This is a collection of proverbs, quotes, sayings and expressions about insects, spiders and similar small animals. This page shows a summary of my English collection. Click here for a bigger list.
Please have a look at my Dutch collection.
Ant Bed-bug Bee Beetle Bookworm Bug Butterfly Caterpillar Centipede Chafer Cicada Cockroach Cricket Drone bee Dung beetle Firefly Flea Fly Fruit fly Glow-worm Gnat Grasshopper Greenfly Hornet Insect Katydid Locust Louse Maggot Mantis Millipede Mosquito Moth Nit Sand fly Scorpion Silkworm Spider Termite Tick Vinegar fly Wasp Water beetle Water insect Weevil Worm
Ant
An ant guarding a mango
Used for a boy who is careful not to let other boys near his girlfriend
At high tide fish eat ants; at low tide ants eat fish.
Thailand
Even the sharpest ear cannot hear an ant singing.
Sudanese
Go to the ant thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
Bible: Proverbs 6:6
He who runs from the white ant may stumble upon the stinging ant.
Nigeria
In a battle between elephants, the ants get squashed
Thailand
None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.
She's got ants in her pants
A state of restless impatience.
The constant creeping of ants will wear away the stone.
To the ant, a few drops of dew is a flood.
Iranian
When the water rises the fish eat the ants, when the water falls the ants eat the fish
"Semut diseberang lautan terlihat, gajah didepan mata tidak" – An ant across the ocean is seen, but not the elephant nearby
Malay / Indonesian
This is a proverb for a person who sees faults in others while not seeing obvious faults in themselves
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Bed-bug
You can't have more bed-bugs than a blanket-full.
Spanish
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Bee
Bees that have honey in their mouths have stings in their tails.
English
If you let the bee be, the bee will let you be.
In that day the LORD will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria.
Bible: Isaiah 7:18
The bee’s knees
An excellent or the best person or thing.
The drone bee dies soon after the wedding night.
When the bee sucks, it makes honey; when the spider, poison.
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Beetle
Beetle away
Move away quickly
Beetle brain
Not too clever
Crime leaves a trail like a water beetle; like a snail, it leaves its silver track; like a horse-mango, it leaves its smell.
Malawi
Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother.
Moroccan
In his own nest a beetle is a sultan.
Egyptian
In the steppe even a beetle is meat.
Russian
The dung beetle, seeing its child on the wall, thinks it sees a pearl on a thread.
Arabic
Do you dare to die? The sense of death is most in apprehension, and the poor beetle that we tread upon feels a pang as great as when a giant dies.
William Shakespeare
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Bookworm
Bookworm
A person who is very fond of reading
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Bug
A bug
A fault in a machine (computer)
As snug as a bug in a rug.
Very snug. Warm and comfortable.
Bug-eyed
With eyes that stick out (e.g. bug-eyed with fright)
Bug-hunter
Entomologist
You can't have more bed-bugs than a blanket-full.
Spanish
Big black bugs bleed blue black blood but baby black bugs bleed blue blood
Tongue twister
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Butterfly
Happiness is a butterfly.
Proverbs are like butterflies, some are caught, some fly away
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
Rabindranath Tagore
The butterfly often forgets it once was a caterpillar.
Swedish
I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?
Chuang Tsu
You are like the butterfly that flies from flower to flower.
Love is like a butterfly, hold it to tight it will crush, hold it to loose, it will fly.
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Caterpillar
Even caterpillars can fly if they would just lighten up.
If caterpillars were meant to fly, God would have given them wings.
If only I were a bird! Ah, but eating caterpillars?
Palestinian
Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar.
Bradley Millar
The butterfly often forgets it once was a caterpillar.
Swedish
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Chafer
One chafer knows another.
Irish
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Cicada
Unlike the singing cicadas, the silent fireflies burn themselves.
Japanese
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Cockroach
If you step on people in this life, you're going to come back as a cockroach.
Willie Davis
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Cricket
All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest.
Bible: Leviticus 11
It is not summer until the crickets sing.
Greek
The cricket cries, the year changes.
Cameroonian
You can catch a cricket in your hand but its song is all over the field.
Madagascar
You don't teach a cricket to jump
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Drone bee
The drone bee dies soon after the wedding night.
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Dung beetle
The dung beetle, seeing its child on the wall, thinks it sees a pearl on a thread.
Arabic
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Firefly
Unlike the singing cicadas, the silent fireflies burn themselves.
Japanese
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Flea
Even a flea can bite.
Even good dogs have fleas.
Russian
If a flea had money, it would buy its own dog.
Jamaican
If you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas.
It is easier to guard a sack full of fleas than a girl in love.
Jewish
The brave flea dares to eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.
The fatter the flea, the leaner the dog.
German
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Fly
A fly may conquer a lion.
Do not draw your sword to kill a fly.
Korean
Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet.
China
Every fly has its shadow.
Portuguese
Flies will easily fly into the honey — their problem is how to get out.
Iranian
Haste is good only for catching flies.
Russian
If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground where they are.
Bible: Exodus 8:21
In that day the LORD will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria.
Bible: Isaiah 7:18
It's easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar
Laws catch flies, but let hornets go free.
Scottish
Laws, like the spider's web, catch the fly and let the hawk go free.
Spanish
The flight of the eagle will not stop that of the sand fly.
African
The fly flutters around the candle till it gets burnt.
Dutch
The most fragrant of flowers are eaten by the green-fly.
Malawi
The spider and the fly can't make a deal.
Jamaican
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.
Groucho Markx
To be as small as a vinegar fly and want to shit like an elephant
Too big for your boots
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Fruit fly
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.
Groucho Markx
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Glow-worm
As day breaks, the glow-worms say: 'We've lit up the world!'
Indian
It is foolish to show glow-worms by candle light.
Italian
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Gnat
Human knowledge will be erased from the world's archives before we possess the last word that a gnat has to say to us.
Henri Fabre
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Grasshopper
All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest.
Bible: Leviticus 11
Riding an elephant to catch grasshoppers
Using a sledge hammer to crack a nut
Most Internet users seem to have the attention span of grasshoppers
Stephen King
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Greenfly
The most fragrant of flowers are eaten by the green-fly.
Malawi
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Hornet
Laws catch flies, but let hornets go free.
Scottish
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Insect
An insect
An insignificant or contemptible person.
I always felt that insects are the general rule, and everything else is a special case.
Paul Bystrak
One tiny insect may be enough to destroy a country.
Ancient Arabic
The big fish eat the little fish, the little fish eat the water-insects, and the water-insects eat the weeds and mud.
China
We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.
Charles Darwin
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Katydid
All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest.
Bible: Leviticus 11
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Locust
The mantis seizes the locust but does not see the yellow bird behind him.
China
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Louse
A louse in the cabbage is better than no meat at all.
Don't draw a sword against a louse.
China
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Maggot
Like a moth in clothing, or a maggot in wood, sorrow gnaws at the human heart.
Bible: Proverbs 25: 20
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Mantis
The mantis seizes the locust but does not see the yellow bird behind him.
China
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Millipede
We keep an eye on the scorpion and the serpent, but we do not watch out for the millipede.
Sicilian
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Mosquito
As different as an elephant and a mosquito
He can swallow a camel but chokes on a mosquito.
Lebanese
In heaven you won't hear the mosquitoes.
Finnish
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Moth
He dreads a moth who has been stung by a wasp.
Albanian
Moth-eaten
Old-fashioned ; out of date (e.g. moth-eaten ideas)
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Nit
Don't be such a nit-picker!
Nitpicking = giving too much attention to unimportant details
He's a nitwit
He's a stupid person. A foolish person.
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Sand fly
The flight of the eagle will not stop that of the sand fly.
African
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Scorpion
Even the hand of compassion is stung when it strokes a scorpion.
Persian
We keep an eye on the scorpion and the serpent, but we do not watch out for the millipede.
Sicilian
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Silkworm
Don't feed a silkworm that's sleeping
Let sleeping dogs sleep
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Spider
Laws, like the spider's web, catch the fly and let the hawk go free.
Spanish
The spider and the fly can't make a deal.
Jamaican
When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion.
Ethiopian
When the bee sucks, it makes honey; when the spider, poison.
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Termite
A termite can do nothing to a stone but lick it.
Sudanese
Flying termites fly into the fire
To act on impulse
Termites live underground.
Ethiopian
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Tick
A tick
An unpleasant or worthless person
You are like a tick in a dog's ear.
I'm full as a tick on a fat dog!
Expression used in the US south after a full meal of chicken, fried steak, BBQ or whatever
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Vinegar fly
To be as small as a vinegar fly and want to shit like an elephant
Too big for your boots
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Wasp
For every grape a hundred wasps.
Persian
He dreads a moth who has been stung by a wasp.
Albanian
I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.
Charles Darwin
The fangs of the green snake and the sting of a wasp don't really make poison — that is only to be found in a woman's heart.
China
Waspish
Bad tempered
Women are like wasps in their anger.
English
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Water beetle
Crime leaves a trail like a water beetle; like a snail, it leaves its silver track; like a horse-mango, it leaves its smell.
Malawi
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Water-insect
The big fish eat the little fish, the little fish eat the water-insects, and the water-insects eat the weeds and mud.
China
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Weevil
For every bean full of weevils God supplies a blind grocer.
Arabic
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Worm
Don't feed a silkworm that's sleeping
Let sleeping dogs sleep
God gives every bird his worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.
Swedish
Never look for a worm in the apple of your eye.
Proverb
With money, a dragon, without it, a worm.
China
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This was just a selection of proverbs and quotes about insects. Look here for MORE…
