You are a good story teller, and we will check back for more later. Thanks!

OMG, that is the MOST amusing thing I have read in a long time. Thank you for bringing a smile to me during my comprehensive exam week. And just to be safe, next time I walk out in the woods I’ll make sure my feet never touch the ground, in case some ticks land on me, suck all my blood and leave me for the wolves.

Tim, you’re awesome, and Sam is a great kid. Keep up the awesome collecting!

Yes, hopefully she will use her powers for good!

I assume you’ll let the bug back into the wild at some point?

Well, to be honest, she demonstrates her predatory behavior at all times she isn’t completely unconscious like some kind of giant, slovenly, furry blob.

Most bugs are at the bottom of the food chain, anyway, and would end up as someone else’s meal. Not this guy. He’s been saved and will probably live longer than 99% of water bugs. Oh, the horror.

As for the girl’s safety, good grief. It’s a water bug, not a malaria-infested mosquito. No one put piranhas in the bathwater.

Everything in moderation, people. Wantonly killing living things, even bugs, is not cool. The other end of the spectrum, wherein all things are too dangerous for our little kids to experience so lock them up, is also not cool. I hope my kids are lucky enough to be interested in bugs, even if that means they get bit once in awhile. I got blasted by a jellyfish once while snorkeling in South Carolina. I’m still alive. It hurt for a little while, then it went away. Didn’t affect my interest in animals, but only happened because I was already out exploring. I could have been kept out of the water as a precaution, but then I never would have developed an intense interest in snorkeling, scuba diving, etc. Price of doing business.

My chair is made of leather.

Secondly, wow. Some people commenting on this need to get a sense of perspective and get out of the house and see something not on the internet. It’s a bug. It bites. Every bug I’ve ever picked up bites. A lot of them don’t hurt, some are painful. Kids need to learn about pain, and the bug isn’t what a philosopher might consider an great experiencer. He’s as happy in an aquarium as he is in a pile of poop or on a bank or under a foot. Sometimes they are alive, and then at some point they are not. That’s their entire lives level of experience. The least we can do as parents is impart some bit of knowledge of the world to our kids and in the process teach them about the compassion that is NOT STEPPING ON THE GIANT FREAKING COCKROACH.

A few people have been concerned about either (a) the danger of keeping this, or (b) the cruelty of keeping it. First point first: it is dangerous to small animals like fish, but aside from the bite being painful they aren’t really dangerous to humans. It’s not as if they seek out people to bite, after all. They’ll bite if handled roughly, or probably if stepped on, but they don’t gratuitously go for people’s eyes. Remember this is extreme northern Michigan, not the tropics – even the “most dangerous” insects here are not really more than annoyances. And if Sam had wanted to get rid of it, we would have, but she didn’t and so we didn’t.

As for the “cruelty” aspect, I don’t think we are being cruel to the bug (and in fact, S_ saved it from being run over by traffic). In the wild, they hang out in protected areas and wait for something to eat to swim by. In the aquarium, it hangs out in protected areas and waits for something to eat to swim by. I can’t really say that I see the difference (aside from the risk in the wild of being eaten by something else), and I expect the bug doesn’t see a difference either. And as for the fish, whether in the wild or in the tank, it would be eating fish in about the same quantity. These fish we give it are sold by WalMart as “feeder goldfish” for about 25 cents each. It says right on the tank that they are mainly intended for feeding to larger fish. These fish are going to get eaten anyway, so why not by our bug? And up until they meet their end, they get treated as well as any goldfish does.

And a note to “ummm….” above: it doesn’t “attack all food sources”. It seems to have settled down to one fish per week or so, and ignores the fish the rest of the time. It’s not some ravening monster that lays waste to all around it, it’s just a bug. I think you’ve been watching too many horror movies.

You don’t even seem concerned about the fact you brought this obviously dangerous creature into the house where your kids are, and then found it had gone to all that trouble to get to your little princess.

How will you feel if you wake up to a blood curdling scream and find the thing chewing our little Sam’s eye while her brain melts?

Sorry to be a kill joy, but wtf dude? You put that thing in the same house as your daughter and it got into her room, and you kept it?

I’m all for learning and science, teaching kids about the world, but that’s scary. I hope for her sake that thing doesn’t consider her a threat or a source of food. Creatures like that don’t stop hunting when they are full. They attack all food sources because they have to to survive in the wild.

I used to catch water bugs as a kid. But they were never larger than one inch. I fed them tiny bits of sausage and bread. And they escaped a lot. Still, it was a lot of fun watching them.

I have the say the look of glee on that little girl’s face when she’s looking at what is aesthetically speaking a 3 inch roach is absolutely phenomenal.

Ignore the nay sayers, as of this story and the photos it is clear that there are some awesome parents here.

Aside from the pain studies that show fish basically don’t feel it, I find it very gratifying to know that the species immediately kills the fish, probably faster than a human could in fact without utterly destroying the thing, as opposed to something like a wasp or spider that for whatever reason has to keep it’s food ‘fresh.’

I’m sure Sam’s been alerted to the fact that she can study/collect insects as a career. Keep her interested before the “eww it’s a bug” thing sets in, which if my experience is any indicator will happen.

Useless trivia: Scully actually ate that roach in that xfiles episode with the carnival performers.

Moral of the story? Women who like bugs become FBI agents.

Speaking as the parent of a 4-year old girl (and not the one in this article):

>I’m not so sure it’s cool to teach a small child to get exciting when
>one animal kills what most people keep as pets (goldfish).

I just yesterday was asked by my daughter when we went to the zoo, “What do fish eat?” I told her seaweed, bugs, and smaller fish. She said, “Other fish? Really?” …then absorbed the information and we moved on. I don’t think there’s a problem teaching children about predator/prey relationships. At what age do you think this would be appropriate? Besides all that, haven’t you ever gone fishing?

>Is the lesson that it’s cool to see different ways a fish can die?

I think if you’ve read this article, and the other articles in this site mentioning the little girl featured above, you’ll know that’s not the case. Like her mom and dad, she’s extremely interested in animals, the physical world and (whether she realizes it or not) science.

>What’s to stop a child from killing a few of the fish herself for fun?

Her parents, and the morals they teach her.

>Or is the lesson that it’s ok to take animals out of the wild and keep them…

Why is it bad to take animals out of the wild and keep them? One of my first pets growing up was a turtle. Found it in a local stream.

I respectfully propose you’re blowing the situation out of proportion. In today’s world, there are a lot worse parenting issues to worry about than whether or not a child has an interest in bugs. Heck, I’d encourage such behavior in my own kids – what an opportunity to teach them about the world!

Andy

And KT, it would be incredibly cool if Sam became the Goddess of the Arthropods. I would just hope that she used her powers for good, and not for evil.

This is absolutely my favorite set of pictures on the website so far. Amazing, from the cringe-inducing eye-stabbing shot to Sam obviously loving her new “pet”.

Very nice job.

Andy

As for the movement of the bug from the aquarium to your daughter’s room, I am deeply concerned by this. I believe the bug worships your daughter as a goddess. If this spreads to other bugs, you may have a problem. Just imagine the hordes of arthropods that will descend on her dinner plate to protect her when she is offered brussel sprouts.

You might want to take precautions now.