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

The first time as a child that I became acquainted with the "outbreaks" of 13- or 17- year cicadas, and saw their dead skeletons lying around in considerable numbers, I thought I was hearing these insects called "adas" and I thought that what was happening was that they got sick every 13 to 17 years. That's because I thought I was hearing of the "sick adas" that were dying in big numbers when the 13 to 17 year illness hit.

Carmen

I was playing in the dirt one day (being the little scraped-up kneed, tomboyish kid I was) And my dad came up to me and said that dirt was actually worm poop. I was so disgusted that I went to the bathroom to wash my hands (like 35 times) and then I ran up the stairs to go and cry on my bed. SERIOUSLY! I cried for about half an hour while my dad was trying to convince me that what he had said wasn't true....which I'm really not sure that it still isn't true...where DOES dirt come from,anyway??

Leigh

i thought earwigs were how you got pierced ears. they crawled up and used thier pinchers on your earlobs at night. lol

ferri

I used to believe that bumblebees were born in pinecones.

Anon

When I was a kid, the little "helicopter" leaves would come down from the trees, and they would scare me so much, because I thought they were dead bugs that could still fly.

No Flyin' For Me

When I was about 7, I would catch flies and put them in a set of plastic drawers I had. I would put a soda bottle top full of water and a few of my little toys in with them, figuring they would have a party or make a city. Of course, once they died the next day I always wondered what I did wrong. I'd try to give them new toys, but they never lived.

Cupcake

When I was about eight I used to think that if you touched bug juice (insect blood), you would turn into a bug. I didn't know what it looked like back then, so I was kinda paranoid about it and avoiding everything that even looked vaguely like it even if it was just spilled drink turned dark from fading into fabric on the furniture or something.

There's bug juice on my ceiling right now

My mom told me that earthworms and even baby lizards love to enter human ears and build a nest inside where they lay eggs...till date I can never sleep with my ears uncovered...to my horror last year i woke up to find a little lizard smashed under my pillow...my fear is doubled now.

shamim

i get bit by so many moskitos because i'm a sweet child with sugar in my vains.

Ella

When I was younger I used to believe that worms had big cartoon hands and would pull you into the ground with them.

Jade

I used to think that if you broke a spider's web, that spider would come after you & seek retribution! I still feel a twinge of fear every time I walk into one - and I'm a 27-yr old, 6 ft 1 guy!

Spiderman

When I was little I wouldnt walk in the grass with bare feet because I thought that the bugs in the yard were going to eat my feet off

Shay Shay

When I was about 6 or 7 a wasp landed on my arm. I was wearing a coat so he couldn't have stung me but I didn't know that. I froze and didn't even blink. When my dad drove up in the drive way he asked, "What are you doing/" I didn't move a muscle but just replied "There's a wasp on my arm", thinking he would come get it off, but he just said"Well knoock it off!" but I answered him "He's SMILING at me!" I just knew if I moved he was going to sting me and was happy about it!! I never see a wasp that I don't remember "He's SMILING at me!"

Shelly

i used to think that black widow spiders wher spiders whos husbands died so they were widows and they allways wore black cos they were sad.

aisling

When I was about 5 I accidentally swallowed a roly-poly bug (I was blowing on it with a straw and acidentally sucked in). Months later I was ill and in the hospital and I overheard the doctors saying I had a "bug" in my system. I was convinced the roly-poly was making me sick!

Alice

I used to believe that, if an insect landed on your food and you ate the food (even if the insect was gone), you would turn into that kind of insect.

Abi

I used to think butterflies would sting like bees. One of my earliest memories was getting chased around the yard by a butterfly...

Josh

One night i was staying at a friends place. her little sister was going to bed so i said to her "don't let the bed bugs bite". I found out in the morning her mother couldn't get her to sleep because she had woken up and discovered a mosquito bite on her ankle, obviously this was the bed bugs doing! she was too scared to go back to bed in fear of the dreaded bed bugs!

chloe

this is kindof true.when we were younger my brother and i used to love drowning slaters in the backyard.but one day my brother did it in the baisin and then let the plug out and they all went down the sink.a while later i went to the toilet and i was just going to wash my hands when i saw that the slaters had crawled back up the drain.i thought they hed come for revenge for trying to drown them.so i flushed them back down.but for ages after that i always left the plug in the basin after washing my hands just so that they couldn't get back up.even today i still sometimes look down the drain before i wash my hands just to make sure they're not there.

andrea