A Few Insect Superstitions for Friday the 13th
It’s Friday the 13th. Did you linger in bed a little longer this morning in fear of what the day might bring?
It might help to know that a 2011 German study published in the World Journal of Surgery reviewed 3,281 days at a hospital facility that included 15 Friday the 13ths, and found no correlation to the frequency of emergency room visits on those days.
Still, more than half of Americans admitted to being at least a little superstitious, according to a recent Gallup poll. Many people are superstitious without even knowing it. Do you knock on wood, avoid black cats or read your daily horoscope?
Under the category of “Nature in Action,” the April 6, 1946 Milwaukee Journal ran an article about insect superstitions. As you make your way through the second Friday the 13th of 2017, here are a few of our favorites:
- Step on a cricket, and rain will follow.
- Catch the first butterfly you see in spring, and you’ll be unlucky all summer.
- Kill a lightning bug, and you’ll be struck by lightning the next time it storms.
- Disturb a yellow cluster of butterflies, lose a pot of gold.
- Knock down a mud dauber’s nest, break all your dishes.
- Dream of ants, and you’ll have a large family or move to a big city.
- Dragonflies sew up the mouths of scolding women, saucy children and profane men.
- Bees punish wrongdoers. Peasant girls in Central Europe would lead their lovers past beehives, where bees would rush out and sting the unfaithful.
- If a butterfly lands on your hand, you’ll get money, but if it lands on your head, you’ll get a new sweetheart.
- If a bee circles your head, you’ll get a letter. If it enters your home, you’ll get a visitor.
- If a fly buzzes around your head, a stranger wants to meet you.
- Count the spots on a ladybug, and you’ll find as many dollars or enjoy that number of good months.
- Hear a cricket in the house or let out a fly along a window pane, and enjoy good fortune.
Whether you’re superstitious or not, if insects are causing you concern, click here to contact us for a free, no obligation pest inspection!