DO BUGS HAVE SOULS?

Never mind what a soul is, you can define that for yourself. My thing is that I am becoming increasingly convinced that bugs have consciousness and self-awareness, at least some of them, and therefore we should examine whether or not The Golden Rule applies. 


I cleaned the hermit crab tank this afternoon. I'm NOT into bugs, and hermit crabs count as bugs to me: lots of crunchy, hairy legs, eyes in places we humans are not used to, and did I mention lots of crunchy, hairy legs? Those are bugs! Where I work, the boss moved on and left the hermit crab behind, so since nobody knew how to take care of it, I volunteered to bring it home. It's been two years, and I just now got around to changing the shredded bark in its tank. If the crab is just a thing with no consciousness, then I'm not any more guilty of cruelty than if I'd neglected a houseplant. However, the hermit crab in his shell and the whole little environment of shredded bark, cuttlebone, hollow wood, food dish, and crab shack were crawling with thousands of mites, I guess the crab equivalent of fleas. The hermit crab never seemed to act as though he itched, even though I often watched for scratching behaviors. I put him in a basin with salty water that I treated the same as you treat aquarium  water to neutralize the chlorine and other chemicals, and then after dumping out the old shredded bark, I washed out the tank and added fresh everything. 


It seemed as though he noticed. He explored it. He didn't try to pinch me, so I think he knows me a little. In fact, the only time that he ever tried to pinch me was when he escaped once and was loose in the house for a day and a half. When I found him he was kind of nervous and aggressive, but who could blame him since he had to dodge the dog and cat for all that time? 


So, my first observation was that the hermit crab seemed happy in his new, clean set-up. My second observation was that I found myself referring to him as "he" instead of "it." My third observation was that happiness is not usually ascribed to bugs, crabs, and the like. 


My friend Donna, who has no life and spends all her time with her ark of animals, swears that her hermit crab not only recognizes her, but likes her. He doesn't like her husband (neither does she) and always tries to pinch the man. She says that the crab likes being petted, actually coming to her and sitting still as if enjoying the vibration of her fingers stroking the shell where he's housed. Either she's nutty and wrong, or, if she's right -- she still might be nutty -- then we are not treating our arthropod brethren kindly. 


I have another bug story. A few summers ago I was at my boyfriend's family's house in the country when his little niece found a praying mantis outside and went around showing it to everybody. I got my camera so I could take a picture of it. As she held it up to me in the palm of her hand, I noticed that it was LOOKING at me! LOOKING AT ME! Its head was turned and its buggy green eyes were examining me. I realized with shock that it was looking at the leafy print on my shirt and trying to decide if I were a bush, because if I were, it was planning to escape from the noisy little girl and all the other noisy humans by jumping into the safety of my green branches. That was totally one of the creepiest experiences of my life, to be studied by a bug. It meant that the creature had a brain with the capability to make evaluations and decisions. 


Apparently my brain has already made up its mind, independent of my feelings. Last week I saw ripples in the back yard birdbath ... a wasp! At first I thought, "Drown, bug!" But as I watched her struggle, and most wasps you see are females, I remembered all the times I've struggled without anyone to help me, so I thought, "WTF," and put a stick in the water to rescue  her. She crawled up the stick and I laid it in the grass so she could fly back to her business. It didn't seem stupid; it seemed right. 


The next time you steam crabs alive in your crab pot, or plunge a lobster head-first into boiling water after he's had his antennae clipped off and his claws handcuffed, just think about it and how you would feel if a big arthropod did it to you.