A Bug's Life

Dailaesse has recently (in the past 3 days) developed an insane fear of bugs. It started the night before the night before last. She woke around 3 in the morning screaming and swatting. At me. This was after I had gone to bed at 1:30 and gotten up at 2:30 to go potty. She wanted the bugs gone. Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume she thought the bugs were on me and not that she thought I was the bug. I couldn't convince her that there were no bugs. She screamed about rainbow bugs and blue bugs that glowed. And ants. And lady bugs. And flies. Bran tried to console her. No go. I told her there were no bugs and that she was having a bad dream. That it was all in her imagination. She insisted it wasn't. I was too tired to argue. Bran got up at 6:30 with the alarm and brought our chipper chatty little doll downstairs with him. She crashed hard around 11 on the way to Placid and slept until I woke her at 2:30 to go get her brother from school.

I didn't think she would sleep at all that night because she slept so long during the day. I also didn't think it would help that the night's event was still fresh in her mind before she went to bed. I knew this because she told my mother on the phone just before bed time that she was so sleepy because she had an imagination the night before. I was wrong and she slept all night.

Last night she had an imagination again. I was able to get her back to sleep about an hour after she woke by promising to leave the light in our room on. This worked well. She woke every 15 to 20 minutes to be sure the light was still on and that the room was bug free. But she didn't scream.

Then today, the first day in 14 days that we haven't had rain, she decided that she couldn't possibly play outside because there were too many bugs. What??? This is the child who wants to go outside as soon as she rolls out of bed in the morning. I tried everything to convince her that it was ok to play out and that the bugs wouldn't bother us. No go. I finally gave up after about an hour of chasing her away from the front door and retreated to the house.

Now here's the worst part...

We seem to have been invaded by wasps this afternoon. I killed one out on the front steps this afternoon when we came back from having lunch out with Bran. Then I killed 4 more IN the house. I tried really hard not to make a big deal of the situation but I have to admit to being scared to death of the damn things. I'm allergic to them and had a really nasty encounter with one when I was young. I still have the scar to prove it. How do I convince my poor little girl not to be afraid of something that scares me and everyone else in the house?

For now we seem to be wasp free. Bran found 4 new nests when he walked the property tonight. After some help from our friend (he kills bugs for a living) we're armed with a powerful wasp and hornet killer that's still safe for the kids so he'll spray a little later. In the meantime, I sprayed around all the windows and doors with my Melaleuca Tub n Tile. It's suppose to keep them out. So far, so good.