Interesting question ... my thought is yes on both counts. They may still be bugs, but they are pretty ones and, as I said before, do not spread disease and only serve to look beautiful and cross-pollinate.

Wait, so there's no fishing or hunting allowed in Switzerland?

I'm a bit curious to know how all that wild meat comes on sale in the fall if that's the case. Eat Swiss beef but not Swiss venison or boar?


TheAndy, while you can not kill them while there (or even intentionally touch them at all), you may find information on butterfly collecting at Papiliorama in Kerzers.

Meanwhile, I know you can find some seed mixes at the garden shops that contain seeds for wildflowers which are known to attract butterflies and other bugs. Maybe it would prove interesting enough while you're here to simply grow the "right" types of flowers to attract them so you can watch them dance around your garden all day.

__________________
The Joys of Opticianry

I own leather shoes, put milk in my tea and just enjoyed a delicious baked trout.

I guess I didn't need to have the cow, the calves or the trout killed, but the quality of my life was certainly improved by their deaths.

Why is a butterfly more special than any of them?

Top of the food chain, survival, all permissible. The crux of my argument is not why kill to eat, but why kill a fly ? Or butterfly.

Senseless. Needless. Pointless. Irrelevant. It's not a big issue or insult to me, It's just that I feel it is unnecessary. We all need to eat. But Karma kicks in eventually.

I could wear espadrilles, or drink my tea with lemon, or have a nut roast for my tea.

Killing makes my life better. I should imagine it probably makes your life better, too.

Why should we deny the OP the opportunity to let killing make his life better?

How so?

Hunting is certainly allowed!

Tom

Because the killing that you refer to (and I assume it is not you doing it) is generally acceptable for one's clothing, footwear and food. However, the OP has yet to specify what, if any, scientific reason lies behind his desire to kill butterflies. And I personally think that there should be good justification for killing them, given that they do not satisfy any of the above criteria.

What have *you* killed that makes your life better ?

I doubt very few here would kill for themselves to eat. The argument here is falling towards killing for pleasure. Killing for pleasure ? Killing for pleasure does not make your life better. It may make you feel you win the argument due to the insignificance of your kill, but then you probably haven't accepted causality, or spiritual awareness or anything else that goes beyond self gratification. By your measure, I could kill you for pleasure, to make my life better, and that would be OK. No. killing is not acceptable for pleasure. I feel we may just have to disagree. If you do not accept this fact, or are unwilling to accept this fact then our debate is done.

All of my butterflies are in the throttle-bodies of my various vehicles.

Tom

Surely slide valves ?

...or fuel injection. But butterflies ? Twin SU's ?

Speaking of the devil, after long distance trip I had to scrape remove tons of insects stuck in my radiator grill. Sheer nightmare. Perhaps next time I should call some dry-butterfly connoisseurs as a few should be splattered on the bumper as well to be retrieved

Fish, and other such animals.

Various insects and slugs in my garden.

And I'm thinking of taking up hunting.

Tom

Well it gives me great pleasure to finally find and kill a mosquito keeping me up at night plus it definitely makes my life better. Surely there's some exceptions to that rule

My car, and three of my bikes, are FI (the other three have round or flat slides).

FI has butterflies, as did all the carbs in the cars I've owned.

Tom

And I and my cat enjoy killing hornets.

Tom

I'm not sure if I should batter-the-flies first or collect the butterflies in my weed infested garden?

There are other solutions. Non lethal. It's a test of your tolerance as to how you handle the situation. Live in a tropical climate, killing them is futile and a waste of time, learn to live with them and your life becomes so much easier.

A personal lesson and success story...drink rum, loads of rum. Be happy, be mosquito free. Live with mosquitos, and they are no longer a hassle. Try to kill them, let them get to you, and they win.

Do you fry your flies after you batter them?

Tom

Shame really, I don't know of any modern production car that doesn't use fuel injection. No where near as fun as getting a stethoscope out and balancing twin carbs, but alas, a modern progression.

Umm, don't like mossies - I am a mosquito magnet. However, I do not kill them personally but have a plug-in device that deters them.