Look who moved in to my workshop

[Dirk]

I honestly don't get it.

There is nothing lethal about the Parky Prawn, nothing sinister and it actually kills many known pests, while serving as food for numerous birds.
Yes, I've had my fair share of incidents involving them. Some of them have a very nasty habit of crawling in under the covers with me.

I can honestly not recall ever having had to kill one.

But... I completely get the horror factor. Anyone that has ever seen the movie Aliens will have an instinctive fight or flight reactions to these poor,
misunderstood, hideous, indestructible, stinking, vile creatures that seem to have nothing better to do than scare the living crap out of you when you least
expect it....

Ok, I give up, I tried to be nice about it ... KILL THE F@#4ERS!

[Tony Z]

I fkn hate Parktown prawns. Not many things worse that them on the planet. Titanium exoskeleton, green blood, slimy, jumping satanic creatures that will definitely survive an atomic war, even if they sit on the bomb before it explodes.

When we moved into the house in Primrose, we had 2 breeding colonies in the garden, one up front and one in the back.
Nothing beats coming home from college on a hot summers day to find 30 on these things in the pool, some swimming, some floating dead, some dead at the bottom of the pool and always one of them caught inside the creepy so you have to pull it out.

[Sambabus]

If upset,parktown prawns sppray a disgusting smelling liquid at you,...and iv been told that if it gets you in the eye you can go blind,....but that could just be a bull sh!t story.

[Pine]

There are other bull$h!t stories as well... (you won't go blind either )

[VWCrazy]

ROFLMAO.

[JamesD]

we dont get them this side of pta. maybe the owls, genets, bush babies, snakes, scorpions, monkeys, mongooses and other wierd creatures that keep popping up in our gardern eat them? dont think i have ever even seen one before...

[Pine]

My folks found this enormous Pofadder at the Wilderness National Park the weekend. It was lying on the warm road just after sunset, and 'snaked' into the hottentotsvygies when the car approached..

[Ron&Gill]

Hehe, Gill tells me a story about a brave cockroach that ventured across our kitchen floor. I was in Nigeria at the time (don't even start talking about creepy crawleys from there...).

Apparently, the cockroach was making a dash for the other side of the kitchen when Gill saw it, shrieked and jumped up onto the kitchen counter. Standard height, 900mm, you try it!! No, not just your bum, all of you...

The shriek brought my brave and loyal Labrador, 42kg of prime hunting dog champion (on his father's side) who took one look at the situation and joined Gill on her lap on the counter... Must've been a mommy's boy, then.

My hero, Ben.

My hero Ben.JPG

[PEBKAC]

If I find a snake anywhere close to the house where it can harm my wife or children, I kill it. Anywhere else, I will let it go on its way (most of the time anyway - with the last Rinkhals I found on the farm, I just had to reverse back and have another go at killing it with my bakkie).
For all of you that feel the poor harmless snakes are worth more than people

[eben]

For all of you that feel the poor harmless snakes are worth more than people

I think your comment just prooved the point.

[Blitzkrieg]

If I find a snake anywhere close to the house where it can harm my wife or children, I kill it. Anywhere else, I will let it go on its way (most of the time anyway - with the last Rinkhals I found on the farm, I just had to reverse back and have another go at killing it with my bakkie).
For all of you that feel the poor harmless snakes are worth more than people

You do have a point there

[fig]

For all of you that feel the poor harmless snakes are worth more than people

I think your comment just prooved the point.

Hear, hear!

It's not about putting snakes and people on a scale and finding one more valuable than another; it's about recognising that there is room for all of us and we can live peacefully together. This applies to black and white, male and female, animal and human, etc, etc, etc. Killing things is easy; sharing our planet peacefully with all its inhabitants is hard work. You've just chosen the lazy route.

Read my story about the rinkhals that lived on our plot for the 10 years that my children grew up there. You diminish your children with your attitude that they can't look after themselves or keep out of harm's way. They are a lot bigger than you think they are.

“Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous.” – George Bernard Shaw

"In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it." – George Bernard Shaw

[PEBKAC]

People are the only form of life that matter (with certian exceptions - rapists, murderers, etc.). The closer they are to me the more they matter and the greater need I will feel to protect them. My wife is pregnant at the moment so that is even more reason to look after her. My youngest son is less than 2 years old so he can definately not look after himself. My eldest is nearly four and is not big enough to handle any snakes on his own yet (especially one that will try its best to blind you when cornered like a Rinkhals). He has seen how they get killed, so when he is old enough he will be able to do it himself (he loves guns and shooting already so that will probably help later on).

Killing things is sometimes not that easy. The last rat I shot with my pellet gun took three shots before it died - one in the correct location for a clean kill behind the front leg and into the chest (it was sitting broadside on a pantry shelf - pellet went through and hit the wall behind), one in the center of the chest from the front (went to tell the wife her problem was sorted - when I came back it had moved and was still alive), final shot to the head turned the lights off. Peace returned to my house.

In conclusion, a quote from a higher authority than George Bernard Shaw:
Ecclesiastes 3:2, 3
"A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;"
(I read the rest of the book this comes from, and I am not afraid).

[fig]

People are the only form of life that matter.

Speciesism is the same thing as racism. But I'm sure you'll find justifications for all your prejudices in your favourite book. Just look up into the sky on a clear night to get a true glimpse of just how important human beings are in the grand scheme of things.

[PEBKAC]

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." -- Albert Einstein.
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. " -- Albert Einstein.

OK, Fig baiting done for tonight.