From the article: 15 Misconceptions Kids Have About Insects
My first insect pet was a June beetle I had when I was six. June beetles and ladybugs were my favorite bugs when I was a child. Adults who like insects usually have good memories of keeping insect pets as children, or spending time in their childhoods watching ants or butterflies.
Did you have any insect pets as a kid? What were your favorite bugs when you were a child? Share Your Stories
Did you have any insect pets as a kid? What were your favorite bugs when you were a child? Share Your Stories
Cicadas
- I still have memories of my dad telling me when I was young how cicadas nested for about seventeen years and then came out for only a few days to mate. I've always thought of them as a paradox. What is the point in continuing the life cycle if their lives don't really mean anything. I'm sure there's a good answer or else humans who just float by and don't live their lives wouldn't continue on either.
- —Guest Tralala
My Favourite Bugs!
- My Favourite bugs are Grasshoppers, Crickets, Ladybugs, Bumblebees and Dragonflies!
- —Guest Olivia
"Bugs!"
- I was the only little girl that really liked playing in the dirt and catching worms. No wonder I didn't have a single female friend until middle school. These days I have a small tarantula collection and a tiny dubia roach colony to feed them. Watching the spiders eat and build nests makes everything worthwhile. Life in general is fascinating. Bugs are just easier to look after with no noise, no smell, and feed/water a few times a week. :) Never grew out of liking 'bugs'.
- —Guest Ashley
Favorite Bugs
- My favorite bugs included rollie pollies, love bugs, and lady bugs. Love bugs were fun because they would travel in pairs, and I could hold then in my hands. I would try and catch as many as I could.
- —Guest Diane
Bumble Bees, Woolly Worms
- I love nature. It's one of God's wonderful gifts. As a child I really liked bumble bees. I love anything that is fuzzy and unique. They just fascinated me, I think because they were "neat" and big, yet they could fly!! And another bug was the cute little ole ladybug. Also,the woolly worm (another fuzzy bug). To this day these bugs still are my favorites.
- —Guest Fuzzy Bugs
Too Many to List!
- I have loved all things creepy crawly since before I could walk! As a child I kept Lubber Locusts, Wolf Spiders, Pill Bugs and Katydids. I love having Dragonflies sit of my fingers and at 20 years old I still have Kritter Keeper with two Locusts at my side as I right this. I have a Wolf Spider on the other side, hehe! After all this though I would have to say that in my adult life my favorite insect is... Wasps. Yeah I know it sounds weird but I really love them because they're intelligent enough to interact with... sting free!!! It's all about body language, mainly theirs. Anyway I feed them honey and cultivate them because they eat the harmful insects in my Vegetable/Herb garden. Also I just like the little guys...(Girls.)
- —Guest Mamata
Isabella Tiger Caterpillar
- I live in Quebec and there are a lot of Isabella tiger caterpillar around. When I was a kid, me and my friends were taking these cute brown and black furry caterpillars around and keep them for a while. We also thought that littler black haired caterpillars was a baby form of the Isabella tiger caterpillars, which is false both we were keeping them together and no problem arose. :)
- —Guest Sabrina
Dancing Dragonflies
- Since I was young and still to this day, my love for dragonflies is too great to explain. It is like we have something special between us that only we know. Like we were cut through the same mold. Dragonflies are a part of life.
- —Guest Cool cat
All insects were cool
- As a kid growing up on a small farm with a naturalist for a mother, I learned many insects and plants. By 4th grade I was hooked on insects and took my first collection for show and tell. Used my mothers sewing pins to pin them and ceiling tile for the pinning medium. My 1st pet was a Hercules beetle that I fed apples to while in college. She is in my collection today...years later and she always get comments from the kids I share my collections with for educational programs. Yes, I am an entomologist thru schooling and professionally. Tho I have not worked professionally for 20 yrs, I do lots of volunteer work sharing and educating about the insect world.
- —Guest Moni
one thrilling insect!
- I also recall seeing caddisfly larvae in a stream, before I knew what they were. All I knew at the time was that there was a creature living inside a case of tiny grains of sand, and it was moving! I was so thrilled, and I was with two friends that were not the least bit interested in this marvel that I pointed out to them. To this day I look for caddisfly larvae and experience that same thrill all over again! Maybe they were my favorite insects back then.
- —Guest Micenkova
Fireflies and Mantises
- I still like them both. Lightning bugs bring back childhood memories. Mantises are just cool to watch - I think they look like alien beings! :-D
- —SheltieMan
Tree bugs
- Since I climbed trees alot, that is where I first studied insects. With my little Golden Nature Guide to Insects, I was able to identify Buffalo Treehoppers and Red-banded leafhoppers. It gave me a thrill to be able to identify them. I still have that book, 50 years later, but have graduated to other guides as well.
- —Guest Micenkova
Roly Poly's
- I don't know the correct term for those cute little roly poly bugs. The ones that roll up into a little ball when you frighten them. I absolutely loved these little guys. I kept a large container of them and cared for them like they were my children. I loved especially when the moms were pregnant, you could see the little babies in their underbelly. I loved getting down in the dirt and finding them. Oh the joy, oh the joy.
- —djtcopd
Fireflies
- My favorite bugs were fireflies, or lightning bugs. We would try to collect enough of them to read comic books by in a tent in the back yard. My sister had me convinced that they were wood fairies!
- —Guest Trish
Favorite Bugs
- My favorite bugs were lightning bugs and caterpillars!
- —sonnybono
Favorite Bug
- I have always watched insects [since childhood] and love the monarch butterfly, it’s [my favorite] insect. I like it more than the predator mantis but I still feel afraid when I see it.
- —Guest osamahrashid
