When I was young, I was once getting ready for a shower and there was a huge beetle in the tub. I screamed for my mom to kill it. She smashed it and washed it down the drain. I wouldn't get it unless she scrubbed the entire tub. From that day on, even after countless washes, I still believed that spot where the bug had been smashed, was contaminated. I would not step on that spot because I though I would get contaminated.

tee

I used to think fireflies were actually stars falling down from the sky. Used to amazed at the sight of trees brightly lit by the wonderful "stars" not knowing they were actually some kind of insects communicating with each other.

Edwin

I used to believe that butterflies were flies that ate butter instead of crap.

kronan

When I was a teenager, my mom told me I couldn't sunbathe because a snake might bite me on the head and then where would you tie the tourniquet?

Anon

My brother went into school one day really upset and told his teacher "Wobert's died". The teacher asked to speak to mum and shared her sympathies over the death of "robert", to which my mum displaying confusion ask my bro who "robert" was. It turned out that everytime (over a couple of years!) he found a woodlouse in the house he thought it was "Wobert" and would play with it, until one day he found a dead one.

Paul

I LOVE insects, spiders, slugs, worms, and invertebrates in general, always have. I think they're absolutely amazing creatures, I study them and I keep all kinds of them as pets (I have a baby madagascar hissing cockroach and I REALLY want a giant banana slug someday!) and have absolutely no fear of any "bug"...except for ticks. I, a future entomologist, can't handle one little bitty tick. Even dead ones make me shudder. Why? When I was very little I thought that they actually burrowed completely under your skin and would never, ever, EVER come out. Even though I know this is untrue, I still have such a severe phobia of them that I avoid going outside in the summer sometimes, I stay far away from dogs and cats that have been outdoors and I panic if I brush up against one little bush or tree!

And yet, I still think ticks are cute and interesting animals.

Jonathan Franz

Miller moth's would swarm around our porchlight on summer evenings. During the day they disappeared and I naturally assumed that they were all flying towards the sun, returning when the sun set and they flew back to the lights on the ground.

blizzo

Mu friends and I used to believe that if an ant crawled in your ear it would get under your skin and travel around your body and drive you crazy. We were absolutely sure this was true and tried to protect our ears if we slept outside during the summer.

Linda

My cousin and I were constantly on the lookout for crawdads whenever we went to the creek every summer. After all, we were told that if one got you with it's pinchers, it would stay there until it thundered. Needless to say, we practiced sounding like thunder too (BOOOM!!!), just in case it ever really happened.

Dawn

I used to belive that if you killed a LAdyBug that you would soon die just because my brother's friend said so. Just so you know don't trust everything you hear.

Alucard

When I was a kid in New Orleans, at night I would see roaches scatter from the front porch. I would also smell a beautiful smell that wasn't there in the daytime when the roaches weren't around. My science teacher gave a talk about pheronomes and I was convinced that was why the roaches smelled so good. It wasn't until years later that I learned my grandmother had night blooming jasmine growing around the porch and was a little sorry to realize that roaches didn't really have much redeeming social value.

Bob

Growing up in San Francisco, at the age of 5 or six I was convinced that when it rained it rained worms. After all, after a rain there were worms all over the sidewalks. Perfectly reasonable.

Anon

My preschool grandaughter came running in from the backyard, all excited. Grandma, a SNAKE, a SNAKE! I went out to see a worm (the size of the snake in her picture book).

Marie

I used to believe that spiders were mutated rats that were shrunk!

Quako