Aside from insects (unless it was a particularly noteworthy insect) what have you personally killed, or have caused to be killed. In an attempt to appease what may be my own personal Agrajag out there somewhere, my list follows.
A large snake of some kind, that two friends and I came across on a camping trip. I was pretty small at the time, but the older boys were convinced it was a king cobra or something similarly lethal. We beat it to death with sticks and returned to the camp site so assure our parents they were safe from all things slithery.
Assorted fish (mostly trout) from my youth when I’d spend my mornings fishing at a local lake.
A partridge, who I shot with a shot gun at the age of 10 when my Dad decided I needed to know how to hunt. He took me out into the woods and helped me find my prey, which sat in a tree not 30 feet away. I did my best to aim the gun but it was heavy and I ended up swinging it back and forth past the bird, finally squeezing the trigger when it was pointed in the generally right direction. I hit it (hard to miss) and much to my surprise the bird didn’t just die, as I expected from my movie/tv experience. Rather, it fell to the ground near the tree and stubbornly refused to stop living. It puffed itself up full of air, then deflated slowly as I approached it. Then it puffed up again more than I thought was possible, then again slowly deflated. Then it died. I ate it later that night while my Dad discussed the merits of hunting. It didn’t take however, and I didn’t kill anything else until…
A squirrel, which a friend and I killed with my BB-gun at the age of about 12. This too was far, far from “tv death”. I shot it out of a tree in the woods near my home and watched it fall down into the autumn leaves below with grim satisfaction. When we approached it however, we found it still alive, writhing and squirming in what can only be described as utter agony. The poor thing was making a high pitched raspy-squealing sound while rubbing it’s small forearms up around the back of it’s head and appeared to almost be twisting itself inside out. Shocked, I tried to shoot it again to put it out of it’s misery but forgot the BB gun would only load a BB when the barrel was pointed upwards while being cocked. Unfortunately I held the gun pointed down, then cocked and shot several times to no effect while the squirrel continued to suffer. My friend took the gun and tried the same thing with similar results. In the end, I killed that squirrel but I’ll leave it at that.
I haven’t killed a single thing since then (to my knowledge), and will in fact do the old catch-and-release on insects I find in the house.
The ad on this page reads MAXIMIZE THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR HUNTING EQUIPMENT, possibly the most apropos combination of content and ad I’ve seen on this site.
Countless Walleye during my youth, but that’s about it. I haven’t been fishing in years, though. Never been hunting, and I try not to kill spiders or insects if I can help it.
Insects were the only thing I killed during my childhood, though I certainly fished. But even then most of the time we threw the fish back and rarely ate them. Although I grew up in Montana, my mother didn’t want us to hunt so I never did any of that.
As an adult I just take bugs back outside rather then kill them. I did come across a still alive but injured mole rat not long ago (thanks to the cats). I ended up moving it under a bush but didn’t put it to death.
Fish, spiders, bacteria, viruses, plants… slugs. I think I’ve killed a crab before. Pretty sure I’ve killed a lizard, but I can’t recall a specific instance.
If that’s the criterion, then nothing beyond microorganisms. As far as I know, I’ve never personally killed anything with a spine, and generally have gone out of my way to not kill invertebrates unless they’re particularly annoying. I used to spend summer afternoons rescuing bees from our pool, and even today if I find a cockroach or something in the house I just throw it outside. Spiders are welcome to stay.
I’ve killed a spider the size of my habd (spiders aren’t insects) other than that the biggest is a family of mice. Oh, I once fed a rat to a crocodile… do I get the kill or do that go to the croc? Umpire?!
