 
Support Wrong Planet Awareness!
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
flowergal
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: Jun 13, 2008
Age: 37
Posts: 58
Location: Peaceful Countryside, USA
|
 Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:11 pm Post subject: Bug phobia |
 |
|
My nine year old dtr has a horrible bug phobia, going on about 4 years now. She gets upset if even a firefly flies w/in 5 ft of her! It makes being outside horrible. I really don't know how to get her over this. We have studied bugs, caught bugs, talked about bugs. It seems to be the flying ones that freak her out. She also freaks at june bugs, bees, wasps, hornets, moths (but butterflies are okay?). Any ideas?? She really freaks...cries, screams, flaps her hands, tenses up. Would appreciate any help here. Thanks! 
_________________
"When life brings you to your knees, you are in a good position to pray!" |
|
| Back to top |
|
Mage
Phoenix
Joined: Oct 11, 2006
Posts: 630
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I just don't think there's a cure for that. My husband and I are both scared to death of spiders and centipedes, and our son is scared of about any kind of bug. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Mumto2
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: Nov 27, 2007
Posts: 65
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:27 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I'm so sorry that I can't help either, to be honest I've always been terrified of any kind of bug also, ds is too, but spiders, he will let them walk all over him and it freaks me out lol. I would agree it might be something that will stay with her, must be very hard for you. |
|
| Back to top |
|
EvilTeach
Sea Gull
Joined: Mar 15, 2007
Age: 48
Posts: 205
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 5:26 pm Post subject: |
|
|
He He.
how about a fly swatter to give the kid some control of the situation.
How about a pen ant colony?
How about ordering a shipment of ladybugs, and release them to protect the garden?
um..... make a lightening bug night light.
watch a show on the discovery channel about insect pollination. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Mrhat
Emu Egg
Joined: Jun 30, 2008
Posts: 3
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:16 pm Post subject: Re: Bug phobia |
|
|
| flowergal wrote: | | My nine year old dtr has a horrible bug phobia, going on about 4 years now. She gets upset if even a firefly flies w/in 5 ft of her! It makes being outside horrible. I really don't know how to get her over this. |
The easy way would be to find some cute (not monstrous looking) bugs and get her to touch and play with them. Caterpillars might be a good place to start, or small little green inch worms. It's a matter of getting her to face her fears, and talking her through realizing that it's her subconscious mind that's over-reacting. i.e. she's programmed to fear them by evolution, just because her body is telling her to be scared doesn't mean it's right. She's in essence scaring herself, she just needs time to be around bugs and adjust, or take her to a science museum to see what lives in her mouth or on her skin to see some real nasties, with close ups.
She has to get used to the idea that bugs are EVERYWHERE and that the ones she can see are far more easy on the eyes then the ones she can't  |
|
| Back to top |
|
2ukenkerl
Phoenix
Joined: Jul 20, 2007
Posts: 4376
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:07 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| EvilTeach wrote: | He He.
how about a fly swatter to give the kid some control of the situation.
How about a pen ant colony?
How about ordering a shipment of ladybugs, and release them to protect the garden?
um..... make a lightening bug night light.
watch a show on the discovery channel about insect pollination. |
You could even get some praying mantisis! Have you ever seen them get angry/scared? They will rear up, spread their wings, and make "threatening gestures". To even a little kid it may seem kind of funny, even a little insulting. And THAT is a creature that is perhaps twice the size of most of the large bugs any kid is likely to see, and it will LITERALLY have the other bugs for lunch. The praying mantis may even kind of nibble on your finger, which isn't painful. If you don't threaten it, it will calm down, etc...
Seriously though, a LITTLE fear is a good thing. I am no afraid of spiders, for example, and ones I know about may even live in peace with me. HECK, I once had a tarantula as a pet. Others, I won't tolerate. If it is a brown recluse, or a black widow, and I see it, I will try to KILL it. I'm not afraid of snakes, but I will steer clear of a rattler. |
|
| Back to top |
|
mikebw
kyubi no kitsune
Joined: Sep 28, 2007
Age: 30
Posts: 1084
Location: Florida
|
| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 12:48 am Post subject: |
|
|
The only thing I can think of is maybe giving her a little power by giving her a fly swatter, like EvilTeach said.
I'm thinking she's freaking out because she can't keep track of the fast fliers, especially when they're coming in close. They're so fast and unpredictable.
_________________
The world under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; after a long period of union, tends to divide. This has been so since antiquity. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Nan
Phoenix
![]()
Joined: Mar 02, 2006
Posts: 3003
Location: left coast
|
| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
have you ever heard of "the magic feather"? it's a feather that lets you do things you otherwise could not do.
charms serve the same purpose. a "bug-no-hurty" charm might be useful. of course, only until she gets stung by a wasp or something. then you have a lot of explaining to do.
sigh.
this is a tough one, because it's not based on logic or reason. myself, i'm horrifically afraid of the large black variety of roaches. that's the only thing in my life that will have me jumping to a table-top, completely irrational. i know all about roaches (lord knows, i've lived in enough places with them). little brown roaches don't bother me. other bugs are cute. but those big black roaches cause an instinctive panic that i simply cannot control if they are within five feet of me. even a "roach-away" charm hasn't worked. hopefully she'll mellow with age, and some of the fear will slip away.
_________________
Novinson's Revolutionary Discovery: When comes the revolution, things will be different - not better, just different. |
|
| Back to top |
|
digger1
I am the frontman of evil, Bobby!
Joined: Sep 13, 2007
Age: 35
Posts: 2127
Location: Augusta, Maine
|
| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:37 am Post subject: |
|
|
I took my niece to an island ans we walked about for a bit and she was startled when she saw a big bumblebee walking along the ground. Startled then petrified, she had to walk AROUND the bee's path to feel safer.
I explained that bees don't want to hurt us and that they're more afraid of us than we are of it because ..."look at how much bigger you are than it". I told her that the bee just wants to go about its business and be left alone and if we didn't do anything to it, it probably wouldn't even know we were there. To demonstrate, I put my hand down in the bee's path and it crawled up on my hand and just kind of walked around a bit. I showed my niece that it didn't want to sting me because I wasn't being a threat to it.
She looked pretty amazed and was cool with bugs and bees ever since.
_________________
I used to be a Mohel but had to quit because I was only paid in tips
http://www.youtube.com/oliviasdaddy1 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
|
