creepy crawlies

When I was little (before starting kindergarten) my entire family convinced me that masquitoes wore sox. My mother said that the mother would knit the socks with its needle nose and even killed a masquitoe to show me its striped "sox" (which she said came from my godmothers striped sweater. I found out that this was all a lie right before entring school because my mother didn't want me convincing other children that this was true. To this day my family picks on me for believing them, and I'm married and have a child of my own!!

Anon

When my sister and I were both younger, I used to scare the crap out of her whenever there was a bug nearby because I'd tell her that they'd all get on her skin and bite her and that they'd...SUCK YOUR BLOOD!

Rach

I used to wonder if puddles were really just oceans for ants.. and wondered if they ever wondered what it would be like to sail over the ocean.

Leafs made nice rafts, so on went the ants floating off on their leaf-boats..

Lidsey

When I was a little girl my granny ma used to tell me that ants are the medicine for the stomach

Pamela Mtawali

I used to think that if you got stuck by a hornet, you only had 30 seconds to live unless you got inside a house. I used to practice running from the garden to the house and timed myself. I also thought that if a hornet flew into your bedroom at night, that if you held your breath, they wouldn't know you're alive and wouldn't sting you...

Mousey

My brother convinced me that if I went into our kitchen at night, worms would bite my toenails off. I had nightmares about that well into my teens, and I still dream that my toes fall or rot off sometimes

Peg

A neighbor friend told me that spiders bit in the winter and not in the summer, or vice versus - I forget which. Now I'm afraid of spiders all the time.

Juliana

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