This file includes Ants and Termites, Bees and Wasps, Bugs and Beetles, Butterflies and Moths, Centipedes, Scorpions, and Worms, Cockroaches, Crickets and Grasshoppers, Dragonflies, Fireflies, Flies and Fleas, Ladybugs, Mosquitoes and Gnats, Spiders, and Birds. Also see Misc Animals.

Little Talk

(Aileen Fisher)

Don't you think it's probable
that beetles, bugs and bees
talk about a lot of things -
you know, such things as these:

The kind of weather where they live
in jungles tall with grass
and earthquakes in their villages
whenever people pass!

Of course, we'll never know if bugs
talk very much at all,
because our ears are far too big
for talk that is so small.

Ants and Termites

Page Toppers

• Antics
• The Ants Go Marching One by One
• Ants in your pants

Quotes

The Termite

(Ogden Nash)

Some primal termite knocked on wood;
and tasted it, and found it good.
That is why your Cousin May
fell through the parlor floor today.

Songs about Ants and Termites

• Ants in Your Pants - Rosenshontz (2004)
• Ants Marching - Dave Matthews Band (1998)
• Terrible Terry the Termite - Captain Stubby Band (1946)

Bees and Wasps

Page Toppers for Bee Stickers

Bumble Bee

(Margaret Wise Brown)

Black and yellow
Little fur bee
Buzzing away
In the timothy
Drowsy
Browsy
Lump of a bee
Rumbly
Tumbly
Bumbly bee.
Where are you taking
Your golden plunder
Humming along
Like baby thunder?
Over the clover
And over the hay
Then over the apple trees
Zoom away.

Busy Bee

Songs about Bees

• Bee Hive - B. Bumble and the Stingers (1961)
• Beehive State, The - Randy Newman (1968)
• Bees in My Bonnet - Johnnie Lee Wills (1953)
• Birds and the Bees, The - Jewel Akens (1965)
• Birds, Bees, Cupids and Bows - Shirley Ellis (1966)
• Birds, Bees, Girls and Stuff Like That - Junior Samples and Archie Campbell (1969)
• Birds 'n' Bees - The Temps (1959)
• Bumble Bee - The Searchers (1965)
• Bumblebee Song, The - Barry Louis Polisar (1993)
• Buzz, Buzz, Buzz - Hollywood Flames (1958)
• Flight of the Bumblebee - Bach to the Future (2008)
• Honey Bee - Lucinda Williams (2008)
• Honey Bees and Tulips - Whitey Shafer (1968)
• Sneezin' Bee, The - Spike Jones and His Band (1956)
• To Be a Bee - Gina Howell (2003)
• To Bee of Not to Bee - Christophe Wallemme (2008)
• When the Bees Are in the Hive - Gene Bush (2005)
• Worker Bee - Nuisance (1994)
• Yellow Bee - Jimmy Adler (2005)

Page Idea

Give each customer a zig zag ruler; a 12" strip of green paper with the zig zag cut out on one side; five yellow and four purple polka dot triangles to alternate in the open areas on the green strip; and one mod of bumblebee stickers. I did an example on a black refill page using outdoor pics of my daughter and titled it "We were busy as bees in preschool!". I also did a 2-page spread with the triangles inside the green along the outside edges that is titled "Meet my honeys!". (Momof6)

Old beekeepers never die, they just buzz off.

Songs about Wasps

• Greedy Wasp, The - Sandi and Stevie (2005)
• Paper Wasp, The - Aunties (2006)
• Song to a Little Yellow Wasp - Rafael Mendez (1965)
• Wasp, The - Paul Curreri (2007)
• Wasp in a Jar - Down I Go (2006)
• Wasp Lands on Sunflower - Tom Alford (2008)
• Wasp on Jar - Raised By Wolves (2008)
• Wasps and White Roses - Matt Bauer (2006)
• Wasps Nest - Tellison (2008)
• Wasps Under a Toy Boat - Phil Kieran (2008)
• Sting of the Yellow Jackets - J. Bill and J. Rose (2000)
• Yellow Jacket - The Ventures (1962)

Bugs and Beetles

Page Toppers

Quotes about Bugs and Beetles

• As snug as a bug in a rug.
• Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them.
• I have my own views about Nature's methods, though I feel that it is rather like a beetle giving his opinions upon the Milky Way. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
• Some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield.
• When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of the globe, he doesn't realize that the track he has covered is curved. I was lucky enough to have spotted it. (Albert Einstein)
• When birds burp, it must taste like bugs. (Bill Watterson)
• You can't have more bedbugs than a blanket-full. (Spanish Proverb)

Songs about Bugs and Beetles

• Battling Beetles - Sandi and Stevie (2005)
• Beetle Bug - Link Davis (2005)
• Beetle-Bug-Bop - The Collins Kids (1955)
• Big Bug Boogie - Hamp Garnett (2008)
• Blue Beetle - The Kootz (2005)
• Boll Weevil Song, The - Brook Benton (1961)
• Box Elder Beetles - Tom Adams (2001)
• Bugs and Beetles - Franciscus Henri (1998)
• Doodlebug - Charlie Gracie (1959)
• Japanese Beetle - Midsummer (2007)
• June-Bug Jitters - Wade Ray (1952)
• Junebug - B-52's (1989)
• Little Black Beetle - Laura Love (2003)
• Little Bug - Russell Byrd (1961)
• Snug as a Bug in a Rug - Amy Rouse (2003)
• Two Bugs in a Rug - Earl Hooker (2006)
• Waterbugs and Beetles - Anton Barbeau (1994)

Butterflies, Caterpillars and Moths

Page Toppers

• Butterflies Are Free
• Butterfly Kisses
• Social Butterfly

Quotes

• Butterflies are self propelled flowers. (R. H. Heinlein)
• The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. (Rabindranath Tagore)
• The butterfly is a flying flower, The flower a tethered butterfly. (Ecouchard Le Brun)
• A butterfly lights beside us and for a brief moment it's glory and beauty belong to our world, but then it flies on again and although we wish it could have stayed, we are so thankful to have seen it at all.
• Flowers and butterflies drift in color: illuminating spring.
• Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder. (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
• Happiness is like a butterfly. When pursued, it is always beyond your grasp,
  but if you sit quietly, it may alight upon you.
• I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man. (Chang Tzu)
• If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies.
• If you have butterflies in your stomach...invite them into your heart.
• Love is like a butterfly, hold it too tight, it'll crush, hold it too loose, it'll fly away.
• Love is like a butterfly, it goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes.
• Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar. (Bradley Millar)
• There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. (R. Buckminster Fuller)
• They say that something as small as a butterfly beating its wings in China can cause a hurricane in America, so maybe we should go to China and kill all the butterflies, just to be safe. (Ken Advent)
• You can chase a butterfly all over the field and never catch it. But if you sit quietly in the grass it will come and sit on your shoulder.

Opposing Thoughts of Butterflies

A Butterfly Lights Beside Us

A butterfly lights beside us, like a sunbeam...
and for a brief moment it's glory
and beauty belong to our world...
but then it flies on again, and although
we wish it could have stayed,
we are so thankful to have seen it at all.

Butterfly

Flutter by,
Butterfly,
Floating flower
in the sky.
Kiss me with your
Petal wings -
Whisper secrets,
Tell of spring.

Songs about Butterflies

• Blue Boots and Butterflies - Ida Klemann (2006)
• Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins (2005)
• Butterflies and Hurricanes - Muse (2004)
• Butterflies and Moths - Paul Mulligan (2007)
• Butterfly - Mariah Carey (1997)
• Butterfly Baby - Bobby Rydell (1963)
• Butterfly Bleu - Iron Butterfly (1970)
• Butterfly for Bucky - Bobby Goldsboro (1976)
• Butterfly High - P. J. Proby (1967)
• Butterfly Kisses - The Raybon Brothers (1997)
• Butterfly Love - Jim Reeves (1953)
• Butterfly Sting - Whitney Duncan (2007)
• Butterfly Stomp - Doug Markley (2002)
• Butterfly Weed - Norman and Nancy Blake (1986)
• Butterfly's Love, A - Gary Matthews (2008)
• Dog and Butterfly - Heart (1979)
• Elusive Butterfly - Judy Lynn (1971)
• Emerald Butterfly - The Pharcyde (2005)
• Funny Little Butterflies - Patty Duke (1965)
• Green Little Butterfly - Viktoria Tolstoy (2008)
• Iridescent Butterfly - Fat Mattress (1969)
• Jesamine, a Butterfly Child - The Casuals (1968)
• Just Like a Butterfly That's Caught in the Rain - Levinson (2006)
• Little Blue Butterfly - Death in June (1997)
• Little Butterfly - Andrew Allan Bentley (2008)
• Love is Like a Butterfly - Dolly Parton (1974)
• My Little Butterfly - Joe Fisher (2007)
• Orange Butterfly - Five Nickel High (2006)
• Petite Papillon (Little Butterfly) - Three Suns (1956)
• Poor Butterfly - Flip Phillips (1988)
• Rainbows and Butterflies - Billy Swan (1983)
• Rare Butterfly - Count Basie (1960)
• Rose and the Butterfly, The - Rosemary Clooney (1961)
• She's a Butterfly - Martina McBride (2003)
• Wings of a Butterfly - Him (2005)

Songs about Caterpillars

• Advice From a Caterpillar - One Ring Zero (2002)
• Carmine the Caterpillar - Captain Al (2006)
• Caterpillar - Stewart Lewis (2002)
• Caterpillar Crawl, The - Timothy Davey (2002)
• Caterpillar Crossing - Gary Brunotte (2004)
• Caterpillar's Destiny, A - Xulinos (2001)
• Cousin Caterpillar - Incredible String Band (2007)
• Fuzzy Wuzzy Caterpillar - Love to Sing Kids (1996)
• Hairy Caterpillar - Christopher Smith (2007)
• Little Caterpillar - Barb Tilsen (2001)
• Miller the Caterpillar - Pam Herstein (2005)
• One Fuzzy Caterpillar - Dave Kinnoin (2006)

Songs about Moths

• Black Moth - Bigelf (2005)
• Butterflies and Moths - Paul Mulligan (2007)
• Cabbage Moth Population, The - Wozny Project (2007)
• Candle and the Moth, The - Sussan Deyhim (2007)
• Gypsy Moth - Sandi and Stevie (2005)
• Like a Moth to the Flame - Bo Lozoff (2004)
• Luna Moth - Elevenland (1997)
• Moth, The - Aimee Mann (2002)
• Moths in Twilight - Kourosh Dini (2008)

Centipedes, Worms and Scorpions

The Puzzled Centipede

A centipede was happy quite,
Until a frog in fun
Said, "Pray, which leg comes after which?"
This raised her mind to such a pitch,
She lay distracted in the ditch
Considering how to run.

The Scorpion

The Scorpion is as black as soot,
He dearly loves to bite;
He is a most unpleasant brute
To find in bed at night.

Songs about Worms, Centipedes and Scorpions

• Bird and the Worm, The - The Used (2007)
• Centipede - Rebbie Jackson (1998)
• Glow-Worm, The - The Mills Brothers (1952)
• Groovy Grubworm - Harlow Wilcox Band (1969)
• Inch Worm - We Five (1967)
• Scorpion's Nest - HuDost (2006)
• Wally the Worm - Jules (2005)
• Worm, The - Jimmy McGriff (1968)
• Worm on a Hook - Karsten Pflum (2004)
• Worms Crawl in, The - Robert Walsh (2007)
• Worms Don't Care, The - Stacy Lloyd Brown (2007)

Cockroaches

Quotes

• Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most. (Joseph Wood Krutch)
• Cockroaches really put my 'all creatures great and small' creed to the test. (Astrid Alauda)
• If you step on people in this life, you're going to come back as a cockroach. (Willie Davis)

Songs about Cockroaches

• Angry Cockroaches - Cooder Graw (2002)
• Cockroach - Sweet (2002)
• Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati, The - Possum (1975)
• Cockroaches - Barry Black (1995)
• Rats and Roaches - Calvin Russell (2006)
• Roach Song, The - Brook Benton (1966)
• Running Cockroach, The - Sandi and Stevie (2005)

Crickets and Grasshoppers

Songs about Crickets and Grasshoppers

• Campfire and Crickets - Greg Loskorn (2006)
• Cricket's Life, A - Craig Toungate (2001)
• Crickets - Zerova (2009)
• Cross-eyed Cricket - Tony Trischka (2008)
• Grasshopper - Jeff Lorber (1994)
• Little Cricket - The Royal Teens (1959)
• My Cricket and Me - Willie Nelson (2005)
• Wicked Little Cricket - Kenny Roberts (1954)

Haiku

(Rea Williams)

On the Grasshopper and Cricket

(John Keats)

The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper's - he takes the lead
In summer luxury, - he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

An Explanation of the Grasshopper

(Vachel Lindsay)

The Grasshopper, the Grasshopper,
I will explain to you -
He is the Brownies' racehorse,
The Fairies' Kangaroo.

Dragonflies

A Dragon-Fly

(Eleanor Farjeon)

When the heat of the summer
Made drowsy the land,
A dragon-fly came
And sat on my hand,
With its blue jointed body,
And wings like spun glass,
It lit on my fingers
As though they were grass.

Songs about Dragonflies

• Blue Dragonfly - Eye to Eye (2003)
• Cats and Dragonflies - Rob Barraco (2007)
• Chasing Dragonflies - Erik Dinardo (2006)
• Dance of the Dragonfly - Kevin Kern (1998)
• Dragonflies - Dan Landrum (2003)
• Dragonflies and Hummingbirds - Paulin Voss (2008)
• Dragonflies in the Rain - Marianne Nowottny (2006)
• Dragonfly - Sandi and Stevie (2005)
• Dragonfly Dance - Ted Shinn (2008)
• Dragonfly Dreams - The Brimsek Brothers (2000)
• Dragonfly Waltz - Pamela Bruner (2008)
• Dragonfly Wing - Mason Lindahl (2005)
• Indigo Dragonfly - Solace (2005)
• Red Dragonfly - Shinobu Sato (1987)

Fireflies

After Dark

(Frances Gorman Risser)

Songs about Fireflies

• Catching Fireflies - Serah (2002)
• Chasing Fireflies - Alex Grant (2000)
• Dance of the Fireflies - Stephen Bennett (2006)
• Dot-Matrix Firefly - Ikae (2005)
• Fireflies - Laura Rossi (2007)
• Fireflies and Daydreams - Gary Morrison (2008)
• Fireflies and Fairies - Linda Seeley (2005)
• Fireflies in the Rain - Rick Ross (2000)
• Firefly - Rena Jones (2006)
• Firefly Waltz, The - Peter Weatherall (2005)

Flies and Fleas

Quotes

• The fatter the flea the leaner the dog. (German Proverb)
• A flea can jump 350 times its body length, that is like a human jumping the length of a football field.
• The flea, though he kill none, he does all the harm he can. (John Donne)
• Nothing seems to please a fly so much as to be taken for a currant; and if it can be baked in a cake and palmed off on the unwary, it dies happy. (Mark Twain)
• One does not burn a blanket to get rid of a flea. (Turkish Proverb)

Bug in a Jug

Curious fly,
Vinegar jug,
Slippery edge,
Pickled bug.

The Fly

(Ogden Nash)

The Lord in His wisdom made the fly,
And then forgot to tell us why.

Fleas

(Strickland Gillilan)

Adam
Had'em

Songs about Fleas

• About a Flea - Capricorn (2005)
• Dogs and Fleas - Andy Lee White (2005)
• Flea, The - Protos (2006)
• Flea Bites - GloryBee (2004)
• Flea Circus - Steve Quelet (2004)
• Flea on a Spree - Teddy Powell (2001)
• My Dog Has Fleas - Ella Jenkins (1993)
• Spanish Flea - Tijuana Brass (1966)

Ladybugs

Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home

Ladybug, Ladybug

(Aileen Fisher)

Ladybug

(Maria Fleming)

Ladybugs all dressed in red
Strolling through the flower bed.
If I were tiny just like you
I'd creep among the flowers too!

Songs about Ladybugs

• For a Ladybug - Fab Tranzer (2007)
• Ladybug - Kim Fox (2003)
• Ladybug and the Centipede, The - Saltzberg (2000)
• Ladybug Luck - John Christian (2008)
• Ladybug Without Spots, The - Randy Kaplan (2008)
• Lucky Ladybug - Guv'ner (1999)

Mosquitoes and Gnats

Quotes

• Even a mosquito doesn't get a slap on the back until it starts to work.
• If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito. (Betty Reese)
• The mosquito is the state bird of New Jersey. (Andy Warhol)
• People who claim they don't let little things bother them have never slept in a room with a single mosquito.
• Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

The Gnat

Gnats are gnumerous
But small.
We hardly gnotice them
At all.

Songs about Mosquitoes

• Delirious Mosquito - Plutonium (2008)
• Flight of the Mosquitoes - Atomic Mosquitoes (2002)
• Incognito Mosquito - The Vanities (2003)
• Little Mosquito - Kerosene (2008)
• Mosquito - Mosquitoes (2003)
• Mosquito Bite - Russ Miller (2007)
• Mosquito Bytes - Kooky Scientist (2005)
• Mosquito Net - Maggie Brown (2004)

Spiders

Songs about Spiders

• Black Widow, The - Alice Cooper (1974)
• Black Widow Spider - Big Brother and the Holding Company (1971)
• Boris the Spider - The Who (1966)
• Cobwebs and Dust - Gordon Lightfoot (1970)
• Eensy Weensy Spider - Raffi (2002)
• Glass Spider - David Bowie (1987)
• In the Spider's Web - Manose (2002)
• Itsy Bitsy Spider, The - Carly Simon (1987)
• Spider, The - Flanders and Swann (1964)
• Spider and the Fly, The - Bobby Hart (1961)
• Spider Walk, The - Johnny Moore (1961)
• Spiders and Snakes - Jim Stafford (1973)
• Spider's Web - The Holt Twins (2003)
• Spinning a Web - The Gaylords (1953)
• Tarantula - Bob Regan (1964)
• There's a Spider in my Room - Barenaked Ladies (1996)

Itsy Bitsy Spider

The itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
And the itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the spout again

Birds

Birds have been moved to a separate file.