creepy crawlies

Whenever there was a spider, I would scream for my mother to come and kill it. Sometimes she would squish them and other times she would flush them down the toliet. That's what bugged me. Now I have this fear of having a spider crawl up the toliet and get me. I'd always try to get "my business" done as fast as possible.

Alexis

When I was in early grade school, my parents were on a very tight budget. It was so tight that my Mom used to have my father and I bring home our ziplock bags. She'd wash them out each evening and hang them up on the shower curtain rod to dry over night. Since the bathroom was right next to my parents room, they had taught me to never turn on the bathroom light when I had to use it at night... Bet you can see where this is going... One night I went in there saw the bags hanging on the rod (throught the very dim window light) and freaked! I thought that they were BATS! For months following that incident I was afraid to go to the bathroom at night - even though I knew it was just those darn ziplock bags!

Things that go bump in the night

I used to believe that if you killed an ant or two that were traveling in their line formation, that at night the rest would come in your house and try and kill you for revenge.

Anon

When I was about 5, I recall being scared by one of those huge wolf spiders luking in the bathtub when I went to go do 'the deed'. I screamed and my grandmother came in asking me what was wrong..I told her my fear and she looks at me with the most serious face and puts a finger up to her lips..and goes shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh your scare my pet herman..hes very sensitive..Damnded if I didnt believe that and have never feared them since. Of course herman wasnt her pet, but my grandmother sure handled my phobia with unique aplomb. :)

Constance

When my sister and I were about 6/7, we were playing a game with my older sis, naming animals throught the alphabet. When we got to "L" my older sis said "locust". We asked what that was, and she said locusts are big grasshoppers that come on their thousands and eat everything. Well she was telling the truth, but us being kids we imagined these huge 'monsters' towering over houses and reaching in through the windows for human snacks... I had recurring nightmares after that!!

anonymous

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