Tuesday, May 10, 2011

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Attack of the Killer Caterpillars

Logan has developed a phobia in the last month or so. He absolutely cannot tolerate bugs of any kind. He will start stomping and crying and shriek "Scary bug! Scary bug!" over and over and over until it is annihilated. The bug, no matter the variety, must be squished into oblivion~ preferably with guts splattered everywhere- before he will calm down.
bug Pictures, Images and Photos
No matter what we try, the child freaks out. Although, the bug you see above made him laugh. He said it was a "Siwwy bug" and in fact kept getting out of bed at nap time to see said "Siwwy bug". Well. Of course he did. Now watch, the child will be completely over his phobia because I found a bug animation for my blog post. (Yeah... right.)

Anyhow.. back to the story... Our back yard has been over run this Spring by creepy little caterpillars. Every night there are literally hundreds of these nasty things all over the sidewalk out  back of the house. Come morning, birds from miles around come over for a breakfast buffet. Thinking they are fleeing to safety, the idiot worms shake it on over to the sidewalk, where Logan eagerly waits, ready to spew worm guts all over heck with his tiny, sandaled foot, screaming, stomping and shrieking about the scary bugs, as if the things were 11 feet long and trying to take over the Earth. Yick. It doesn't help that Notorious #5 shrieks "Death to the Callapidders!" every time HE sees one, either. (stomp, stomp, stompitty stomp) However, try to remove Logan from the scary bugs and save his life? Not a good plan. He has full blown melt downs if he sees a bug and is not allowed to massacre it. Which is worse? Letting the child shriek and scream because there are bugs, or making the child shriek and scream because you won't let him turn the bugs into little wet spots on the pavement?

And now, addicts, this is the point at which you offer brilliant suggestions to the Momma to help Logan overcome his fear. Truthfully? Logan saw a ladybug the other day and I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Help? Please? lady bug Pictures, Images and Photos

Oh! Hey....I could give the boy a fly swatter and a bee keepers' helmet with the netting tent thing for his birthday in June. Yeah, you're right. That's just tacky. What about hip waders?
images and animations by photobucket, of course!

3 comments:

Tracey NH said...

We went through that with my oldest son (he'll be 16 on Thursday - yikes! - & has Asperger's) when he was little. The sight of an ant or even a butterfly would literally send him into hysterics. Only difference was, he wouldn't go near them himself; he'd just freeze in a panic until he was rescued. We had to do the eviscerating of the offending insect ourselves, or wait for it to fly away before he'd calm down and move again. At least Logan can face his fear, even if it's kinda gross! And, my son did eventually outgrow it, for the most part. Insects still bother him, but not much more than they bother anyone else. : )

Danica said...

No, I do not think getting him swatter, beekeepers' helmet with netting. Maybe add netting for his bed & a butterfly nursery thing you can buy off TV right now. Get some netting tent for his bed as well. **laughing** Might actually be a good idea.
PA is terrified of bugs as well. However, she has an imaginary pet spider "tiny". She is especially afraid of flies. Not a good thing here being we have flies in abundance. PA will just scream as if she is hurt if one lands on her. I hope she outgrows this.

Brian@bothsidesofthecoin said...

I have no advice. But, this is really, really funny. My father in law would recommend putting him in a booth covered with bugs. I wouldn't. I just laugh.

If it helps, mine was terrified of leaves blowing for a while, and it passed.

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