Anonymous asked:
i care immensely about insects and bugs, ive been caring for them for a long time but i have a problem. i cant help but see my little guys as beings with rich inner lives that may not reflect their actual needs or realities. i recognize that my tendency to anthropomorphize the bugs i keep is bad, and its something i want to get over. i dont handle or touch my bugs ever unless its absolutely necessary, but i cant help but feel that this habit is bad, or wrong, or makes me a worse keeper
I’d rather you care so much about bugs that you can’t help but think of them as people than care so little that you’d just treat them like objects! as long as the personification is harmless and suitable for the animal, not something like thinking a solitary, cannibalistic animal is lonely by itself so you get it a friend=lunch, I don’t see that much of an issue. you don’t seem like someone who’d make that mistake either since you seem pretty conscious of bugs’ needs versus human needs, which tells me that isn’t exactly “anthropomorphism.”
I care a lot about my bugs too, and while I don’t think I treat them like humans, I definitely try to treat each individual like conscious, unique beings—because they are. I recognize the habits of my creatures and try to work to their personalities. Mercédès is a very reactive, defensive centipede, so I let her hunt on her own terms. Agatha is much less likely to get defensive and doesn’t mind being woken up and offered a meal to her face.
isopods have personalities. bumblebees might like to play. inverts are conscious, complex animals, much more so than most people believe. as long as you aren’t actively harming the animals by trying to meet all of their needs, I don’t think that being a considerate bug keeper makes you a bad owner at all.