I have a confession.......

I'm sorry. I can't. Don't hate me.

Jury, there is something that has been bothering me since the summer started. I have debated whether or not to say this publicly but honestly, I just need to get this off my chest and maybe I will feel better about it. As much as I know it is important, I just can’t bring myself to kill the spotted lantern flies.

I know! I know! It makes no sense. I am so environmentally conscious. I should be willing to do my part and kill this invasive species but for some reason I just can’t!

If you don’t live in New York or a place where these bugs are infecting the environment read this article and then come back. It is really important that we kill them if we see them and I 100% understand that. I even killed them last year!

Part of the reason is I honestly just think it is gross to kill them. I’m not even really afraid of that many bugs. I just HATE cockroaches and water bugs. All other bugs I’m honestly cool with. I’m not even afraid of spiders. I honestly kind of like spiders. I think they are really interesting. I have even bragged to some people that I am in my insect era because I have been really deep on Ant and Bee TikTok for the last couple months. But something within me just can’t bring myself to kill these spotted lantern flies.

It’s not because I think they deserve to live. Although now that I think about it, it does make me a little sad that they have to die. I also hate that their carcasses are just left on the ground everywhere after everyone kills them. It just feels kind of morbid and gross. If you don’t know I am a vegetarian, so it isn’t surprising that I don’t want to kill an animal. I just find the hunting and killing of them so gross. I have seen a bunch of TikToks of people seeing like a swarm of them in places and it grosses me out so much.

I thankfully haven’t come across many of them yet. But I am dreading the day. I have seen some people just using a water bottle to suck them up and then just keeping them in there that way. That seems like a better way to dispose of them, but it still is kind of gross to me. I honestly don’t know what I feel would be the best-case scenario. I just needed to get this off my chest lol.