# What type bug freaks you out? Most painful?



## caudor (Mar 24, 2005)

Today, I had the privilage of having a wasp land on my shirt--a big, ugly red one.    I just froze for a moment, getting unwanted close up look at it.  I swear it was ready to sting me and then just before I freaked out and tried to swat it away--it buzzed off.  Thank goodness.

Is there are a particular bug that freaks you out?  What would you most dread to find crawling on you?

By the way (if case anyone happens to know), what insect sting is supposed to be the most painful?  A friend once told me it was bumble bees.  I dread them too.


----------



## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Mar 24, 2005)

Yellow jackets and Spiders. The first are just mean little things and I've never liked spiders...especially after Arachnaphoia.


----------



## Ferox4 (Mar 24, 2005)

wasp/hornet/yellowjacket stings are much worse than bumblebees - trust me, i work outside and am stung numerous times throughout the year.


----------



## reveal (Mar 24, 2005)

Cockroaches. Oh gawd do I hate cockroaches.


----------



## drothgery (Mar 24, 2005)

obProgrammer: Anything I can't repro...


----------



## Darth K'Trava (Mar 24, 2005)

Can't stand wasps, hornets or yellow jackets. I've been stung by the latter and just get freaked out when one gets near or actually lands on me. I'm like "go away, bee..." when one does land on me.   

Spiders don't really bother me, although I don't want any indoors. They can stay outdoors and I won't care. "Daddy Longlegs" get tossed back outside, the rest get stomped.


----------



## alsih2o (Mar 24, 2005)

Cave crickets. I don't know their species name but in eastern Kentucky there are some awesome caves with right squeezes occupied by the most infernal insects ever known to man. If you get close to them, close like when going through a narrow space, they climb on you, get under your clothes and bite. They are tiny but evidently have the mandibles to crush coconuts, should one ever end up in these temperate caves.

 Nasty, evil creatures striking when you cannot do much or anything about it.

 Despicable.


----------



## caudor (Mar 25, 2005)

alsih2o said:
			
		

> Cave crickets. I don't know their species name but in eastern Kentucky there are some awesome caves with right squeezes occupied by the most infernal insects ever known to man. If you get close to them, close like when going through a narrow space, they climb on you, get under your clothes and bite. They are tiny but evidently have the mandibles to crush coconuts, should one ever end up in these temperate caves.
> 
> Nasty, evil creatures striking when you cannot do much or anything about it.
> 
> Despicable.




Oh Gads!  I looked them up in the internet.  Just think, the Drow probably snack on them.  Big bowls of crunchy cave crickets for breakfast!  Blah!


----------



## Jesus_marley (Mar 25, 2005)

caudor said:
			
		

> By the way (if case anyone happens to know), what insect sting is supposed to be the most painful?  A friend once told me it was bubble bees.  I dread them too.




Bullet ants. About an inch long. So called because their sting has been equated to getting shot. By far the most painful insect in the world.
Bullet ants 


As for bees versus wasps... the wasp is much worse. if for no other reason than the wasp can sting you more than once. A bee stinger is barbed and will stay in the victiim. When the bee then flys away, it will rip the stinger out of its own body. it dies shortly thereafter.
A wasp stinger OTOH though still barbed is smoother and thus the wasp (or hornet) can sting multiple times. Also, except for africanized (killer) honey bees, wasps and hornets tend to be more aggressive.
Despite all of this though, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and bees are considered to be beneficial insects. They are pollinators for one, and the Wasps, Yellow Jackets and Hornets also use flies and caterpillars to feed their larvae thus acting as natural pest controllers.


----------



## Angel Tarragon (Mar 25, 2005)

Moths, mosquitos and wasps! Especially mosquitos, they can carry the worst of diseases. The last thing I want is West Nile Virus.


----------



## Jesus_marley (Mar 25, 2005)

Frukathka said:
			
		

> Moths, mosquitos and wasps! Especially mosquitos, they can carry the worst of diseases. The last thing I want is West Nile Virus.




There is a good chance that if you had it you would never know it. 80 percent of those infected by WNV do not show symptoms. In all honesty WNV is a tempest in a teacup. Sure people get sick from it but the vast majority will never know they have been infected...CDC fact sheet


----------



## Tanager (Mar 25, 2005)

While not dangerous or painful, the bug I hate the most has got to be the Earwig, to me they are the most disgusting and vile little creatures on the planet.


----------



## diaglo (Mar 25, 2005)

the vector i hat most is:







the idea of getting Chagas is not a pleasant one to me.


----------



## DMH (Mar 25, 2005)

I like inverts (see my sig), so with that in mind:

Insects- One. I have handled live wasps and bees and have never been stung (by those I have handled) and even when I do get stung I don't blame them for defending a nest. I will not get near a hornet nest, but the only insect that gets a major negative reation from me is the horsefly. I will run like the wind to avoid them. It is almost like a phobia, but I have no trouble handling dead ones or observing live ones that are too cold to fly.

Spiders- I don't like large hairy spiders, but otherwise they don't bother me at all. In fact I think jumping spiders are cute and teddy bear like.

Other arthropods- I would rather not handle centipedes, but none of them get a fear reaction from me.

Other inverts- parasitic worms, like the guinea, give me the creeps, but I am not afraid of them. That is the major reason I have no desire to ever travel to the tropics.


----------



## Sado (Mar 25, 2005)

Ants.

If there's one, there's a hundred.

If you find one crawling on you, chances are there are more.


----------



## John Q. Mayhem (Mar 25, 2005)

I have a terrible fear of bees, wasps, and their unholy ilk. A lot of other bugs are simply unpleasent.


----------



## Cannibal_Kender (Mar 25, 2005)

Not an insect, but I really really loathe centipedes


----------



## Hand of Evil (Mar 25, 2005)

Cannibal_Kender said:
			
		

> Not an insect, but I really really loathe centipedes



Second this. 

Some others.

Velvet Ant (Cow Killer) 





Scorpion Fly (harmless but...)


----------



## freebfrost (Mar 25, 2005)

Spiders.

Definitely spiders.

Although I didn't have that particular reaction until my college encounter with a cute little brown spider that landed on my hand while I was opening my dorm room door.  So cute that I let the little fellow ride on my hand until I could put him down on the outside balcony.

Six hours later when my entire arm was swollen, numb, and paralyzed, I realized my mistake.

:\ 

Have been afraid of them ever since.


----------



## Pielorinho (Mar 25, 2005)

Wasps.  They just seem *mean* to me.  And I know they're not--insects aren't smart enough to be mean--but I think they are.

Ever since I was in a barn one day and watched a five-year-old boy walk through the barn doorway, and a wasp flew down from her nest and stung him and flew back up to her nest.  It was totally unnecessary.  Evil wasp!

Another insect that I have strong feelings about, however, is the saddleback caterpillar.  I've been stung by them a fair number of times, and each time my reaction gets worse.  They're not mean, they're just awful.

Daniel


----------



## DMH (Mar 25, 2005)

Freebfrost:

Wow, I don't blame you in the least. Where (as in the geographic location) were you bitten? 

Handling inverts is like eating mushrooms- if you don't know what it is, just shoo it away. And even if you do know what it is, don't always expect it to act normally. Those bitten by the Asian ladybird (ladybug) learned that lesson well.


----------



## DMH (Mar 25, 2005)

Pielorinho said:
			
		

> Wasps.  They just seem *mean* to me.  And I know they're not--insects aren't smart enough to be mean--but I think they are.




I had a yellow jacket sting me three times and it seems like she knew what she was doing- both legs and one arm. Took 45 minutes to walk it off.


----------



## reveal (Mar 25, 2005)

DMH said:
			
		

> I had a yellow jacket sting me three times and it seems like she knew what she was doing- both legs and one arm. Took 45 minutes to walk it off.




Shoulda just put some tobacco on it. 

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/bio99/bio99482.htm


----------



## caudor (Mar 25, 2005)

Thanks for all the replies and pics!

I think I've seen a velvet ant before; I didn't know what it was at the time.  It was kind of furry and the same color as in the pic.  I encountered it a Boy Scout camp while storing supplies in a wooden shed.  There was a box full of bug spray in the shed, and being fearful (and a little curious, I suppose), I sprayed the ant.

To my surprize, it started making a rather strange noise that was pretty loud for something that small.  It looked like it was trying to sting itself.  I felt bad at that point and left it alone.

It was the first time I ever felt sorry for killing an ant.


----------



## alsih2o (Mar 25, 2005)

Strangely enough one fo the cave cricket sites says they are harmless. What we caleld cave crickets bite like demons. 

 Personal anectdote- Volunteering at a summer camp for Po' kids one summer we needed volunteer speakers. A coworker of my wife is a salamander specialist, 2 degrees in biology specializign in the local salamander population (fascinating in itself, but that is another story..).

 He came and spoke, right to their level. He brought cool visual aids and let them all see some large slamanders that were rare or from other continents. Then came "The fun".

 We knew form experience that the creek that ran through the park was infested with salamanders. 3-4 cool species in/aroudn the creek.

 We split into two groups and went towards the creek. I was speaking knowledgably (lol!) about the local wildlife and what to watch for with 30 children follwing me in single file. Then the 8th kid back started crying and fell to the ground.

 Then the 7th. The 9th and 10 started beating themselves furiously and screaming at the top fo their lungs. It spread like a wildfire.

 All my help or possible aid was 100 yards away and I was stuck near a terribly mean patch of hornets who had a nest in a nasty hole in the ground my "knowledgable" self had just missed.

 The next half hour was oen fo the worst on my life. 18 kinds stung unumerable times and 3 of them were allergic.

 It all came out well. The parents were all amazingly cool about it. One mom had a dozen shots available. Talk about thinking ahead!!

 But the nightmare of that moment...every child reacting differently. Some collapsing, some screaming and running in circles. Little girls trying to run away from their backs or legs. One child just pointed at the hole and screamed and cried. I was like one of those war films where everything goes slow motion and the heros buddies all get shot or blown up. 

 I got the kids out with help towards the end. It took several minutes of caring for the kids uin various ways until a staffer asked me where I was stung. It was the first time I had really thought about it. I realized that I hadn't been stung a single time, despite carryign out crying kids getting stung several times.

 The other group foudn a stash of some 300-400 marble salamanders in one hole.


----------



## Mark (Mar 25, 2005)

caudor said:
			
		

> Is there are a particular bug that freaks you out?  What would you most dread to find crawling on you?




Any bug...from Texas!

I won't even try to top that, bug-wise, and can only say that we've got rats in the City of Chicago. 

I visited a buddy of mine down in Lubbock when he was in school down there and there is simply no comparison in size between waht passes for an insect up here and what passes for a Buu-uu-uuugggg down there...unless I can include compact cars.


----------



## caudor (Mar 25, 2005)

alsih2o said:
			
		

> ... I got the kids out with help towards the end. It took several minutes of caring for the kids uin various ways until a staffer asked me where I was stung. It was the first time I had really thought about it. I realized that I hadn't been stung a single time, despite carryign out crying kids getting stung several times.
> 
> The other group foudn a stash of some 300-400 marble salamanders in one hole.




Wow, that was a terrible situation to be in.  It is no wonder that you like D&D; I think you are a hero yourself.  Despite the menace buzzing nearby--your concern was for the kids.  Bravo.


----------



## Hitokiri (Mar 25, 2005)

Meh, I don't think there are any insects that actually freak me out.  There are a few I dislike and some that I am definately wary of, but for the most part I've found if you leave them alone they will do the same for you.  I've spent plenty of time outside and you just learn how to avoid things like ground wasps and hornet nests (and where to find the RAID when you can't ).  I've made it a point to become familiar with all of the even remotely dangerous insects in the places I've lived, so I can avoid them or seek appropriate medical attention if needed (Luckily, living in MI means I only a few spiders and stinging insects to worry about).  

Of course, I have been startled by insects a few times.  About 2 years ago, I was lynig in my bed reading before going to sleep when I looked down and saw the biggest wolf spider I've ever coming across siting on my bedsheets about an inch from my toes.  Man, I jumped about two feet in the air and swear I levitated straight off the bed.  Thing had a body about 2 inches long and with the legs was probably 3 inches in diameter at least.  Went and got a full sized drinking glass to catch him and toss him outside, and the bloody thing didn't fit into the bottom of it, his legs were put up on the sides of the glass.  

Although there are a few insects I hope never to meat.  Human botfly, Tumbu fly, Lund's fly, and New World screw fly all have the nasty habit of getting their larva into human flesh.  the idea of having a larvae eating my flesh as it grows under my skin is something I'd rather avoid (although truthfuly, they aren't truly dangerous, just an annoyance).


----------



## caudor (Mar 25, 2005)

Mark said:
			
		

> Any bug...from Texas!




LOL  

On the bright side, with the bugs so big and the land so flat, at least we can see them coming!


----------



## lukelightning (Mar 25, 2005)

The bugs that scare me the most are centipedes. Everything about them pushes the "creep out" buttons in my brain.

As for painful bites, I heard that some species of assassin bugs are nasty. They aggressively look for warm blooded prey, and inject a painful poison that is a super-meat tenderizer, meaning it goo-ifies your flesh.


----------



## KidCthulhu (Mar 25, 2005)

Ticks.  Hands down.  I hate mosquitoes and horseflies because they bite me, but the only insect that truly oooks me out is the tick.  It's the way those little legs keep swimming long after they're bloated like a raisin.  And the blood sucking.  And the swelling.

This from a woman with two retrievers who has to pick the evil little buggers off the dogs every day from March to November.  Greater love hath no owner.


----------



## diaglo (Mar 25, 2005)

KidCthulhu said:
			
		

> Greater love hath no owner.




my wife says the same thing about me.


----------



## Angcuru (Mar 25, 2005)

I go by the general rule of "If it's bigger than my thumbnail and/or spiney/spikey, get out of Dodge."  Or squish the bugger.  With a big rock.  From at least 5 feet away.  Regardless.



			
				alsih2o said:
			
		

> I realized that I hadn't been stung a single time, despite carryign out crying kids getting stung several times.



You must be the zoological reincarnation of Wyat Earp.


----------



## Hand of Evil (Mar 25, 2005)

caudor said:
			
		

> Thanks for all the replies and pics!
> 
> I think I've seen a velvet ant before; I didn't know what it was at the time.  It was kind of furry and the same color as in the pic.  I encountered it a Boy Scout camp while storing supplies in a wooden shed.  There was a box full of bug spray in the shed, and being fearful (and a little curious, I suppose), I sprayed the ant.
> 
> ...




It is not really an ant but a wingless ground wasp.


----------



## carpedavid (Mar 25, 2005)

Spiders of medium size. Those that are bigger than a thumbnail but too small to perform jujitsu on. Tiny ones I tend to leave alone, and giant ones I don't conceptualize as spiders - but those medium size ones make me shiver.

Anything with its front parts on its back parts freaks me out, too. Like earwigs - the little pincher things are on the wrong end, and that's just not right.


----------



## WayneLigon (Mar 25, 2005)

Wasps. I have a terrible irrational fear of them, even though I know in my head that the sting will be painful only for a few minutes. If I see them, I lunge for the Raid and douse them until they're dead dead dead.

Bees I hate but at least I have the comfort of knowing that if stings me, half it's guts are coming with the sting and the little %^^*& will die later.


----------



## Raging Epistaxis (Mar 25, 2005)

I've read (and heard) that either Velvet Ants (Cow Killers as I knew them growing up) or Cicada Killers had the most painful stings, due to size, volume and plain irritation from the sting.

Here's a FAQ 

I've had the good fortune to never be stung by either, though. Despite about a decade or so of insect collecting as a young'un ...

I suppose I have developed a dislike of grasshoppers, of all things.  Ever since The MOAG* tried to crawl/hop her way (spiking me the whole time) from my ankle to my stomach inside my coveralls when I was about 14... 

Not that I react irrationally to them or anything.  No, not at all.  

Unless they are heading for an opening of my clothes.

Hey, that'd be a good stunt for Fear Factor!

R E

*Mother Of All Grasshoppers


----------



## Wereserpent (Mar 25, 2005)

Wasps and Spiders.  I live in Texas so I get a bunch of both around my house.  Wasps outside and Spiders inside.  There is usually a couple of wasps nests on my houses balcony, which is right outside my room.  In fact I can see a couple of wasps through the windows in the balcony door every once in a while.  SPiders like to hide in my pillows, so I have to check them before I go to sleep every night.  I aalso get big tree roaoches in my room too.


----------



## freebfrost (Mar 25, 2005)

DMH said:
			
		

> Freebfrost:
> 
> Wow, I don't blame you in the least. Where (as in the geographic location) were you bitten?




West Virginia.

And yup, it was a brown recluse.  Oh, the fun!  :\


----------



## Wormwood (Mar 25, 2005)

An old girlfriend's mother lost the lower half of her leg to a brown recluse bite (Tampa, FL). Nasty little buggers.

Personally? The common moth. Maybe because one opf them flew into my ear when I was 13 and I thought I was going insane until a doctor flushed it out. 

I kill every insect I can.


----------



## MrFilthyIke (Mar 25, 2005)

I fear bees and wasps, and the @#$kers seem to be drawn to redheads like moths to a flame, I can't get away from them.  I've seen bees and wasps cross open fields and single me out.


----------



## Angel Tarragon (Mar 26, 2005)

Great analogy!


----------



## der_kluge (Mar 26, 2005)

I don't think I'm really afraid of any bug. Though I avoid the ones I know are nasty. I think it has a lot to do with growing up in Arkansas. That place is like bug capital USA. Plus I lived in the country, so there was always a myriad of living critters all over the place. We had red wasps, tarantula killer wasps, hornets, killer bees, tarantulas (one walking up the wall in our kitchen one night), dirt dobbers, bees, ticks, chiggers, cow ants (that's what we called 'em), red ants, and black widow spiders.  I'm not sure there is really anything else left!

My dad had a shop building with two floors, and through an opening in the ventilation, red wasps were coming in and building nests.  We had found through trial and error that the best thing to kill them was industrial strength engine degreaser. No joke. One little "pfft" of that stuff, and that'd fall right to the ground, and be dead before they hit the ground.  One day we armed ourselves, one can in each hand, and went upstairs. They had been building nests in the cracks in the ceiling (it was one of the those metal shop buildings), and with wasps flying around us, we zap, zap, zapped them all dead. It was a hoot.

I can remember busting open dirt dobber nests and finding all these spiders in there. Dirt dobbers find spiders and paralyze them with their venom, and then lay eggs on them. They then place them in the mud nests. That was a fascinating foray into biology. Because you'd open up the nest, and there'd be this myriad of squirming, lathargic spiders writhing around amidst the mud. Fascinating.

Every Black Widow spider I found, I killed - promptly. Well, after watching them for a bit. They're really beautiful creatures. I remember going to the Boston science museum looking at a black widow, and being wholy unimpressed.  "Got ones twice that big back home", I found myself saying!


----------



## der_kluge (Mar 26, 2005)

I'd like to also add that I've never ever been stung or bit by anything. Other than mosquitos. Which absolutely love me, and I absolutely loathe.


----------



## Andrew D. Gable (Mar 26, 2005)

I just hate cockroaches.  They're nasty ugly repulsive little bleeders.


----------



## Breakstone (Mar 26, 2005)

Insects in general just seem... unnatural to me. They don't outright freak me out, but thinking about them for too long just plum gives me the willies. I think it's because of how wholly different they are anatomy-and-behavior-wise in comparison to us.

Ants are so autonamous that it's scary.

Bees that rip their own intestines out with a single sting are disturbing.

Any bug that lays its eggs inside another bug is fairly oogy.



Once when I was very young, I was digging in the grass by the side of my house, and what did I find but a bit, white, hot-dog-shaped queen something or other. I shuddered, and ran away in revulsion. Those absolutely give me the wiggles in the worst of ways.


----------



## Sekket (Mar 26, 2005)

Water Crickets.

Dear god, I can survive any cephaliod horror the dark depths of the ocean can spew forth, but will react the same as a pubescent girl would if a Water Cricket jumped on my face.

[dont know any other word for em. I live in alabama, and they are fairly common around here.]

Also May Flies. I was swarmed by them once when I was very young. For some odd reason that dislike stuck with me.


----------



## demiurge1138 (Mar 26, 2005)

I'm glad somebody mentioned bullet ants. I'm usually pretty OK with insects and other invertebrates, but bullet ants sent me into spasms of terror on a daily basis when I was in Costa Rica.

With wasps, I do not fear them. I hate them. I hate them with a passion that burns with the heat of a thousand suns.

Demiurge out.


----------



## nerfherder (Mar 26, 2005)

alsih2o said:
			
		

> Cave crickets...  they climb on you, get under your clothes and bite. They ... have the mandibles to crush coconuts



I'd hate to have them crawl in my clothes and crush my coconuts!


----------



## barsoomcore (Mar 28, 2005)

Cockroaches, by the way, can run on two legs. They open their wings up a little to generate some lift and just start motoring. Cockroaches are lots of bad. Thailand has bad cockroaches.

I've gotten seriously stung by wasp/bees twice: once when my fearless father macheted a tree supporting a nest and it fell right on my head (I was about six), and once about seven or eight years later when I stepped on a rotten log and crunched through and INTO a nest.

Mm, stinging bugs trapped inside your pant legs. Boy, did I holler.

Bees and wasps don't much faze me any more. I don't bug them and they don't bug me.

Mosquitos are foul. They seem to have been designed DELIBERATELY to piss us off. I mean, I don't mind if a bug wants a millilitre or so of my blood, I got lots, help yourself. But it has to produce all that frickin' irritation and pain? AND the little buggers have to fly into YOUR EAR WHEN YOU'RE TRYING TO SLEEP!!!????

I hate those little buggers. I want somebody to design a mosquito trap that inflicts PAIN as they die, and provides me with a magnifying glass so's I can watch the bleeders writhe in agony as they die.

...

Sorry, I may have gotten a little carried away. Don't like mosquitos. Don't like 'em at all.


----------



## MaxKaladin (Mar 29, 2005)

Wasps and their relatives.  When I was a small boy (5-7 years old or thereabouts), my father asked me to turn on the water hose for him.  The faucet was hidden behind a bush of the kind you use for topiary.  I brushed up against it reaching behind it and out came a swarm of wasps that proceeded to sting me all over the place while I ran around like a maniac trying to bat them away.  They eventually quit on their own after I had run far enough away.  My father terminated them with bug spray, but I had bites all over my arms and legs (it was summer and I was just wearing shorts and a t-shirt).  I've hated wasps and their relatives with a passion ever since.  I pretty much extend this to any bug that flies and I think has a stinger.  

I also terminate black widows and any other spider I think might be poisonous with extreme prejudice.  I also kill any small brown spider on the off chance it's a brown recluse.  My father has a 40 year old magazine article hanging on the wall of his workshop describing the horrors of brown recluse poison and it made me paranoid.  I'm ok with daddy longlegs, by the way, because I don't buy the urban legend about their being poisonous and I used to play with them all the time when I was a kid.


----------



## AIM-54 (Mar 31, 2005)

I pretty much loathe insects of all kinds...something about my cricket and spider infested basement room when I was 6 in Nashville made a lasting impression...

My mom also suffered a bite from a brown recluse when I lived in Tampa...no need for amputation but she was limping for a long time after that.

What I really, really hate are Canadian mosquitos...those bastards have like three months to feed and they do it with a passion.  Southern mosquitos are smaller and lazier by comparison.  Damn I hate those bastards!

The one that freaks me out the most though are what we call Spruce Beetles in Saskatchewan.  Not only do they have a very painful bite, but they are known to lay eggs under a person's skin.  Awful, awful little buggers.  And fairly common at some campgrounds I've been at.


----------



## KB9JMQ (Mar 31, 2005)

I don't really like spiders (a quick death to all I see) or bees/wasps very much.
Any recluse looking spider usually is ground into nothingness.
But it is granddaddy longlegs that freak me out.
I read a story about some caver being trapped in a cave with billions of them when I was little and have been creeped out ever since.

All other bugs are basically ok with me.


----------



## Gomez (Mar 31, 2005)

I hate fire ants! Nasty buggers! And they are so hard to get rid of. I kill a mound and two months later another one pops up.


----------



## lukelightning (Mar 31, 2005)

Hand of Evil said:
			
		

> It is not really an ant but a wingless ground wasp.




You say that about everything. "That's not a mind flayer. It's a wingless ground wasp."


----------



## Lasher Dragon (Mar 31, 2005)

Insects don't bother me much. The only things that creep me out are parasitic things, like leeches and ticks.

Other than that, I find larvae disgusting. Maggots just make me want to reach for some WD-40 and a lighter


----------



## Khayman (Mar 31, 2005)

Sawyer beetles. 

Northern Manitoba is maggoty with the things. Not poisonous but they have a nasty bite coupled with an annoying tendency to land on your head. Some Cree friends refer to them as _maskwategum_, or 'black bear bugs', their bite being compared to a mauling by a bear.


----------



## Ghostwind (Apr 1, 2005)

Horseflies have an especially painful bite. The big ones (the inch to 2 inch size ones) can lay your skin open quite efficiently.


----------



## Thornir Alekeg (Apr 1, 2005)

Ticks and cockroaches.  Plain old houseflies just annoy the crap out of me buzzing around the house.  Any that end up in the house are immediately hunted down and destroyed.


----------



## Hand of Evil (Apr 1, 2005)

Blue screen of death use to freak me out.


----------



## megamania (Apr 3, 2005)

Yellowjackets suck.  The bastards sent me to the hospital once.


----------



## megamania (Apr 3, 2005)

Ghostwind said:
			
		

> Horseflies have an especially painful bite. The big ones (the inch to 2 inch size ones) can lay your skin open quite efficiently.




Yup-  they suck also


----------



## Del (Apr 3, 2005)

I'm at war with spiderkind.

Absolutely phobic. Anything with more then 2 eyes just isn't right.


----------



## Aris Dragonborn (Apr 3, 2005)

Spiders. Any type. Any size. Any shape. If it has eight legs, it dies.

Reason? I'm allergic to spider bites. I was bitten on the ear when I was six, and it swelled up to a size a little bigger than a golf ball. I had to get it lanced/drained by the doctor (and boy did I holler). 

When I was about 25, I was bitten on the knee while sleeping, resulting in a baseball-sized knot right on my kneecap. I could barely walk, missed two days of work, and it was almost a week before I could fully bend my knee, _sans_ pain.

And these were bites given to me by garden spiders. Those little dark brown and orange buggers that you usually see in the trees or your mom's rose bush.

Fortunately, living in the Pacific Northwest means that poisonous spiders are rare. Mostly Hobo and Hermit spiders (both relatives of the aforementioned Brown Recluse - such lovely little things), but on rare occasions, you can find Black Widows. 

Plus, working in a grocery store, you get all sorts of fun things coming in on the produce shipment. Like the molted skin off of a Banana Spider (the really aggressive ones that can kill you in about five minutes) and a Tarantula that decided the banana box was the perfect place to take a nap.


----------



## JIMBOTHEBLACK (Apr 6, 2005)

Carnys,smell like cabbage,small hands.


----------



## GentleGiant (Apr 7, 2005)

Being from Denmark we don't really have any huge, poisonous insects up here (mostly just annoying mosquitos)... but last year I was in West Virginia and was introduced to one that has already been mentioned:
The Cave Cricket

Never have I seen a more skittish and annoying bug. Hiding in closets or under covers and jumping straight at you when you open the door or pull the sheets away... *shudder*
And they sort of make a popping sound when you kill them *double shudder*
The house I was staying in had a mild "infestation" (we eventually called an exterminator) and 2-3 were killed every single day.
After a while you start to get paranoid and think you see something moving everywhere... blasted bugs!


----------



## weiknarf (Apr 7, 2005)

Yellowjackets and spiders.

I'm allergic to yellowjackets and spiders are just evil.


----------



## Desdichado (Apr 8, 2005)

Mark said:
			
		

> Any bug...from Texas!
> 
> I won't even try to top that, bug-wise, and can only say that we've got rats in the City of Chicago.
> 
> I visited a buddy of mine down in Lubbock when he was in school down there and there is simply no comparison in size between waht passes for an insect up here and what passes for a Buu-uu-uuugggg down there...unless I can include compact cars.



No kidding.  I remember well those big red wasps referred to in the OP.  I still remember vividly getting stung by one on the battleship Texas in San Jacinto as a kid.  And the cockroaches; they're unreal.  Luckily, they're actually "tree" roaches who only come inside when the weather's bad, or something like that, but still -- who wants to find a two or three inch cockroach, either outside or in?

My greatest insectoid hatred is reserved, however, for the fire ant.  Individually they're not that scary, but they've invaded Texas (and most of the south, and probably soon most of the Midwest) with a ferocity that defies belief.


----------



## Hand of Evil (Apr 8, 2005)

Now this creeps me out!

Leech worms way into hiker’s nose
‘Slimy and mobile’ creature difficult to remove

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7426103/


----------



## kmdietri (Apr 8, 2005)

I don't get freaked out but I hate mosquito's and black-flies, or basically any insect that sucks blood. 

I guess I don't like the idea of being fed on.


----------



## Jeff Wilder (Apr 8, 2005)

I hate all bugs.  It's the closest thing I have to a genuine phobia.  Even butterflies creep me out.


Jeff

P.S.  Oddly, I have no problem with spiders.

P.P.S.  My sister was once stung _inside her ear_ by a wasp.  Can you imagine?


----------



## AIM-54 (Apr 8, 2005)

Jeff Wilder said:
			
		

> I hate all bugs.  It's the closest thing I have to a genuine phobia.  Even butterflies creep me out.
> 
> 
> Jeff
> ...




The only thing worse, I'd imagine, happened to my mom on a dig in Israel...somehow a wasp flew into her mouth and stung her there.  This was, I believe the same dig where she wrecked her knee...not her best summer, clearly!


----------

