creepy crawlies

My younger brother used to call a wasp, a "wass." I realised what he was saying one day when we were on our porch and there was a wasp nest in the doorway. He looked at them, and ran away yelling: "The wasses are gonna sting you!"

Kaylee G.

That if you picked up worms, you would get warts.

Mandie

At about age 3 my older sister told me Dragon flies were called Sewing needles and would "sew you" I was terrified of them till about 12 when someone told me the truth.

Lisa Arndt

When I was like five in my back yard, there was leaves falling because it was fall. I was lieing on the grass with my eyes closed all relaxed, and a "spider" that was bigger than my face fell on my nose, I got up and screamed and ran away. Turns out it was a leaf, but until I figured that out, I never once was found laying down outside in the grass.

Madie

at my school, theres a big rock. pretty much everyone thought it was a asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, but in the process of wiping out the dinosaurs, it squished disney land so everyone tried to move it. we even hired slugs to help; we got about a hundred rocks and built a city and put slugs all over it and in the morning when they were gone we thought they went to disney land under the rock.

ToiletGoBoom

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

1-i used to believe that humans were controlled by ants and they had a laboratory in your head and could see through your eyes and the more in shape your body was the more technology the ants had
2-i believed that if you droped your food once you could pick it up again and eat it but if you drop it again it was too nasty to eat it, i think its because when i was small when i asked my parents a question they were too busy and would answer yes or no so i would stop asking and ill actually believe them

ap

I used to believe that earwigs were hairy little bug strips that would get stuck on your ears and people would freak out when they saw you because they would think you were slowly becoming like a hairy monkey or something.
I was a strange child.....

Bubbles

I'm 16 years old, and I have aracnophobia.
Just about all my life, I've been worried about spiders and other creepy bugs in my room. They occasionally come in too. Rarely spiders, mostly moths. Some times, when a moth or a fly flies around in my room, I have problems sleeping. I try opening my window and make it fly out, but there's no way I'm touching it. If I don't succeed, I leave it be, turn on the lamp in the ceiling, so that it'll at least stay in one place (on the lamp) and not make so scary sounds. It also rids the fear that it'll land on me while I sleep or while I try to sleep.

As late as when I was about 14 years old, I always thought it creepy to place my feet on the floor when getting out of the bed. I did it, and I knew of course it was irrational thinking, and it was just stupid to think something could be hiding under my bed, but it always made me feel uncomfortable.

I think both these fears of mine have to do with the Idiot Box, the TV. Having seen a few scary movies years ago, darkness always has been scary, because you never know what might happen or what might be hiding in the dark. Not necessarily scary things, but also you might hurt yourself if you bump into things. I also saw a documentary about aracnophobia on TV once, and fear for bugs generally. They said maybe the phobia was caused by the bugs' unnatural looks, and then they showed terrifying enlarged pictures of bugs with moving antennas and hairy mouths and legs and so on. Even though I may know more about the reasons for my phobias now, I still feel uncomfortably being in total darkness, and my phantasies still come to me, even though I know perfectly it's just absurd. I kind of like the darkness after all, exploring my own fears. Very fascinating. Good scary movies can make my hair rise all over my body, but I sort of like it too.

Norwegian dude from Kopervik

i used to believe that catapillars were like toupees, people used them for their moustaches, eyebrows and the fur around the catapillar for eye lashes. well i noticed them one day on me face and i ran around screamning "GET THE CATAPEE-ERS OFF MY FACE, IT'S BURNING IT'S BURNING IT'S BURNING REAL BAD!!!!!!!!!"

Israel Bliss

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

when my mothers boyfriend was shaving and he washed off the razor in the sink i used to believe that the little hairs were ants

stacie

when I was a kid I thought that there was a monster in my swimmnigpoll

Senka no mentira profe Mateo Encinas D

My older cousin told me that the average person swallowed 7 spiders per month from sleeping with their mouths open (so the spider would crawl in). It took years to realize that couldn't be true.

nrs

When I was a kid my dad ground up fruit flies to get at their imaginal discs, which were involved with development of the legs and wings in the adults. I tried to get him to explain this once, and ended up convinced that they were "imaginary" discs (I asked what they looked like, and he said you couldn't see them). For years I couldn't understand the point of grinding them up.

Heather

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

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

A long time ago my brother came up to me and told me if i bit off a butterflies wing i would get a real beautiful dress i was only about 7 or 8 years old and at the this gullible age i thought about and didnt know if i should believe or not but in the end i never did i couldnt even catch a butterfly to even try.

Rachel

When I was three and a half years old we had a grill-out with visiting family and my cousin, five years older than I, told me that he saw a fly poop on my burger. I freaked out and refused to eat the hamburger even after my mother reheated it.

John

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

Pamela Mtawali