animals: creepy crawlies

My brother from Texas brought his wife and two boys to visit one summer. The youngest (age 5)was fascinated with the chicken coop in the back yard. The coop was surrounded by these tall pine trees. So my mother and I took him inside the coop where the top of it was covered with pine needles. Once inside, he noticed a Praying Mantis on the side of the chicken wire and thought it was cool and went to touch it, my mother told him not to because the Mantis will "spit" at you and you'll go blind! Right at the moment, a pine needle fell from the chicken wire above us and grazed his cheek and my nephew went berserk! Screaming "I'm gonna go blind, I'm gonna go blind!"

My dad had an old-timer's saying, "If you wish to live and thrive, let a spider go alive." I took that to mean that if you squash a spider, you are in for a run of really bad luck!

I used to believe that if I caught a butterfly, and rubbed the powder off his wings, I could rub the powder on my arms and then I would be able to fly (the poor butterfly sure couldn't, anymore!). And then, when I couldn't fly, I just figured that I hadn't got enough powder yet...

Because I used to play Pitfall as a kid, I always thought that scorpians were about as big as small dogs. It wasn't until a class trip to Mexico when I was 17 that I found out that they were not quite that large.

My mother told me that if you pick up an ant and turn him around he will wander around lost forever. I stopped playing with ants and believed this till well inmy adult life.

When I was very young, I was TERRIFIED of flies! No, not bees or wasps, but flies! I think I had mixed up bees/wasps up with flies, becuase I was always scared they'd hurt me. I'd cry everytime I saw one.

I used tobeleive that skin crickets would eat my fleashif i went outside after dark

I used to believe that when u stepped on ants and bugs that they became mad and would try to bring you down later that night so i tried to tiptoe when i was walking and i did that for a good, 3/4 years

I used to believe that if I didn't cover up my ears with my quilt when I was in bed bugs would come and live in them, I still usually cover up my ears.

i used to believe that when you got bitten by a flea they crawled under your skin and played poker then when you got an itch it was when one of the fleas won a poker game and there antennas tickled under your skin.

I used to belive that frogs could jumo on u and eat u! i hate then a am scared of them!!!

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.

I used to believe that the bumps that mosquito bites gave you were because the mosquitos crawled under your skin and curled up in a little ball. I hated to itch them because I could just imagine them very happy that I was scratching their backs, and I only wanted them gone.

My Brother used to tell me that if i kept my mouth opened when I was slepping, little spiders would crawl in my mouth and lay eggs and then one night they would crawl out of my nose! Hundreds of them! ( talk about a nice brother! )

I used to believe that, when I slept at night, bugs would crawl into my ears and stay there. It was such a strong phobia that I could not sleep without cotton balls in my ears. I am mostly over it but every now and then I need the cotton balls to feel safe enough to sleep.

I have always been petrified of bees and and wasps and any sort of flying object really! And I used to believe that if you stepped on a dead bee it would come back to life and fly after you just to sting you and die again!