This has to be a totally southern thing but my mother always called praying mantises 'Devil's Horses' and said that if they spat in your eye, it would put your eye out. I wonder why, as a kid, I disliked insects in general?
A childhood belief about creepy crawlies
others believed things like this
- When I was a kid I thought praying mantises were made out of grass— Landon
- I thought a major general is more powerful than just a general (which still kind of makes sense to me)— Demond
- My mother told me chewing gum was made from horses hooves!Anon
- dragonfliesw ere called, Devil's darning needles.— davarm
- When I was little I thought cows married horses, cows were all female and horses were all male. — Sheila
- When i was little my mum convinced me that if a cat spat in my eyes i would go permanently blind. — Louise Atkinson