Are you also terrified of bugs?

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I'm terrified of winged cockroaches. Is this an aspie thing, or just me? I know nts are scared of them too, but not the way I am. In summer nights, I hold my breath, listening to that telltale rustle outside the window...

I can't imagine most people not being freaked out by flying cockroaches. I even saw a cartoon of it once, were people seemed unconcerned until it started flapping its wings and they all went into panic mode. I have a basically phobic reaction to june bugs as well. And cicadas. But I think most everyone is freaked out by cicadas as well.

I love bugs, except for spiders.

Another "I love cottage cheese. Is this an aspie thing?" type of thread. Lol!

Among NTs there is a wide range of phobia to nonphobia to actual philia toward small land arthropodian animal life. Bug hate and fear is very common among NTs, and if anything is probably more common than it is among autistics. If anything I would wager that a higher proportion of autistics are bug lovers than then the proportion of NTs who like bugs.

Some years ago I observed a long thread by a number of folks on WP who are TERRIFIED!

Terrified of ....buttons!

Those things on your clothes that your momma has to sometimes sew back onto your clothes.
Some folks are terrified and are grossed out by them. THAT phobia may indeed correlate with autism.


I asked one of the folks on that thread which would be worse for them: to hold a live spider in the palm of their hand, or to hold a button in their hand. They were hard put to decide which of the two was worse.

I guess that person is not cut out for the tailoring, nor for the dry cleaning, business.

I think I have a phobia of clothing tags. If one is in my sight while I'm eating, it completely puts me off my food. And cutting tags out of my clothes makes me wants to retch, but I cannot bear my own tags showing, even if i can't see them myself.

But...I'd rather hold a clothing tag in my hand than a spider. Just about.

Im not keen on bugs....but they are an inevitable part of our existence.

I feel a little guilty for killing them—but many carry disease, especially to vulnerable people.

I'm not - in fact, they were my very first special interest. My parents say one of my first words was "caterpillar," and one of my earliest memories is of trying to get a spider to climb onto a book I was holding when I was no older than 3, calling "Here, spider!" I wanted to hold it but didn't want to get bitten. The only ones that freak me out are house centipedes - something about the angle of their legs just... :shudder: I recommend you don't look them up if you're bothered by arthropods.

I can't stand bugs, but I'm not at all afraid of them.

I used to do a lot of extreme close-up photography of insects, so generally not a problem. However, anything with very long legs always gets my hackles up (house spiders, crane flies, daddy-long-legs.)

I can't do with flying insects indoors though, especially moths - it's the way they seem to just bumble around crashing into things. I hate the thought that they're going to crash into me because I can't abide to be touched when I'm hyper-focused on something or trying to get to sleep.

I might have some rational fear of bugs that sting or bite or carry disease, but for the most part I'm not bothered by bugs. I grew up in the country and went camping a lot as a kid, so that's a good thing.

When I was a kid I loved watching nature shows about bugs and seeing how and if they survive in a very large and dangerous world.

I'm glad I was never born a bug though. Most of them don't even live to adulthood, but if they did there would be so many they'd end up destroying the earth. Just like another certain unnamed species is doing at the moment.

But if all the bugs and insects in the world were killed, that would also be highly catastrophic to the earth. Very unlike another certain unnamed species if the same thing happened to them.

And I'm not afraid of buttons, either. I've never heard that many people on WP have an actual phobia of them before.

I'm fine with most of them, but not Earwigs.

My mum told me when I was little that they crawl into a person's ears and lay eggs in your brain.

I know now (intellectually) that it's not true, but they still give me the creeps beyond belief.

I like bugs and used to collect them. My parents let me have an ant farm but the cat knocked it over.

There are some bugs I hate. Flies, cockroaches, flies, wasps, flies, høyhester (don't know the English name for them; the look like flying harvestmen), flies, harvestmen, big and /or quick spiders, ticks, fleas, gnats. Oh and flies!

But there are bugs I like too, like butterflies, dragonflies, and ladybugs. Grasshoppers and preying mantises are cool too.

Hoyhester?

Those must be craneflies. Those are the long legged flying things (they look a little like gigantic mosquitos)that look like flying harvestmen.

In fact in the USA both harvestmen, and craneflies, are knicknamed "daddy long legs".

Love dragonflies, and damselflies. It can be very relaxing to watch them fly around over a pond. And they eat a lot of gnats and mosquitos.