A Kinder Way Wednesday: Don't Kill That!

I tend to be a let-live person. Whether it's a spider in the corner of a bathroom, or the question of capital punishment, I usually raise my hand in favor of let live.
I won't digress into the capital punishment topic. I'll save that for another day.
There are certain bugs and things that I will kill. The mosquito is one.

It's mosquito season. When the sun goes down there are certain areas of the yard and property that are pretty thick with mosquitos. Some of the windows don't have screens. Sean's room is one, and then there are a couple upstairs that don't have them. I leave the upstairs windows open a lot and don't have much trouble with bugs coming in.

We had a couple of really warm days, and I left the windows open in the evening. We were noticing a few mosquitos inside, and some moths, too. I had been successful in killing the mosquitos--yes, I know. Killing.

As Sean and I sat eating dinner we saw this guy on the ceiling.

Sean knew I was eyeing that big thing that looked like a huge mosquito.

"Don't kill him," he said. "He's not a mosquito. I know he looks like a big mosquito, but he's not. He's a crane fly."

This kid has loved bugs since he was a little toddler. He devours books on critters and crawly things. He read about crane flies in a book. He did think they eat mosquitos, which I took as fact, but upon further research found they in fact do not eat mosquitos. I'll have to break the news to Sean, however, I won't be killing them.

They live here and don't really hurt anything. They flit around sort of like a mosquito, but they don't land on people. I have only noticed them on the ceiling, the window screen downstairs, and sometimes on a curtain.
They aid in the decomposition of decomposing vegetation, like a compost pile. (wow, that's a lot of compos words.)

This creature goes in the let live category.
During my research I read that there are areas where they are very prevalent in this state and people are using spray to kill them. Most of them are harmless, although there are some species that cause a problem to vegetation and lawns, etc.
The spray is causing a problem for other things. If you're interested in some information about the crane fly you can find it here.