Sudden fear of bugs at 28 months?

Sarah seems to have developed a desperate fear of bugs just this afternoon. She was always a little apprehensive about them, but just in the past few hours has been freaking out about every little speck -- toast crumbs, bits of carpet fluff, even dark spots on the wood floors -- and bursting into tears going "bug! bug!" When we show her that each individual thing isn't a bug, she's OK -- until she sees the next thing. And she just started crying 45 minutes after I thought she was asleep, saying she saw a bug in her crib.

Is this the kind of thing that lasts a few days, or are we going to be freaking out at phantom bugs (and real ones) for the next year?

I'm also not quite sure how to handle it, because we do have bugs (box elder bugs, mainly) in our house and all over the yard. They're harmless, but really annoying. So it's not like I can promise her that there just aren't any bugs.

 

One of mine started this today with worms. She saw a bunch of dead worms outside after the heavy rains and now all she talks about is how much she is afraid of worms (and she sometimes refers to them as snakes!). She is afraid to walk from the front door to the car. Hopefully this passes quickly!

 

My grandma is still deathly afraid of earthworms and she's nearly 80, so maybe never! :laughing: I guess the best way to deal with a phobia like this is to show them that most bugs aren't scary. It's possible that an ant bit her or something and that caused her fear.

 

We have this going on in our house. Every bug is a "spiders." Don't know why they decided they don't like bugs except both their older sisters HATE bugs and squeal every time they see one. (It's a legitimate fear for the older two. You should SEE some of the bugs we had in Japan. Centipedes are NO joke.) Needless to say, I don't think we're going to be out growing this phase at our house any time soon. We had a serious delay in nap yesterday due to the "spiders" that was on the wall by Annika's bed. She was torn between fear and utter fascination.