words and philosophies that I take offense. Much like anyone else really. Nobody wants to be treated like they are idiots or psychotics, no matter if the former and latter are true.

I'm sorry for the way I said that spiders are arachnids.

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

So...if I treated my cat like a human he'd be a human?


I'm not trying to attack your beliefs. I am having trouble understanding why you don't go the way that causes the least suffering.

I apologize for whatever made you think I was attacking your beliefs.

I only care about spiders. They are the idols which I devote myself. Along with Moths and Bees. Spiders symbolize the necessary chaos and destruction for creation, preservation, order and harmony to take place.

I'm sorry for the way I said that spiders are arachnids.

I was pointing out the way that people just see them as pets, or regular insects in league with the flies and wasps which plague us. The spiders cleanse our ecosystems of these excess pests, and so, I honor them by making their deaths special, since they have made the world a better place than when that which they have found it.

They impale their prey, and so I impale them twice, once in the cephalothorax, and then in the abdomen directly above the heart. Death is quite instant, and since I impale the cephalothorax first, any chance of feeling the second impalement would be null and void. But I don't do this more than twice a year, since it does cause me emotional turmoil afterwards. More often than not, if a spider is dying or in an unwanted place, I will feed it to my other spiders, so as to not waste the precious nutrients within. This causes me emotional turmoil as well, but not so greatly as the personal killings. I cannot even allow others to kill or injure a spider in my presence. I always save my children, as they are the only children I will ever have.