What Does Your Cat Do When They Encounter A Bug?

[Moka]

I have had many cats in my life and most of them treated bugs like a delicacy that must be savored. I grew up with a cat that would only eat crickets, but not their back legs. So, we would often find little piles of back legs in his favorite sleeping spots. I have had cats that would catch a bug and let it go, only to catch it again. That seems to be the norm for cats, at least in my experience. Cats like to play with their "food".
The reason for my question is because what my 13 month old, Salem does. It is just weird. When Salem crosses paths with a bug (usually a spider), she rears up on her hind legs and comes down on the bug with her front paws, smashing the poor bug into oblivion. She will often rear up 2 or 3 times in rapid succession. Then, she just walks off like nothing happened. Salem never (at least not that I have seen) eats the bug, plays with it or even sniffs it. She does not even look back after she turns it into a little black smear on the carpet. Seriously, the last two spiders she killed, I had to break out the carpet cleaner to get rid of the spots. I mean Salem's method is brutal but, kind of hilarious. "Oh, a bug." Stomp! Stomp!
I am curious what other people's cats do when they encounter a bug. Has anyone else had a cat do something like this?

 

[Maria Bayote]

My Bourbon does not care at all. She just looks at it and let it pass her sight. I am not sure if she is too lazy to catch it or she is not interested at all.

My Barley plays with it until he gets tired.

My Pepsi will eat it on sight, so does Brandy.

 

[vince]

Mine will eat any bug they catch. They especially like stink bugs, although it appears they don't taste good. Yet the cats continue to eat them.

I think it's because catching and eating bugs is the only true hunting opportunity they have, since they're strictly indoor cats.

 

[ailish]

Ailish is quite a mouser, but she has pretty much cleaned up the house so she's at lose ends, especially in the spring and summer. So she resorts to bugs, which she dismembers and leaves so the ants can get them. She will go after any bugs and can catch moths out of the air. She does go after stink bugs, but won't eat or pull them apart.

 

[neely]

Our present guy follows spiders and thinks they are a form of play. All our other cats have stalked and eaten them.

 

[susanm9006]

Most of my cats have loved catching and eating bugs. They will stalk and hunt a spider like it was big game. And a fly is like a big fat raisin.

The one insect they would have nothing to do with is carpenter ants. I had a basement infestation of them years back and after the exterminator came they died by the hundreds on the basement floor. The cats wouldn’t even go down to use their litter boxes until I built raised ramps to keep their feet off the floor and away from the ants.