Gutted the insect’s weapon, dealing with bugs? (7)
I believe the answer is:
testing
'dealing with bugs?' is the definition.
(as in testing computer software for bugs)
'gutted the insect's weapon' is the wordplay.
'gutted' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (to gut something is to remove its insides).
'insect's weapon' becomes 'sting' (body part used as a weapon by some insects).
'the' with its middle removed is 'te'.
'te'+'sting'='TESTING'
(Other definitions for testing that I've seen before include "of a difficult nature" , "Examining" , "... conducting exam" , "Subjecting to 15 ac" , "Trying out" .)