Don’t Bug Out! : 5 Pest-Inspired Children’s Board Games

Don’t Bug Out! : 5 Pest-Inspired Children’s Board Games

In the real world, pests are the last thing we want to think about when we’re trying to have a fun time. We know that any insect in the house is not a good time, and certain insects can turn a backyard hangout into a painful experience when they break out the stingers. But in the world of imagination and children’s game marketing, insects and rodents are cute, colorful, and make for great board game themes. The game shelves at big box stores are filled with all kinds of novelties, many of which have existed for decades and were re-made a time or two, to make a fun time out of plastic pests and simple instructions. Let’s look at five of the most popular board games and activities that paint our most annoying pests in a better light. 

Ants in the Pants

This variation of Tiddlywinks was brought into the world by Schaper in 1967, and it has been a staple of elementary school classrooms and youth camps everywhere. Since both the gameplay and pieces are simple, the game is accessible for kids of all ages. The only pieces are a pair of plastic pants with suspenders and sixteen plastic ants in the typical colors of old-school game pieces: red, yellow, blue, and green. The ants have a flattened back that allows them to be flung in the air when you push on them, which can cause chaos when young game players decide that this is more fun than playing by the rules. The actual game is to divide the colors among the players, and the player who gets all of their ants in the pants first is the winner. There can be strategy in this game with the use of angles and amount of pressure on the ant, or strategy can be abandoned altogether in favor of just launching ants as you see fit. Even though the manufacturer has changed to Milton-Bradley, and the game added a pants-wearing dog as the mascot for an unknown reason, Ants in the Pants is still popular to this day as a fun way to spend several minutes of your life.

Real Life: As fun as this game is, we suggest not pushing on the backs of ants in real life. If it doesn’t squish them, it will just make them angry and likely result in you getting bitten. Ants are rounder and not as long as these plastic game pieces, which means that they can fit in tiny spaces much easier. This game may come with only sixteen ants, but real ant colonies can number in the hundreds of thousands. That would be a very long game! As much as we enjoy using the term “ants in your pants” to describe someone who is jittery, having actual ants in your pants is the opposite of a good time and should not be the goal of any day. As far as ants go, we would pick the plastic pieces over real ants in our homes every time.

Bed Bugs

While this is the name of one of the most hated pests ever, it is also the title given to an oddly-difficult game. The Milton-Bradley game was introduced in 1985, and is another proprietor of the red, yellow, blue, and green game pieces. The object of the game is to collect the most bed bugs with the provided tongs, with each player calling out a new designated color every round. This sounds simple, but what if the bed was actively shaking the whole time? That’s right; the bed is motorized and delivers a surprisingly disruptive shake throughout the entire game. It’s so dramatic that some of the bed bugs will just jump off of the bed on their own volition, resulting in the players having to put them back on the bed before resuming their turn. Bed Bugs is easy enough for young players to have fun, while also providing a goal for competitive adults to achieve. Bed Bugs has been re-released a few times in different packaging, with the latest popular version being in 2018 by Hasbro. Reviewers of the game all seem to agree that the largest problem is the ease with which the bed bugs jump off the bed without being touched by the tongs and scatter to the far corners of the room. So if you’re in the mood to pick up plastic bed bugs multiple times, this could be the game for you!

Real Life: Bed bugs are not fun in any other setting than this game, to put it bluntly. They are nearly impossible to get rid of without the help of professional pest control services, and you don’t know that you have them until you wake up with new bites all over. Bed bugs are also typically brown, not a vivid primary color. They will wedge themselves between any kind of tight space, including mattresses, chair cushions, wallpaper, electrical sockets, and curtain folds. This not only keeps them from being easily spotted, it also provides them with a sense of stability since they’re less likely to fall out of their tucked-away hiding spot. This typically keeps them safe no matter how much movement their home gets, though maybe not as much as the motorized bed in the game. One trick to see if you have bed bugs, if you’re unsure, is to place a plastic bowl underneath your bed or potentially-affected area; any bed bugs that fall into the bowl will be unable to climb out and you can find them in the morning. But we hope that the only bed bugs you find in your home are random leftover plastic game pieces from this thrift store-favorite game.

Cootie / Beetle

This may be the simplest of the games on this list, which is why it’s a favorite of younger children everywhere. You have likely seen this game on the shelves of a preschool classroom or a home with a couple of young children, but it only goes by the name of Cootie in the U.S. It’s called Beetle in the U.K. because “cootie” doesn’t mean anything in their vernacular like it does in ours. The founder of Schaper games, William Herbert Schaper himself, introduced this game in 1948. He actually hand-whittled the first approximate 40,000 bugs before mass production was brought in! The pieces were originally wooden as a result, and the design was based off of Schaper’s fishing lures. Although the pieces changed from wood to plastic over time, the gameplay stayed the same. The basic premise of the game is to be the first player to build your bug out of the plastic parts provided. A roll of a die determines which piece you get to add to your creature creation. The end result will have one body, one head, two antennae, one curly mouthpart, two eyes, and six legs. While this game is more so for kids than anyone else, it is still a fun time to assemble a bug that’s much more friendly-looking than any real insect.

Real Life: Insects of any species are not as cute or colorful in reality. The modern game depicts the ant-like creatures with bright, smiling faces and fun accessories, like glasses or a bow. As entertaining as it would be to see a real insect with these features, it would not be very practical for the insect itself. Critters of all sizes base everything they do off of survival, since one wrong move or miscalculation can mean the end for them and their colony. This is why many of them use crypsis, or camouflage, to blend in with their surroundings and avoid the hungry eyes of their predators. If they were bright purple or orange like the game, they may as well have a flashing neon sign above them at all times to notify predators. We also don’t put insects together since they come fully assembled when they invade our yards and homes, but that’s a good thing in the long run. Imagine trying to attach a leg to an ant or an antennae to a roach; it wouldn’t be fun for anyone!

Creepy Crawlers

This is more of an activity than a competitive game, but we’re including it for the sake of describing a fun pest-centered product that is more enjoyable than the real thing. First introduced by Mattel in 1964 as part of their Thingmaker series, this activity is all about making your own insect creation out of a liquid-plastic material. The original version came with an oven-like appliance, tongs, cooling pan, various colors of “plasti-goop,” and molds of different insects. Basically, you would just pour the desired color of goop into the mold and stick it in the oven for the prescribed amount of time. The insect could be as wild as you want it to be, since you could make the legs a different color than the body or any combination of colors you could think of. The molds came in a wide variety of pests, including ticks, spiders, stinkbugs, roaches, and caterpillars. As fun as this activity sounds, it came with a lot of risk and timing issues. If the insect wasn’t cooked long enough, it would be incredibly sticky. If it was cooked too long, you would be scraping the pan for a while. There were also the burning plastic smell and burn risk factors to consider when engaging in this activity. Likely because of these reasons, Creepy Crawlers was discontinued in 1978 and brought back in 1992 by Toymax in a different and safer manner. Customers actually brought back the nostalgic burning-plastic smell just by mentioning it in enough reviews! Today, the creepy creations are utilized in a less dangerous (and potentially less fun) way, as the goop is now moldable dough and the oven is replaced with a mold that needs to be microwaved before being pressed through a plastic machine. 

Real Life: In reality, we don’t make insects or pests of any kind. But that’s okay, since it seems like a pretty big job to have in the scope of the ecosystem. Real insects also aren’t as squishy as the creations from Creepy Crawlers. Even though they are invertebrates, they aren’t completely vulnerable to the elements; most of them have an exoskeleton that protects them from smaller predators. For kids, the moldable insects from Creepy Crawlers are also fun to use as prank materials by leaving them in sight of an unsuspecting parent at home. But being scared by a real pest? Not as much fun, in our opinion. 

Mouse Trap

As opposed to the other games on this list, Mouse Trap is named after a pest control method rather than the pest itself. The original board game was introduced in 1963 by Ideal Games, and the board was designed to make gameplay easier for a younger audience. The original was more about the toy-aspect than the gameplay, and newer versions brought about additions like spaces, collectible cheese slices, and specific rules. If you have never played Mouse Trap before, it’s basically just setting up an elaborate, plastic marble obstacle course. Every move and roll of the die is to set up another piece of the course in the hopes of trapping your opponent’s mouse under the cage that is lowered as a result of the marble going through the course. While the game is fun, especially for older players, it is usually abandoned in favor of building the trap and letting it go, just to see what will happen. Even with the re-design and re-release by Milton-Bradly in 1984, it could not solve the game’s biggest problem that still plagues players to this day. If the board is shaken just enough, the trap can be triggered prematurely and result in a half-finished course and frustrated players. Apparently, a delicate touch is needed for this children’s game revolving around trapping a plastic mouse. 

Real Life: In real life, mouse traps are not as fun and elaborate as this game. They are much simpler and typically use some kind of bait to lure unsuspecting mice into the snares. Also, you don’t want to touch a real mouse trap as much as you do in this game. Despite the number of popular online videos where someone willingly ensnares their hand in a mouse trap, it is not a fun experience and should not be attempted by anyone. On an interesting note, cheese is actually not the best bait for a mouse trap, contrary to this game’s depiction. Anything sweet or grain-esque, like peanut butter, nuts, or dried berries, should do the trick for a hungry mouse. Unfortunately, there aren’t any marbles or slides involved in a real mouse trap, which is a real downer since that would be a lot more fun (for us, not the mouse). 

Pest Management is Not a Game

While these games and activities are a fun way to spend your time, having a pest infestation is definitely not. Our team is always here to provide services and treatments that will leave you with a pest-free home or business for your enjoyment. Contact us at any time to learn more about how our eco-friendly products will take care of any pest problem and provide you with the optimal space in which to play as many board games as you want. 

Citations

Ants in the pants. (n.d.). Nostalgia Central. Retrieved May 27, 2022, from https://nostalgiacentral.com/pop-culture/toys-games/ants-pants/ 

Cootie/beetle. (n.d.). Nostalgia Central. Retrieved May 27, 2022, from https://nostalgiacentral.com/pop-culture/toys-games/cootiebeetle/

Creepy crawlers. (n.d.). Nostalgia Central. Retrieved May 27, 2022, from https://nostalgiacentral.com/pop-culture/toys-games/creepy-crawlers/ 

Good Mythical Morning. (2022, February 3). Should these 90s toys be brought back?. Good Mythical Morning. [Video]. YouTube. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-3J4GYP0EE (Accessed on May 27, 2022).

Mortensen, E. (2019, October 11). Bed bugs board game review and rules. Geeky Hobbies. Available at https://www.geekyhobbies.com/bed-bugs-board-game-review-and-rules/ (Accessed on May 27, 2022). 

Mouse trap. (n.d.). Nostalgia Central. Retrieved May 27, 2022, from https://nostalgiacentral.com/pop-culture/toys-games/mousetrap/