As a Buddhist myself I will go out of my way to avoid intentionally harming anything or anybody. In the case of insects this is usually by way of deterrents like Freda does. For mosquitos, I have a small electronic device that deters the biting females.

I find the story of pdq's friend and the Thai monk quite unusual. I taught in a large Buddhist university monastery for a while and, bar none, all the monks were very particular about not harming pests but preventing being bothered by them where possible. As McGrath rightly says the people to ask who take particular measures are the Jains.

I'm not sure "converting" to Buddhism is the right term. Buddhism is a non-theistic way of living essentially based on compassion and positive action and I don't really think of it personally as a religion is the traditional sense. But as McGrath quite rightly says once again most of us are quite flexible on such matters! The practice is what is matters and that is an individual and unique thing for each Buddhist.

I am vegetarian myself but many Tibetan monks are not as there were/are rather limited supplies of good vegetable produce in mountainous regions like Tibet and Nepal.

Peace

moo