Killed a brownish-black beetle thinking it was a cockroach, now I'm feeling bad for it

https://programming.dev/post/47530563

Killed a brownish-black beetle thinking it was a cockroach, now I'm feeling bad for it - programming.dev

Lemmy

I’m sure it would have eaten you without a second thought if it could have. Fuck that bitch ass beetle

Fuck that bitch ass beetle

Mark David Chapham? Is that you?

My favorite spiders are jumping spiders. They’re agile and playful and responsive and utterly harmless for people. I can still remember the day I killed a jumping spider on accident while trying to shoo it off of my pants, and that was decades ago. I’m sorry little fella, I thought you’d scoot, not smear. Now I’m extra careful with any spider I’m handling.

How could one not adore such cute eyes???

If you think YOU’RE feeling bad, how do you think the beetle felt?

When I got my first (bb) gun as a kid, it did not take long for me to make my first kill. There were some sparrows hopping around in a tree in my backyard while I was out there shootin’ mah gun unsupervised (as was the style at the time). I pointed, I pulled the trigger. I shot and killed one of the birds.

And then I walked up to have a glance at the poor bird. Fortunately it was dead. It had a little bullet hole and a bit of blood spilled out. But it was limp when I picked it up.

I felt terrible about it. I think I might’ve even cried. My dad told me not to do that again, and offered the helpful observation “at least it died quickly”.

So along those lines, I hope your former beetle at least died quickly. In truth, a quick passing is almost a blessing. So many organisms linger at the end, humans included. You might’ve spared this one creature.

And back to the sparrow, I have mostly absolved myself of my avian murder since now as an adult I’ve come to realize that the bird I shot was an invasive European Sparrow.

So along those lines, I hope if your former beetle didn’t die quickly then perhaps it was an otherwise ecologically devastating invasive species and you actually did the right thing by murdering it.

When I was young, upper single digits probably, I had a 1 in a million shot with a rock and an arm sling shot and hit a flying barn swallow out of the air. Killed it. I ended up burying it and putting a cross made of wood bark on it. Felt bad. That was decades ago and still remember.
So you are a racist … (Specieist?)

Beetles can be pests too.

Ask me how I know

There is a kind that transmits oak wilt disease, a fungal infection that kills them. One of many.
Carpet beetles
Huh, never heard of them.
It’s funny how I go out of my way to avoid harming spiders in my house, but then I hop on my bike and ride the trails, murdering thousands of critters - bugs, mice, frogs, you name it - and I don’t lose any sleep over it. It’s just a byproduct of my hobby, and since I’m not acutely aware of each little crunch, it doesn’t register.