Suddenly Terrified of Bugs?!?!

I have a friend with a 3 year old who is doing the same thing! She was afraid to go outside until my friend told her that Daddy sprayed Silly Bug Spray outside, so now the bugs are silly. They did a lot of looking for bugs and saying, "Look at that silly bug!" It seemed to help? They had planned to actually have a spray bottle of colored water for her to spray, but it wasn't even necessary; she was fine with knowing her daddy had sprayed!

My daughter who is slightly over 6 is going through this as well. We will be driving along and all the sudden she flips out. Crying histerical... Screaming in absolute terror...Why you ask.. A fly got in the car. She's never acted like this before but now she does it all the time. Me personally Im blaming it on classmates. But who know maybe not?

We use have frogs and toads. You fed them crickets that in my opinion look like cockroaches. Yeah they aren't . . . but look like roaches to me. Plus we had a pet praying mantasis last year.. Makes no sense.

So why now? I have no idea but she literally becomes inconsolable and terrified when any bug gets near her now! How strange.

It's hard to say why. Our 4 year-old has been deathly afraid of the dark for about a year. We have NO idea why. He wouldn't go from my bedroom down the hall to his last night - with ALL the lights on - because he was so scared. Blows my mind honestly.

But, fears are real, and if we don't have them regarding something, it's hard to understand. My husband is DEATHLY afraid of snakes and has a hard time going through the snake building at the zoo even though they're all safely behind plexiglass cages.

I'd ask the pediatrician at your next visit if they have any suggestions. Otherwise, it may be a matter of making small steps here and there to gradually expose her to less worrysome bugs (potatoe bugs/rolly pollys, butterflies, etc) to get her to feel a little more comfortable.

You could also get a book from the library (Audobon society field guides) and go through explaining which are "good" bugs and which are those you need to stay away from.

Good luck!

Maybe she had a bad dream. My son went through this at the same age. It lasted a few weeks. We bought him a bug house & bug vacuum from Target, and we went outside looking for bugs. The vacuum sucks them up (though the suction isn't very strong), then we dumped them into the bug house. My son felt good b/c he was in control of the bugs. We also told him if a bug is flying by him to wave him arm & say "shoo away buggie." He still does this & he just turned 4. We explained how bugs help the flowers grow pretty. I remember he didn't want to go outside for a few weeks, but once we took these measures, he outgrew it.

-Remind her how much "BIGGER" she is than them---(I said this ALL the time)
-Let her know what they can do for the enviornment
-Read her bug books
-Let an ant crawl on you and let her know it ok
-If all else fails....winter is around the corner. She'll grow out of it and forget hopefully over that time!! My 4 year old did!!

It's like you just described my 3 year old...EXACTLY (about a month ago)! She was having a terrible time going outside, even for just a walk. We did the "bug hunt" in her bedroom AND she even had nightmares about bugs.

We just pushed through it...together. I explained to her (constantly) that when we are outside, we are in "their" house....that's where they live. We told her to say "SHOO fly/bug, don't bother me"....

It really came down to just being a short phase that she ended up getting over with (thank God)! She's WAY better now...still a little timid, but not nearly as bad as she was!

Take a deep breath, keep reassuring her that bugs won't hurt her, teach her to say "shoo fly (or bug), don't bother me"....& remember, this too shall pass =)

My youngest daughter did this as well but we knew what triggered it! We were walking up my front walk and she was trailing behind me a few feet and I heard her scream, when I turned around an ant hill had hatched or something but there were hundreds of aunts crawling around right in front of her that hadnt been there a few seconds ago! She was terrified of every bug after that when before she hadnt cared! Unfortunatly there wasnt a whole lot we could do but try to calm her down and renforce that not all bugs are gonna hurt you. We also did buy kids books with bugs in it and watched cartoons on tv with bugs in them to try and make them less scary. Its taken a few years and she is alot better about it now. Good luck!