It’s Just a Bug, Right?

I have more than one story to share about bugs. Hello, I live in Minnesota, home to the state bird, the mosquito. Here are a few of my stories that deal with bugs…and my daughter.

 I remember when I lived in Washington, my daughters and I shared a room. It wasn’t uncommon for them to come snuggle in bed with me (they had their own beds). One night my oldest had gotten into bed with me and off to sleepy bye we went. At some point in the night I felt something tickling my armpit. I somewhat woke up and scratched my armpit. At little while later it was happening again. I woke up a bit more and scratched again. This time I realized that I could feel something. Turns out this huge spider had crawled into my shirt at some point during the night and I had just squished it! AHHHH!

Photo by larsjuh

Another time when we lived here in Minnesota I had taken my boys down to visit with a friend of ours in the cities. It was during the summer and we’d spent a great day just hanging out enjoying our time together. The boys and I headed out to the van and started on our way home. It had only been a few minutes since I’d left their house when I felt something crawling up my leg. Well, I felt something tickling me I should say. I figured it was a ladybug or something little. I tried to scratch it. Hmmm, that felt bigger than a ladybug. Here I am driving on a busy road trying to capture whatever is crawling up my pant leg.

I finally had to pull over and see what was going on. I was able to grab it and it felt big. On the side of the road I end up whipping my pants off finding a wasp inside my pant leg! Holy cow that freaked me out!

To say my oldest daughter is afraid of bugs is putting it mildly. If you live within five miles of our house, you KNOW when a bug has made it’s way into her room. That girl would scream bloody murder if she found a ladybug, box elder bug, and the worst was always a spider. Every time she would scream, I’d think someone had just cut off a limb or worse. I’d run upstairs to see what was happening and she’d show me the most microscopic bug you could possibly imagine. I would want to ring her neck because it was just a little bug. Go get a cup, capture it. How hard could that be? No, I had to do it. She wasn’t going to leave her post keeping an eye on the bug for fear she’d lose it and it would crawl onto her in the middle of the night. Sigh…I wish I had video of her. Wouldn’t that be sweet blackmail material?

Of course, the kids and I got our kicks out of her utter fear of bugs. We’d find pretend bugs that looked real and stick them in her bed. We’d wait for it, giggling in another room and then we’d hear it…the SCREAM! Ah, sweet satisfaction. I know, I’m that kind of mom. What can I say? I have to find my amusement somewhere!

You know it’s Spring in my house when you find cups overturned on the floor. That means a bug has been captured and is waiting release. Yes, I’m a catch and release person…if I remember. I don’t always and sometimes the bug pays for it.

I recently conquered a fear and that was holding a tarantula at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Not sure why that was easy to hold. Maybe because everyone else was doing it? Thankfully it just sat in my hand. If it had gone scurrying off my hand, there would’ve been a problem.

*by sharing these true stories I’m entered to win a gift card from Raid and 5 Minutes for Mom