Germans banned from killing ants

Google | 4-29-03

[WKB]

Ananova:

Germany has introduced new laws making it illegal to kill ants and appointed 85 ant protection officers to protect the insects.

Homeowners and gardeners who attempt to destroy an anthill or underground nest will face hefty fines if caught.

They must now apply for a permit from their local forestry office to have the ants carefully moved to local woods.

"People with an ant hill in their garden must under no circumstances resort to the use of poison," said senior ant protection officer Dieter Kraemer.

"This is a violation of federal nature protection laws and punishable with hefty fines."

He added that ants were highly valued by German foresters for eating insects which attack trees.

A high ant population can prevent costly and environmentally unfriendly woodland spraying aimed at pests such as the Nun moth which attacks pines and other conifers.

[tictoc]

[Dr._Joseph_Warren]

Is it still okay for them to kill uncles?

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Hermann, your ability to think clearly is blocked by your hyper-German sensitivities. You missed the point and you are incorrect in attacking this post.

He doesnt hate Germans. He is simply pointing out a pathetic pattern of sick laws and inverted values that Germans have espoused.

There isn't anything "pathetic and inverted" in protecting nature, which is God's creation. The intentional and needless destruction of living creatures is perverse and against what God intended when he gave us control over the world with instructions to subdue it. Its wrong to kill things, even small insects, merely because you can. If you were killing those ants because they are destroying your food, or were attackign you (like fire ants do), or were going to eat them (like Mexicans do), that would be different.

From when they first enter into written history, Germans have always been known for their attachment to the natural world, especially their forests and their animals. There are similar very strict laws in Germany about cutting down trees. If you want to cause a riot over there, go and try to cut down a tree along the street.

Something is wrong in Germany -- not with ALL Germans, but some.

What is wrong with some? Tell us.

Look, that country did not have a good 20th century, ok?

Start thinking clearly --- if you want to be an effective thinker -- you can't stumble over stupid things like this.

How amusing of you to lecture me on this. The man said there is "deep and dark" in the minds of Germans, which is a slur to promote old hatreds. If he's looking to stoke conflict, let him answer for himself. If you're looking to join him in that, be more forthright and say so.

I'm not going to bother trying to say who had the worst 20th Century. You may chose to place the Germans on the lowest levels, and others of us will chose to remind you they had very good company down there, and not just from Soviet Russia.

Sometime, when you have some spare moments, look up the following:

1) Operation Keelhaul, 2) The Morgenthau Plan, 3) "Germany Must Perish" by Theodore Kauffman, as well as the book reviews it received in leading publications of the day, like Time, 4) The fate of the Germans who used to inhabit Silesia, Prussia, and Sudeteneland, the Poles who used to inhabit Galacia, the Finns who used to inhabit the Isthmus, the Hungairans of Transylvania, the Italians of Istria, etc. There are a number of good books which go into great detail about exactly what happened to these people, and I'm sure it would enlighten you to read about it.

Rather than continuing the inter-nicene hatreds which caused the calamaties to the west of the two world wars, various other conflicts, and their brutal aftermaths, and the continual one-upsmanships involved, perhaps it would be better to move forward from slurs that keep the fires of ancient fraternal hatreds stoked and hot, into a future of a "Common European Home" from Vancouver to Vladivostok where the west has finally learned to live at peace with itself in the Peace of God in conformance to the values given us by Noah, Moses and Jesus Christ.

We westerners can all hang together, or we will surely all hang seperately at the end of a Muslim or Chinese noose as they come to pick over the remains. Your choice awaits HankScorpio. Don't trip over your brain rushing to embrace it.

[widgysoft]

Does it mean this game will be banned....

[Conspiracy Guy]

Two ice picks are great for the biceps. The old magnifying glass is too hi tech. Besides the little beggers smell bad when they pop.

[honeygrl]

I watched that movie for the first time on TV at 3am when I was 5. At that age I frequently got up in the middle of the night to watch horror films. Oddly enough, now they give me nightmares. I blame it on my son because I had my first nightmare while pregnant with him.

[honeygrl]

"There isn't anything "pathetic and inverted" in protecting nature, which is God's creation. The intentional and needless destruction of living creatures is perverse and against what God intended when he gave us control over the world with instructions to subdue it. Its wrong to kill things, even small insects, merely because you can. "

I think the problem lies in giving animals more rights than humans and rights over humans. If there is an ant mound in my yard it's my right to get rid of it for whatever reason I want. If my foot was in the ant mound the ants would get rid of that too. It could be called survival of the fittest and that's perfectly natural.

[demosthenes the elder]

good idea. I have a couple of fire-ant colonies in my yard I'd be DELIGHTED to send to Germany.

btw - I have finally found a way to kill those muthas. I pour several ounces of "Fly Away" concentrate (for making pest repellent/poison for use on horses, nasty stuff) down a pit I poke in the heart of the nest, wait a few minutes for the colony to go absolutely nuts about the assault and for the poison and kerosene to penetrate deepl, then light it with a propane torch. The fire seems to drive the stuff throughout the colony through the ants' own passageways. Dead colony is the result. Unlike Malathion, this stuff seems to KILL them, rather than prompting them to move.

[demosthenes the elder]

maybe send them some "cow killers"?
I know, they are not really ants but flightless ground wasps. they LOOK like ants... BIIIIIIIIG ants.

[demosthenes the elder]

gotta know: which LARP do these lunatics play?

[null and void]

[demosthenes the elder]

same wavelength.
what really bugs me about them is that if you stomp on them they just dust themselves off and flip you the bird.
tough little buggers, cow-killers...
they aren't really ants, though.

[ZULU]

Lets send the Frogs some too. Also some Bullet Ants
(their bite hurts so much people bitten by them think they have been shot! - no kidding).

[null and void]

At that age I frequently got up in the middle of the night to watch horror films. Oddly enough, now they give me nightmares. I blame it on my son because I had my first nightmare while pregnant with him.

After watching "Alien"?

[mvpel]

This must be Germany's answer to their high unemployment rate - add 85 people to the government payroll to keep people from killing ants.

[Servant of the Nine]

I can make 'em a very good deal on some Fire Ants if they will pay the shipping.

So9

[honeygrl]

"After watching "Alien"? "

Actually the first nightmare was from the movie Blade.. I dreamed that vampire ghosts (the scene where the ghostly looking souls[??] of the vampires were flying around the room) were stealing the baby.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

I think the problem lies in giving animals more rights than humans and rights over humans.

I don't disagree with that at all.

If there is an ant mound in my yard it's my right to get rid of it for whatever reason I want.

The logic of this argument doesn't follow. If there is a deer in your yard can you kill it for whatever reason you want? Sure you can, but the Fish and Game Comission might have something to say to you about it. What is the intrinsic difference between a deer and an ant other than size and the current state of government regulations in this country? Just because it is your property doesn't give you a right to do whatsoever you will on it. The reason is you live in a community that makes laws, including some that regulate what you can do with your property and what you find upon it based upon the perception of the majority as to what is in the interest of the common good, within the bounds of law.

Personally, I don't have a problem with getting rid of ant mounds, and have destroyed quite a few in my day, especially fire ants in my great aunt's orange grove.

And personally, if the Germans wish to regulate ant mound destruction, they are well within moral rights of self governance to do so.

[Rollee]

I would be in jail forever. They would dig my bones up and re-bury them for another life sentence if I got convicted of murdering all the ants, spiders and other vermin I have exterminated in my life. Especially for the time I walked into the kitchen of this place I lived in, saw a puddle of ants in the corner and screamed at the top of my lungs. The man I was with came in with the pistola out and put a few through the window before he figured out what set me off. He fell down laughing when he saw the ants. The germans would be displeased indeed.

[Samwise]

1. Fill pan with water.
2. Boil water.
3. Pour boiling water on ants and in anthole.
4. Repeat as necessary.