creepy crawlies

When I was little I was always afraid that if my feet were sticking out from under the blanket that spiders, monsters, etc. would be more accessible to me. I'm 23 now and still cannot sleep unless my feet are covered by the blanket.

Anon

Once when I was walking down the street with my dad (I was about two or three at the time), there was this huge fake butterfly. For some reason, it scared me because I thought it would eat my nose. For a year or two I avoided that and all other butterflies.

k

my dad use to believe and i think still believes that if you have tapeworm and you hold a raw steak near your mouth then the tapeworm will come crawling out from your body through your mouth

alex (my dads name is paul)

Still to this day I wont lick envelopes bc I was told when I was younger that a woman licked one and cut her tongue and the enveloper had roach eggs on it and it got in her cut. Since it was warm in her mouth the eggs hatched and lots of cockroaches crawled out of her mouth. Ewww!

Anon

Im 21 and up till a few days ago I thought an anaconda wasn't real. I thought it was something they made up for movies.

Ashley

I used to believe that if I didn't brush my teeth at night, ants would crawl into my mouth and eat my teeth.

Anon

I used to belive that dragonflies were little helicopters with two tiny pilots in them. My grandfather told me this.

John

When I was younger my cousin told me that earwigs get into your ear at night and eat your brain.I could barely sleep for years.I actually just recently found out that that wasn't true.And that was like 5 years ago!!! Ha ha.

Christina

My cousin was terrified of cobwebs because she thought they came from spiders. Which of course they do. But to calm her fears her mother told her that they are made by "The Cob Fairies" who are invisible and come at night to decorate houses... she still hates spiders, but has no problem with cobwebs now, even though she knows better!

Jo

I never dared to smack a mosquito dead because I believe that if i smack a mosquito with my hands, the sting will poke thru my skin and it will suck my blood anyway.

Anon

You shouldn't play in the dirt because worms will lay eggs under your nails and when they hatch your fingers will blow off.

Danielle

A grad student I knew from England believed fireflies were imaginary, like fairies. Apparently they don't have them over there. When he came to the United States he was astonished to discover that there are bugs that give off light -- which is kind of amazing, if you think about it.

Jon Webb

I used to think grass hoppers were called "grass-soppers." You know, because of how when you squeeze them they get "juice" all over the place.... yuck.

Molly

I lived in the desert and there were flying orange beetles we called June bugs that only came in the summer. My dad used to always tell me that if they landed on me they would stick and someone would have to burn them off me. I believed this until I was 12 and one actually fell on me. My scream was finally cut off after a full minute when my friend brushed it off.
My dad swears he maybe said that about ticks but I don't know why I would have confused ticks with these things.
Either was, they don't stick.

beforeburningtrytoflick

I used to think that when my foot was asleep that invisible bugs were poking me with needles.

Chantal

When i was little, my aunt told me and my sister that lightning bugs turned into french fries. so one night she caught one and then brought it inside with out us seeing and then put a french frie in a frying pan.....we believed it was true for the longest time!

Kelly

i would bring ants in the bathroom and create a maze for them with soap. if they hit the soap, they died. if they escaped, they would advance to a harder maze.

optional

Where I live there is an insect called a Jerusalem Cricket. A lot of people call these insects "Child of the Earth". They have a reputation for being poisonous.
When I was little I was always told to stay away from these insects because they were poison and that I could die if one bit me. So I grew up having a fear of these nightmarish creatures. I was so afraid of them that if I saw one in the yard I wouldn't go anywhere near that part of the yard for hours - even days!
A few years ago I saw one of these insects in the house and finally decided to do some research to find out what they were. That was when I found out that the mysterious Child of the Earth that I had been so afraid of all my life was really just a type of cricket and wasn't poisonous at all. Now instead of being afraid of Jerusalem Crickets I actually kind of like them.

Anon