Scared of Bugs - Flagstaff,AZ

As far as "bug" books go, Eric Carle has written several: The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Quiet Cricket, The Very Busy Spider (cool textured web in that one), etc. Not sure if reading them will help, but it's worth a try! I think we have a few of them out from the library right now. See his website: http://www.ericcarle.com/

There's also that "Miss Spider" show (I think it's still on Noggin, but I'm sure there are videos out), and of course the books the show was based on.

At our house, I've actually tried to make my son afraid of "bad buggies" - scorpions and spiders (we have black widows and brown recluses hanging around) - because I'm afraid he'll get bitten/stung by something poisonous. He went thru a phase of being afraid of all buggies (not as extreme as yours), but says he's only afraid of the 8-legged varieties now (he's 4.75yo). Good luck to you, and be thankful he hasn't gotten into the bug collecting phase yet! :)

My son was exactly like that. He was scared to death of all bugs, but especially bees. Reading silly books about bugs (like the ants go marching book from scholastic) actually helped him a lot. Then I started to read him non-fiction books and magazines about bugs. That helped him even more. It helped so much that now he's only afraid of bees and flies because he thinks they are bees. I actually caught him trying to catch ants with his mouth a few weeks ago :).
I was afraid to read him books about bugs at first, that's why I started with the silly fiction bug stories and then moved on to non-fiction.
Hope this helps.

S.

Whta about having him watch Miss Spider, on Noggin (Ch 106). Maybe seeing bugs portrayed in a sweet, nice spotlight would help...just a suggestion!

Was or is your son around someone else who is afraid of them ? I would do some research together on different bugs to show him why we need different kinds of bugs and why they are good. i.e. bees pollentate flowers so we can enjoy fruit. Tell him the bugs are just doing their job and explain what that job is. You can probably find some good books and videos at the library on insects. Then you can take a field trip to the backyard, park or zoo to see if you can find what you've researched. Make it like a treasure hunt. Try to make it fun!

My son has always been scared of bugs to the point of tantrums to go inside becuase he is scared. I tried the books and it helped a little, but not enough to keep him outside without freaking out.

This may sound lame but it worked and my kid can play outside for long time without being scared. My neighbor (man) is a real outdoors person and he watches our children once or twice a week. He likes to grab bugs and show them to my son and it makes my son less scared. I even started to send my husband outside with my son to explore bugs and stuff and it has really help a lot. This seems to be the only that has helped him, and I wasn't going to go outside and touch bugs. Maybe you can find a guy or guys your son likes that are doorsy and take your son camping or something. I hope this helps and goodluck.

Chances are it's just a phase. My son did the same thing. It lasted for a couple of months. We did the book thing and I tried really hard not to freak out when I saw a bug. I told him how cool they were and what they did. When he started to get more brave I sent him around the yard with a camera to take pictures so he could show people what he found, but not have to get too close to them. Just be sensitive to him. If he's scared, don't push him. I might just make things worse. You could even look up what he sees on the internet and find out what they do for the ecosystem. We have wolf spiders here and that was my son's greatest fear. It was the internet searches that I learned that they will keep black widows out of your yard and don't have venom. That was a cool thing to know. Now he's not so worried and can rattle off some really interesting tidbits about the bugs in our back yard. His favorite is how the Rolly Pollys eat dog poop. But what can you expect from a 4-year-old.

My daughter who is 2 1/2 was going through the same thing. My Pest Control guy recommended getting one of those bug viewers from the dollar store. It is a little mesh carrying case with a plastic magnifying viewer. My husband and daughter went out in the backyard and caught some bugs to look at in the case without the fear of it "getting her". They started with one bug in the case at a time. Then they moved up to more than one. It has definitely helped a bit.