Beetle Mania

Posted on 07/26/2022 Last updated on 07/26/2022

Raising pets is very common by people of all ages all around the world. As a child, my family and I raised a dog. Like most dogs, she was beautiful, very smart, and clever.

Being an ALT at an elementary school has given me the joy of seeing students enjoy finding different animals, especially insects, to keep as pets in their schoolyards. I have seen students diligently carry their plastic insect boxes around with them, showing me various kinds of pets. For example, one student showed me his pet praying mantis! It was a curious praying mantis, very long and very strong.

Other students have shown me their pet grasshoppers and beetles. I carefully looked at the students’ pets and always thanked them for showing me their pet friends. Looking at students’ pets is a natural way to start a conversation. We talk about what kind of pet they have, what their pet’s name is, how old their pet is, and we can use adjectives to describe their pet (eg: big, small, beautiful, pretty, long, short, etc).

Meet the Beetles

We can take this one step further and we can become pet owners ourselves, which is what I have done. I live in an apartment with my wife and two sons. Our sons are currently in elementary school in the sixth and fourth grades.

About five years ago, my younger son bought two beetles at a store and brought them home. I really did not know that children kept insects, such as beetles, as pets. I was raised in an area where insects are not so friendly. Insects such as mosquitos, fire ants, bees, wasps, and hornets were everywhere. These insects are bothersome if not dangerous to us humans, so, it was difficult for me to like them very much.

So, for that summer, we had two beetles. I reluctantly agreed to keep them. I was not sure, at the time, how these beetles were going to behave. After we had them for a week, I started to like these beetles as they were quite harmless. We kept them in a plastic box, fed them jelly, watered the soil that was in the box, and enjoyed watching them climb around and play In their box.

Never The End

Then, one of the beetles died, after we had them for ten days. At the time, I did not think much of this beetle’s death. The remaining beetle managed to live with us until late September, which means that we had it for about six weeks. I really got attached to the second beetle. I would constantly send text messages to my family asking about the condition of the beetle (“Is it OK? Did you feed it?” etc).

Then, when time came for this second beetle to die, I was heartbroken. My family and I took the beetle’s body to a nearby park and had a burial service for it. I was sad, yet, I knew this was natural. Then, we cleaned up the plastic box where the beetles lived and we found an egg! It was a beautiful egg! We had hope and we had a new pet! We were able to take care of this egg through winter and raised it through the following year’s summer. It was great!

Now, my family and I raise beetles every year. Like all pets, beetles are a part of the family. They give us unconditional love and thanks. When we are lonely, the beetles are there for us. When we are tired or sad, beetles are there for us. It’s great! Even better is that we can bond with students and other people and talk about our pets together in English! It’s a beautiful thing!

Photo Credits:

Top photo: リハールさん on PhotoAC

All additional images:

1 – kioakaさん on PhotoAC

2 – studiumさん on PhotoAC

3 – Provided by the original author (used with permission)