Proverbs and quotes about insects and spiders
A collection of proverbs, quotes, expressions, etc. all about insects and spiders. This page shows a summary of my English collection. Click here for a complete listing. Please have a look at my Dutch collection.
If you know more insect related quotes or proverbs, please send me a message.
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 | WormAnt
| 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 | ||
| If the world had more ants, would we be the ones in the farms and the ants would be our masters? | |||
| 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 |
Bed-bug
| You can't have more bed-bugs than a blanket-full. | Spanish | ||
| Bed bugs might be smarter than me, speaking from someone who has a masters in project management, they have found the most comfiest place in the house. |
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. |
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 |
Bookworm
| Bookworm | A person who is very fond of reading | ||
| Being a Bookworm isn't so bad. I love books, and I don't mind worms but atleast being a Bookworm got me an online MBA. |
| 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 |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| One chafer knows another. | Irish |
Cicada
| Unlike the singing cicadas, the silent fireflies burn themselves. | Japanese |
| If you step on people in this life, you're going to come back as a cockroach. | Willie Davis |
| 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 |
| The drone bee dies soon after the wedding night. |
| The dung beetle, seeing its child on the wall, thinks it sees a pearl on a thread. | Arabic |
| Unlike the singing cicadas, the silent fireflies burn themselves. | Japanese |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. | Groucho Markx |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| The most fragrant of flowers are eaten by the green-fly. | Malawi |
| Laws catch flies, but let hornets go free. | Scottish |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| The mantis seizes the locust but does not see the yellow bird behind him. | China |
| A louse in the cabbage is better than no meat at all. | |||
| Don't draw a sword against a louse. | China |
| Like a moth in clothing, or a maggot in wood, sorrow gnaws at the human heart. | Bible: Proverbs 25: 20 |
| The mantis seizes the locust but does not see the yellow bird behind him. | China |
| We keep an eye on the scorpion and the serpent, but we do not watch out for the millipede. | Sicilian |
| 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 |
| He dreads a moth who has been stung by a wasp. | Albanian | ||
| Moth-eaten | Old-fashioned ; out of date (e.g. moth-eaten ideas) |
| 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. |
| The flight of the eagle will not stop that of the sand fly. | African |
| 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 |
| Don't feed a silkworm that's sleeping | Let sleeping dogs sleep |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| To be as small as a vinegar fly and want to shit like an elephant | Too big for your boots |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| The big fish eat the little fish, the little fish eat the water-insects, and the water-insects eat the weeds and mud. | China |
| For every bean full of weevils God supplies a blind grocer. | Arabic |
| 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 |