Yesterday, I received a long overdue pedicure (I knew it was overdue because the nail technician asked me if I spent most of my time going barefoot – meaning that the soles of my feet resembled those of a Native American’s). Anyway, as I was plotting out the next chapter in my supper club series, a woman seated in the chairs by the front door issued a high-pitched shriek.
All heads turned in her direction. I expected a small snake or perhaps a large mouse had found its way inside the salon, but it turned out to be a spider. Now, I’m a spider advocate. I’m one of those odd people that carry them from indoors to a nice bush or sheltered overhang outside. My parents always taught me to protect beneficial insects, so I’ve never really got the heebie jeebies from spiders.
Still, I think everyone has a bug phobia of some sort. I detest and greatly fear gypsy moth caterpillars (if that’s the correct term). When I was little, we had infestations of them. They’d form nests in a small dogwood outside my bedroom window and squirm around inside. Before I went to sleep, I could imagine them shifting and writhing inside the nest and therefore, had terrible nightmares about them coming through the window to get me.
During the early part of this summer, there were plenty of caterpillars around our house and I steered far away from them when my kids and I were playing outside. Sure, I’d show my son dainty ladybugs, the slow power of a Praying Mantis, and the magic of fireflies, but if a caterpillar was in the middle of our driveway, I’d be up on the porch wishing that a bird would swoop down and swallow that nasty, creepy thing whole. My son soon grew to recognize my fear and though I tried to persuade him to run over the critters with his tricycle, he’d rather pretend to drop them on me once we were safely back in the house. Thank goodness he’s still only pretending!
Our world is teeming with insects and some of them seem to only be in existence to plaque humans. I mean, what is the point of a mosquito? Of those damned Japanese Beatles that are devouring all of my perennials? Of locusts? Cockroaches? Why can’t there be more butterflies?
Oh yeah, butterflies start out as caterpillars….
What bug creeps you out?
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Spiders don’t bother me — unless they happen to be crawling on me. I’m like you, J.B. –I’d rather find them a home outside my house. Moths don’t bug me, either, unless they get inside and lay their eggs in a closet, which I don’t discover until there’s a hole in my favorite sweater. But mosquitoes, no-see-ums ,and ticks, oh my!
I must give off pheremones that draw them like a magnet. I’ve had no-see-um bites so bad people thought I had measles — and they stay with me for weeks, itching like crazy. And of course, there’s the dreaded deer tick , something I’m always on the alert for, especially living at the edge of a woods where deer roam freely.
Mosquitoes, well, I’ve never found a good reason for them to be alive.
Kate
by Kate
on July 28th, 2007 at 10:55 am
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I get the heebie jeebies from stink bugs and crickets. The crickets have been dubbed (by me) “frickets” for reasons I’m sure need no explanation. The stinkers just annoy the heck out of me.
I will, however, run at the sight of a snake. I’ll just appreciate them behind the glass at the zoo, ‘kay?
by debbie
on July 28th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
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Wood ticks scare me to death. Once I had one on my neck, discovered it while I was driving, and I almost ran off the road. My worse nightmare.
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I don’t freak easily at the sight of bugs, unless they’re on me. Then I’m not too keen on them. I have to say the whole tick kinda-sorta gives me the heebies.
by Heather
on July 30th, 2007 at 8:24 am
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June bugs are the ones that terrify me. Most spiders won’t bother me unless they are crawling on me.
by Jody
on July 30th, 2007 at 8:56 am
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I take spiders outside, too. Usually I’ll capture them in a paper towel, open the patio door and shake gently. They scurry off to find another home. I let them do it. Mosquitoes—oh, yeah—they find me. I’ve heard they’re “heat sensitive,” so those of us they love to bite must be hotter than others.
But everything pales beside the bugs found in Texas. I think I related the story of reclining and reading on my living room sofa and suddenly caught movement out of the corner of my eye.
There, on the top of the sofa was a centipede/millipede/whatever. I stopped counting legs because I was screaming. I don’t know if you can levitate horizontally, but I’m sure I did it that afternoon.
by Maggie
on July 30th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
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Speaking of pedicures. That’s something I need right now. Summer is so hard on a persons feet. Especially when everyones wearing sandles all the time.
by Crystal
on July 31st, 2007 at 12:15 pm
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Tree roaches. More of a gross-out than a phobia, though. Especially when they fly off the wall at you in the middle of the night…
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by Karen
on August 2nd, 2007 at 9:21 pm
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I was sure I posted a response to this already, but it never showed up. You’ll probably laugh, but besides the obvious (bees, wasps, earwigs), flies freak me out. Mostly because I watched the movie The Fly (the original) when I was younger, and it scared me to death. To this day, every time I hear a fly buzz by my head, I freak out.
Traci
P.S. Ok, I know these aren’t insects, but I am also terrified of bats.
by Traci
on August 5th, 2007 at 12:09 am
Yesterday, I received a long overdue pedicure (I knew it was overdue because the nail technician asked me if I spent most of my time going barefoot – meaning that the soles of my feet resembled those of a Native American’s). Anyway, as I was plotting out the next chapter in my supper club series, a woman seated in the chairs by the front door issued a high-pitched shriek.