Dreams about insects – what do they mean? (dream interpretation insects)
Dream interpretation insects or bugs. Dreaming about creepy-crawlies is not uncommon, but what does it actually mean? It can be several things.
NOTE: Corona-update (April 2020) – the corona pandemic has resulted in a huge increase in dreams about bugs/insects attacking / crawling all over the body (as shown in preliminary corona pandemic dream research). In this image these dreams might simply symbolize our reaction (deep down) to the pandemic.
Mostly our fear/anxiety in relation to the virus – that then might show that we are more afraid/anxious than we maybe think we are.
Other angles on insect dreams / dreams about bugs:
Negative feelings that haunt you. Dreaming about insects or bugs – especially in large numbers – is often a symbol of negative thoughts or feelings (guilt, anxiety) that haunt you or, more metaphorically, crawls through your unconscious mind. You might ask yourself: what is it I am trying to push away or will not face?
Is it an old habit or previous experience that I am trying to avoid confronting and which is now popping up? If previous bad experiences lurk in the unconscious mind, one thing is certain: they influence – often in a negative manner – the way you think and act when you are awake.
This can for example be about low self-esteem because of the bad experience or a significant unconscious feeling of envy that may ruin your relationships with others.
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When trying to understand your dreams it is important to know that your dreams are… your dreams. As such, you are the best person to figure out the true meaning of your dreams.
However, it is important to learn how to generally approach your dreams. Dream dictionaries like this one are only a supplement, and if you want to fully utilize the potential of your dreams, you should start at a different place.
My online course “Unlock your DREAMlife” gives you a great foundation for understanding (and recalling) your dreams.
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Not being in touch with your instincts. However, it can also be about a fundamental instinctive part of yourself that you are not utilizing. In other words, you can be too “in your head” (too rational or logical), and a dream about loads of insects can in this way be a strong indication to change your approach to life and the challenges you might encounter.
Try noticing how you feel instead of overthinking things.
The individual insects can also be significant. An ant can symbolize a more group based and organized approach to life – a lone ant can therefore mean isolation. Do you have to ask for help and bring others into the solution to your challenges, or do you have to find your inner organizer?
The group mentality also applies to bees, but a bee that stings you can mean that someone or something has “stung you” – have you recently been hurt by others (external interpretation), or has a sudden inner impulse/feeling left negative traces (internal interpretation)? A significant theme in the world of dreams is spiders – see the blog post about Spiders.
Caterpillars, cocoons and butterflies are often signs of something growing into something bigger and better – a process of maturing, in other words. What inside of you is right now a caterpillar that one day could become a big, beautiful butterfly?
Worms – depending on the species – often feed on decaying things, and a dream where worms appear might be a symbol of something within you rotting or decaying. This can be a positive thing (destructive thoughts and patterns that have died), but it can also be a strong and positive, but unused aspect of yourself, and if you are not careful, this aspect might be lost.
Worms, however, can also symbolize something you feel threatened by, maybe a weakness or negativism.
If you are dreaming about ringworm, this might mean you have to take better care of your body (it will rarely mean that you actually have ringworm).
Dream dictionaries are a very helpful tool when interpreting dreams. However, generally learning how to approach your dreams, will give you a better foundation for understanding them. My online course “Unlock your DREAMlife” teaches you how to much better utilize – recall and understand – your dreams.
Also read: Why I no longer interpret dreams for free
Return to the index of dream themes and symbols:
Dream interpretation A-Z ↵
NOTE: Dream interpretation is not always an easy skill, and when you dream about insects, it is almost certainly about something different for you than it is for someone else dreaming about insects. It is crucial that you feel the interpretation fits you, but it might be the case that the above interpretations do not suit you and your situation.
During a hot summer night I worked up terrified because a man friend was brushing off tiny black bugs off my back while other coworkers watched. The bugs didn’t bite but the thought of them on my body made me feel itchy all over after I woke up and It frightened me because I didn’t know why they would be in my dream. Is this a bad omen for something bad to happen to my health?
dreamt i had very two large beetles on my back and they were piercing through my skin biting me and i couldn’t get them off, tried to rinse them in the shower and even had my brother show up in the dream to help get them off but no one could, this is when i woke up in a panic with my back feeling really weird. Such a weird dream to have, the beetles were really big and hard shelled.
My dream had a make believe bug in it that i’ve dreamt about before. take a mosquito eater kinda, but the body’s about the size of half a pencil (thickness included) and it has wings that are long and thin. the whole thing was about as big as my hand, and it’s colors where really appealing looking, it’s body was light green and it’s wings where light pink. It’s wings flutter super fast and dramatically like a grasshopper kinda, but it could still stay in the air for along time. Anyway the bug starting buzzing around and i acted exactly like i would in real life, sorta like oh a bug and only flinched if it really came close to my face. then it landed in my hand and just kept flapping it wings there still really buzzy and dramatically. i was still just like ok a bug and tried to chill and just hold my hand out there, but it kept flapping and i shook my hand to get it to fly away. it went of my hand but kept flying around me, and so i was doing that thing where your flinching and spinning because there’s a bug flying around you, and it went behind me and i couldn’t see it, but i think i woke up when it was by my hair. The whole time i was like oh this bug again, I remember this. When I woke up i remembered that bug from a different dream.
My dream was super horrific! I had gone to my bathroom to pee then found a rolled up ball of toilet paper. I took it and unfurled it then a gooey like substance seeped out it and next thing my entire hands were covered in it. Next thing I know, bugs start to come out of the paper and multiply in number. I run out to go get an insecticide and come back only to find out that my entire room is filled with them. The bugs are of different varieties..worms, maggots, geckos, lizards, beetles, little and big roaches, and others are just unrecognisable. Some are dead, others alive, some eat the others, there are even baby snakes. And they all just kept increasing in number but in the dream I felt no fear. Needless to say I don’t think I want to have that kind of dream again.
in my dream i was layin down while a friend layed a spider on my back. At first i wasnt scared but as its legs started moving slowly one by one towards my neck i started to panic and thought there was a actual spider on me so i woke myself up
pregnancy dream but i digress, i walked on grass in socks and got what i thought was a bunch of stickers in my socks, my uncle ripped one sock off and i was telling some kids in my family “you pull the stickers off before taking your socks off” then went todo so and instead found several biting insects and colorful spiders (only the insects existed in real life, interestingly there was a single ant) and still tried to pick them off but they started crawling around my wrist, the insects were attacking me but the spiders were not. strange
This unusually big beatle eats the normal size beatle.
I had a dream this one happed a few times. I waked in the bathroom seen what looked like rice so I went to clean it up and the turned into big white flaying things they started chasing me the bit me feel dizzy then woke up having hard time breathing
I had a dream when i woke up i was in a small room with only a bed, book bags. The floor was yellow and so many small dogs around, and the worst part was the little insects crawling all over my body. And the need to take them off from my body. But what was interesting was being able to wake myself up from the dream. Any thoughts
I had a dream that there was a huge infestation in my house of flying beetles/bees that would run after me and try to attack. And I sprayed them with toxins so they could die but they didn’t so I tried to bring them all outside but then they joined and became a huge beard and my mom was screaming and I had to run outside and caught them in a box full of water and suffocating them and they died. Istg if I ever see a flying beetle irl I’m zooming tf outta there
I had a dream last night of a huge long structure with a wall standing strong while in front there were power lines and poles falling down. Many people we’re trying to hold them up and I wasn’t close enough to help. So I climbed through what seemed like ladders and trees to get to a larger tree with all the structures next to an aunt I don’t really speak to. The tree I ended up on was large and strong. Someone was already on the tree saying be careful the bugs kill. The many black grasshoppers blended in the tree then the other bugs started to shift around. They we’re almost spider like with square bodies and a lot of legs brown and hairy. I still can’t figure out this dream 🤔
In my dream, I was chasing down a cockroach. As I was running I tried to smash it, but it just got injured (like losing a leg or whatever). Eventually I smashed it that it injured its wing. I threw it out, but then a stranger saw it and took care of it. I don’t know why but, one thing I can say, my dreams are weird.
I dreamt I went under a bridge and I was floating whilst walking under it. The water was stagnant and dark but with pretty green algal bloom and under the bridge there were soo many bugs. The bridge was brand new modern and smooth cement arches were extremely colourful but up close they were loads of bugs perfectly spaced out and still. I’ve been dreaming in grayscale over 4 months but this was the first colour I’ve had since then, or maybe second. They were flying about and a few landed on my which I brushed off. There weren’t only adult bugs but larvae and chrysalis which were very beautiful.
I also had a dream last night where bugs were falling from me while taking a shower.
I had a dream I was taking a shower and roaches and beetles were falling off my buddy like just pouring out of my hair and they were crawling up my skin.
In my dream, baby spiders kept crawling or showing out of no where. They stick onto my skin and my family was trying pull/get them out but they just kept crawling back.
While adult spiders were just falling from the ceiling. It was terrifying.
I dreamed of big bugs, may be beetles or cockroaches, in a type of bag like ziplock with a hole. I tried to kill or crush one of the bugs but I remember it being very hard, like it has a shell and it didn’t budge. I was scared in the dream and walking away from it as I was scared they’d all crawl out of the bag.