I don't like squashing bugs. I think bugs are cute, they're friendly (for the most part), and they serve a vital part in the environment. So I leave them alone. If they happen to be crossing the ceiling above my head, I'll wave at them and, if it's a spider, I'll address it as either Boris or Doris (depending on whether I think it's a boy spider or a girl spider). If it's a fly, I usually name it something mythology-themed. Sometimes a moth will get in and hang around my overhead light. I usually name them Shiori; I'm such an anime geek, that when I think "moth!" I either think "that really fucking weird scene with the cabbage moths and Kiryu Touga" or "Saihi Fenrir, Queen of Disaster". And since most of the moths I encounter are good, civil creatures, I name them after the more-or-less civil Shiori instead of the evil Leafe-sucking Queen of Disaster.

I have a pet cockroach named Pete. He lives behind the toilet in my bathroom. I would feel terrible if I squished him; he's got a busted back leg. It's kind of bent over backward. He doesn't move very fast and he's got a bit of a limp. It would be like bitchslapping some unfortunate person in a leg-brace. So, as long as he doesn't come and crawl over my feet, I leave him alone. Sometimes I talk to him while he's hanging around the base of the toilet. He doesn't seem to want anything from any other room. He just likes hanging around the bathroom.

Perhaps it makes me strange.

But I wouldn't be ABLE to squish a bug. I would feel bad! They're important, too. I try to keep them away from me, yeah; they've got some unsavory diseases. Which is why I use those Cutter bug-wipe things when I go out; it keeps ants, mosquitos, and the like away. But I don't kill the ones who don't bother me. Sometimes, though, I'll get irritated and take a swipe at a mosquito.

But fortunately for the little pests, I have lousy aim, and they just kind of take a little spiral-dive through the air from the gust behind my hand.