When I returned home hours later, ready to hit the showers after a long, chaotic day, the setting sun was shining through the living room window. And behold, there on the floor, in the light, was a small black grasshopper. It's legs had been sheared off, I realized in horror, when I stepped on it accidentally this morning. That's what I felt this morning, and the poor thing was still alive!
So I did best (and worst) thing that I could think of. I got the bug spray and killed it. It squirmed for two seconds before it died. It was a tough sight to see, the poor thing. But I considered it a mercy killing.
The poor little maimed creature was probably suffering for hours while I was out. I hope it's in grasshopper heaven now.
Oh, the poor little bug.
ReplyDeleteYou did the best thing under the circumstances.
LX, Thanks. I'm not sure how it got indoors, probably followed me in when I opened the door at some point. I felt bad watching it die, but I couldn't let it live in agony any longer.
DeleteSquishing would've been quicker. Poor thing, suffering all day and then being slowly poisoned or asphyxiated!
ReplyDeleteDeedles, I couldn't bring myself to squish the poor thing again. It'd be like hitting someone with a car, then deliberately backing up over them to end their pain!
DeleteWe'll have to agree to disagree on this one, Eros, but I love your kindness to all things great and small. Squishing you with big hugs right now.
DeleteI'd've gone for the squishing option, too - and just felt horrible about it for hours afterwards.
DeleteI once dried myself after a bath with a massive spider. It was on my towel and I didn't notice until I felt something crumple and crunch against my back as I dried off. It fell to the floor, still twitching, and I somehow managed to bring myself to squash it quickly, relieving its suffering :(
IDV, That's freaky, drying off with a spider in your towel. I'm wary of spiders, ever since I got bitten by a brown recluse and I've almost walked into webs of black widows in the woods of Georgia. I think I would've screamed upon a seeing that spider on the floor--a manly scream, of course. Then I would've found something else to crush it. Then take another long shower.
DeleteOne does feel sorry for it. Even though I not a huge grasshopper fan. I don't dislike them, but I don't want one on me either. This summer when I was watching my car, and then vacuuming it, on a cement slab I saw a grasshopper being attacked by a praying mantis. By time I was done, the mantis had all but consumed most of the hopper. It was very creepy.
ReplyDeleteMaddie, It is pretty creepy watching one critter eat another. Every time I watch a nature documentary, I always hope the baby deer escapes from the wolf, or the penguin escapes the sea lion, even though I know that the wolf or sea lion is doing what it has to in order to survive. That's nature. Animals don't have grocery stores. Still hard to watch a living critter die.
Delete"Nature, red in tooth and claw."
ReplyDeletePresumably whatever beast had bitten off the grasshopper's legs and planned to return and finish its feast has now been deprived of a meal. And so it goes, on and on... Jx
Jon, The thought of such a beast on my home is disturbing! An intruder in my home! I hope it gets the message it is not welcomed and it needs to leave!
DeleteI've done this too, with a grasshopper. I felt awful for days afterwards.
ReplyDeleteSx
Scarlet, Right? It feels terrible when you realize that you've accidentally trampled over some small critter. I've ran over quite a few jackrabbits when I was driving at night at Big Bend National Park. I was driving slow, too, but still, those jackrabbits jumped out in front of me just a few feet in front of my headlights and there'd be a sickening crunch and bump a second later. The coyotes and vultures ate good those few days.
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