The Luck of the Pest: Common Superstitions About 5 Backyard Creatures

The Luck of the Pest: Common Superstitions About 5 Backyard Creatures

Everyone has a different opinion about superstitions. Some people are completely on board with every one that they hear, while others approach things with more than a hint of skepticism. Some folks avoid broken mirrors like the plague, while other people don’t bat an eye when they see a black cat walking around. Wherever you land on superstitions, one thing is for sure: insects have been prominent fixtures of this school of thought for quite a long time. Since they are so small yet varied in their colors, behaviors, and habitats, they leave a lot to our imaginations. And for those of us with vivid imaginations and a tendency to search for a deeper meaning in the everyday, insects seem like a clear choice for some kind of superstition. There are a million and one superstitions regarding insects, and not all of them are widely spread online. But for the purposes of today’s blog, we’re just briefly looking into some of the most common and long-lasting insect superstitions that have stood the test of time for some people.

Crickets: The Lucky Protectors

In addition to providing the nostalgic background music for our summer evenings, crickets have become the focal point of many superstitions regarding luck for centuries. In some cultures, crickets are even better luck than ladybugs, which we will discuss later. This could be due to their persistently-happy chirps and the fact that they don’t cause a ton of damage to our crops. In Asian cultures, crickets symbolized happiness and longevity for these reasons. Crickets were actually kept as a sort of pet that kept watch over the home at night. Crickets stop chirping when potential danger is near, so this unexpected silence would alert the residents to any sign of peril. Even though keeping a cricket as a “guard dog” isn’t common practice today, the insect is still considered to be good luck and should be left alone if you were to find one.

Like many other insects in superstitions, crickets also relate to the prediction of a guest coming over. A cricket randomly showing up in a house may not be so random. If a cricket appears in a home, it’s thought to be a sign that an unexpected guest will stop by soon. But luck can quickly turn sour if the cricket decides it has somewhere better to be; a cricket that leaves immediately is believed to be bad luck. Any cricket that decides to hop inside is an unexpected guest, so it’s up to you if you want to believe that it’s just the first surprise guest of the day.

Ladybugs: The Multi-Meaning Models

Ladybugs are so prominent in superstitious beliefs that even people who don’t normally partake in the verbal traditions have heard at least one of these superstitions. Since ladybugs are greatly beneficial in keeping our crops pest-free and are so docile to us, they are a pretty fun insect to focus on. It’s believed that farmers dating back to the medieval times would pray for their crops to thrive and not be overridden with pests, and the ladybugs were believed to be the answer to those prayers. This is just one reason why they are still considered to be lucky to this day, and we are constantly warned against us killing them. Another interesting superstition is the belief that if a ladybug lands on a person with an illness, it will fly away with that illness and leave the person in great health. A ladybug landing on you in general is a nice experience, so maybe there is something to their lucky ways. 

Arguably the most popular feature of ladybugs included in superstitions is their spots. The practical reason for these spots is that they are a warning for predators to stay away, as they could be a sign of a poisonous or bitter experience for anything that wants to eat them. But in the world of superstitions, the number of spots on a ladybug that lands on you have taken on a myriad of meanings over the centuries. These are just a few of the most popular:

• Children: One superstition says that the number of spots dictates the number of children you will have in the future. The more spots on the insect, the more stressed you may become if this is your train of thought!
• Biggest Wish: Another one is that the number of spots is the number of months until your greatest wish comes true. This is definitely one of the more optimistic superstitions. 
• Money: Speaking of big wishes, another belief is that the spots are equal to the amount of money you will receive in the future. Whether you interpret each spot as representing a hundred, a thousand, or more is up to how lucky you’re feeling that day, apparently.
• Good Luck: This one goes back to the basic superstition that ladybugs are good luck. The number of spots is thought to represent either the number of days or months that you will have good luck. Months is the more hopeful route, but days might be more realistic in everyday life. 

Ladybugs are a great help in the gardening world and are nice to us, so there’s no harm in associating a little luck with their appearance. If you do see a ladybug, don’t squish it! Whether or not you believe in superstitions doesn’t take away from their beneficial ways, so it’s important to leave as many as we can.

Butterflies: The Beautiful Souls

Butterflies are another beneficial insect that is always a fun time when it chooses to land on you in between visiting flowers. They are some of the best pollinators in the insect world, so they also help our plants to thrive and grow strong every year. The most common superstition around butterflies is that they represent our loved ones. In Japanese culture, each butterfly is thought to hold the soul of a person. In this line of thinking, it means that a butterfly who lands on you could be a loved one. It’s a sweet thought to have around these already beautiful insects, and can provide a sense of comfort or happiness for someone who is missing a particular person.

There are a couple other common superstitions with butterflies. One is that, like a cricket, a butterfly that flies into your home means that a surprise visitor is coming. In this case, it’s thought to be your most cherished loved one that will be making an appearance later. Another superstition, stemming from Native American culture, is that the first butterfly you see in a particular season is representative of the weather to come. According to this belief, a white butterfly is for summer, yellow is for sunshine, and black is for a storm. Butterflies have such intricate designs and color patterns, so it’s pretty easy to find a different colored butterfly at the start of various seasons. 

Spiders: The Hard-Working Luck Charms

For some, finding a spider in your home is not the best idea of a good luck charm. But in the world of superstitions, spiders are yet another sign of good luck. They are even included on pieces of jewelry, clothing, and charms as a wearable symbol of good luck. Wealth and great fortune have also been attributed to the humble arachnid. Spiders are another beneficial creature due to their appetite for the most annoying of pests, so it makes sense to think of them as being signs of good luck and a good future.

Spiders are also admired for their solid work ethic through their spinning of the most intricate and detailed of webs in which to catch their prey. This is why another superstition is that the sighting of their webs means that there will be a reward for hard work. Whether or not this is true doesn’t take away from the work that spiders put in to their combination homes and restaurants. Because of all of these good associations, another part to the superstition is that killing spiders is bad luck. It’s thought to be even worse if you kill a spider in your home, since they represent cleanliness and good health when they’re just hanging out in their webs. Whether or not you kill the spider you find scuttling across your living room floor is up to you; the possibility of bad luck may be worth the risk to avoid spending more time with an active arachnid. 

Bees: The Helpful Visitors 

Bees have possibly the most superstitions around their existence out of the pests on this list. In general, they are another good omen and sign of good luck for whoever finds one nearby. This could also be due to their beneficial nature and great help with pollinating our plants. If they land on your hand, it’s believed to be a sign that money is coming your way. This does not mean that you should grab any bee you see, since it is not a money-producing machine. Certain superstitions with the bee date back for centuries, including the one with a bride on her wedding day. It was believed that if the bee stung the bride, it was a sign that her husband-to-be was not the one for her and the marriage would not be great. This could be why bees were involved at all kinds of weddings for quite a while. In Greek culture, a bee landing on someone’s head is believed to be a sign of good fortune. Superstitions like these paint the bees in a more positive light, which is great since bee populations need to stay up to keep our plants flourishing. 

Just like many of the other insects on this list, a bee in the house is believed to be a sign of a good visitor coming later. It’s worth wondering how many times the order of events happened where a good insect appeared in the house before a friend arrived for these superstitions to take hold in different cultures. But, predictably, the tides turn if the bee is killed inside the home. It’s believed that killing a bee inside is the sign of either bad luck, a bad visitor, or an average visitor with bad news arriving in the future. Whatever the case may be, it doesn’t seem good to kill bees in any way. It may be a different story if there’s a massive hive near your house, but that’s a tale for another day.

Pest Control: The Answer to Your Pest Problems

While superstitions are often used in an attempt to explain occurrences and events that are beyond our understanding, some things in life are straightforward enough to provide clear answers without the help of superstitions. Pest control is no superstition; it provides real results for all kinds of pest problems you may have at your home or business. Our EPA-approved treatments are used with the goal of eradicating the persistent pests without the use of harmful chemicals. Contact us at any time if you want to learn more about our services in every season. We are dedicated to providing you with the pest-free space of your dreams, no lucky charm or superstitious insect required!

Citations

Friday the 13th: Bug superstitions. (n.d.). Hulett Environmental Services. Retrieved June 3, 2022, from https://www.bugs.com/blog/bug-superstitions/ 

Kidadl Team. (2021, October 27). Are crickets good luck? What do they symbolize. Kidadl. Available at https://kidadl.com/fun-facts/are-crickets-good-luck-what-do-they-symbolize (Accessed on June 3, 2022).

The 6 craziest superstitions about insects. (2018, April 12). Bug House. Available at https://www.bughousepestcontrol.com/the-6-craziest-superstitions-about-insects/ (Accessed on June 3, 2022).