ARTHROPOD PROVERBS

Compiled by:
Donald W. Hall (dwh@ifas.ufl.edu)
Dept. of Entomology & Nematology
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-0620

"A proverb is the wit of one and the wisdom of many."

"When a fool is told a proverb, its meaning has to be explained to him." (Ashanti proverb) -- Proverbs and Sayings of Ireland

Index

Arachnida	Anoplura	Chilopoda	Coleoptera	Crustacea	Diptera	Hemiptera	Homoptera
Hymenoptera	Insects	Isoptera	Lepidoptera	Mantodea	Orthoptera	References	Siphonaptera

Arachnida

The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces. (Proverbs 30:28)
The spiders web lets the rat escape and catches the fly.(7) (Spanish)
A spider spins his web strand by strand.(2)
You are like a tick in a dog's ear.(5)
The camel carries the load, but it is the tick that complains.(6) (Moroccan)
The scorpion is sister to the snake.(6)
Even the hand of compassion is stung when it strokes a scorpion.(6) (Persian)
Relations are scorpions.(6) (Tunisian)
Two scorpions in a small cave are better than two sisters in the house.(6) (Arabic)
He who has been stung by a scorpion is afraid of its shadow.(8) (Spanish)
To destroy the cobweb, destroy the spider.(6) (Maltese)

Chilopoda

A centipede though dead will not fall.(7) (Japanese)
Though the centipede has one of its legs broken, this does not affect its movement.(7) (Burmese)

Crustacea

The young lobster learns his manner of walking from the old lobster.(7) (Slovakian)
Two small lobsters make a big one.(7) (Manx)
A bewildered crab does not enter its hole.(11) (Japanese)

Insects

One tiny insect may be enough to destroy a country.(6) (Ancient Arabic)
The smallest insect may cause death by its bite.(8)
The summer insect cannot talk of ice; the frog in the well cannot talk of heaven.(7),(8) (Chinese)
The summer insect knows not ice.(7),(11) (Japanese)
The big fish eat the little fish, the little fish eat the water-insects, and the water-insects eat the weeds and mud.(10) (Chinese)
The hinge of a door is never crowded with insects.(10) (Chinese)
Kill a small insect to let live a big one.(11) (Japanese)
Even a one-inch insect has a five tenths of a soul.(11) (Japanese)

Anoplura

Money begets money, lice beget lice.(6) (Arabic)

Coleoptera

One beetle knows another.(1)(Irish)
One chafer knows another.1,(7) (Irish)
If you fool with the tumble-turd bug, you are apt to be spattered.(2)
Fireflies shine only when in motion.(2)
The light of the firefly is sufficient for itself only.(2)
Glowworms are not lanterns.(2)
It is foolish to show glowworms by candle light.(8) (Italian)
Unlike the singing cicadas, the silent fireflies burn themselves.(11) (Japanese)
A man once struck with a firebrand runs away on seeing a glowworm.(8) (Bengalese)
The man who has been beaten by a firebrand runs away at the sight of a firefly.(8) (Cingalese)
The rose has its thorn, the peach its worm.(2) (plum curculio?)
When they started to shoe the Sultan's horse, the beetle stretched out its leg.(6) (Arabic)
The dung beetle, seeing its child on the wall, thinks it sees a pearl on a thread.(6) (Arabic)
The beetle is a beauty in the eyes of its mother.(7),(9) (Arabian, Egyptian)
The beetle is a bride in the arms of its mother.(9) (Arabian)
For every bean full of weevils God supplies a blind grocer.(6) (Arabic)
However much the beetle is afraid it will not stop the lizard swallowing it.(7) (African)
In the steppe even a beetle is meat.(7) (Russian)
If the timid sees a glowworm he shouts: Fire!(9) (Armenian)

Diptera

A fly follows honey.(2)
A fly may conquer a lion.(2)
A person is not a fly.(2)
Big flies break the spider web.(2),(7) (Italian)
Can't kill flies with a spear.(2)
One dead fly spoils much good ointment.(14) (New England)
Dying flies spoil the sweetness of the ointment.(2)
Even a fly has its spleen.(2),(4) (English)
Even a fly has its anger.(7) (Italian)
Flies do not swarm on a new pot.(9) (Tamil)
A fly to a fly.(9) (Telugu)
To a boiling pot flies come not.(7),(8) (English)
Flies never bother a boiling pot.(2)
Flies will not light on a boiling pot.(7) (French)
No flies land on a boiling pot.(7) (Spanish)
No fly dares to get near a boiling kettle.(7) (Mexican)
You can catch more flies with molasses than vinegar.(2)
You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.(2),(7)
With honey you can catch more flies than with vinegar.(7) (Yiddish)
Eagles don't catch flies.(3),(4)
Make yourself all honey, and the flies will devour you.(4),(8)
Flies hunt (go to) lean horses.(4)
Into a shut mouth flies fly not.(4)
A shut mouth catches no flies.(8)
Into a closed mouth no fly will enter.(7) (Moroccan)
No flies get into a shut mouth.(7) (Spanish)
The biting fly gets nothing by alighting on the back of the tortoise.(7) (African - Ashanti)
The biting fly has no one to come to his aid in trouble.(7) (African - Ashanti)
The busy fly is in every man's dish.(7) (Spanish)
The fly does not kill, but it does spoil.(7) (Hebrew)
The fly flutters around the candle till at last it gets burnt.(7) (Dutch)
The fly heeds not death; eating is all to him.(7) (African - Yoruba)
The fly that bites the tortoise breaks its beak.(7) (Italian)
The fly that stands on the carabao's (water buffalo) back thinks that it is taller than the carabao.(7) (Phillipine)
The flight of the eagle will not stop that of the sand fly.(7) (African)
A fly can drive away horses.(7) (Greek)
A fly does not mind dying in coconut cream.(7) (African - Swahili)
A fly is nothing; yet it creates loathsomeness.(7) (Egyptian)
Every fly has its shadow.(7) (Portuguese)
Flies and priests can enter any house.(7) (Russian)
Flies are caught more readily with a single drop of honey than with a cask of vinegar.(7) (Turkish)
More flies are caught with a drop of honey than a barrel of vinegar.(7),(8) (Danish)
More flies are caught with a spoonful of syrup than a cask of vinegar.(7) (Dutch)
More flies are taken with a drop of honey than a tun of vinegar.(7) (English)
When a fly does not get up off a dead body, he is buried with it.(7) (African - Ashanti)
You must lose a fly to catch a trout.(7) (English)
Flies come to feasts unasked.(7),(8) (English)
Flies flock to the lean horse.(7) (Italian)
Flies go to lean horses.(7) (English)
Flies swarm where there is honey.(7) (Indian - Tamil)
Fine fruit will have flies about it.(14) (New England)
Flies will tickle lions being dead.(7) (English)
Even a lion must defend himself against the flies.(8)
Hungry flies bite sore.(4),(7) (English)
Let every one keep off the flies with his own tail.(7) (Italian)
Only a gadfly can sit on an elephant's back.(7)
Worms eat you up dead (maggots?) and worries eat you up alive.(7) (Yiddish)
Almost never killed a fly.(8)
He can swallow a camel but chokes on a mosquito.(6) (Lebanese)
A fig tree with figs turned out to be a ruin with mosquitoes.(6) (Moroccan)
The mosquito is without a soul, but its whizzing vexes the soul.(7) (Turkish)
A cunning person's kiss is like that of a mosquito.(15) (Rumanian)
Flies know well the sweet seller's beard.(6) (Lebanese)
Do what we can, summer will have its flies.(8)
Laws catch flies but let hornets go.(11) (English)
Foul-smelling objects swarm with flies.(11) (Japanese)
Laws are like cobwebs where the small flies are caught and the big ones break through.(13) (Vermont)

Hemiptera

Bugs are bugs whether they bite or not.(2)
Ticks, bedbugs and a crying child are insupportable.(6) (Lebanese)
A bed bug has a hundred children and says how few.(6) (Arabic)
The best way to put an end to the bugs is to set fire to the bed.(7) (Mexican)

Homoptera

Unlike the singing cicadas, the silent fireflies burn themselves.(11) (Japanese)

Hymenoptera

The constant creeping of ants will wear away the stone.(13) (Vermont)
A coconut shell full of water is an ocean to an ant.(2)
An ant may work its heart out, but it can't make money.(2)
Ants follow fat.(2)
Ants live safely till they have gotten wings.(2)
When the ant grows wings it is about to die.(6) (Arabic)
In every enemy that is an ant, behold an elephant.(6) (Turkish)
Ants never lend, ants never borrow.(2)
Any spoke will lead the ant to the hub.(2)
None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.(2)
No worker better than the ant, and she says nothing.(8)
Go to the ant thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. (Proverbs 6:6)
The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer. (Proverbs 30:25)
An ant can do more than an ox that is lying down.(5)
An ant hole may collapse an embankment.(7),(11) (Japanese)
An ant is over six feet tall when measured by its own foot-rule.(7) (Slovenian)
Don't even step on an ant.(7) (Greek)
Even the wishes of a small ant reach heaven.(11) (Japanese)
Even the ant has his bite.(7) (Turkish)
He who cannot pick up an ant, and wants to pick up an elephant will some day see his folly.(7) (African)
Many ants kill a camel.(7) (Turkish)
The little ant at its hole is full of courage.(7) (African)
The tiny ant dares to enter the lion's ear.(7) (Armenian)
Where the sugar is, there will the ant be also.(7) (Phillipine)
As busy as a bee.(1)
Three best small; a beehive, a sheep and a woman.(1)
The three most difficult to understand; the mind of a woman, the labor of the bees and the ebb and flow of the tide.(1)
A bee was never caught in a shower.(2),(7) (English)
From the same flower the bee extracts honey and the wasp gall.(2)
Hit takes a bee fer ter git de sweetness out'n de hoar-houn blossom.(2)
If a bee didn't have a sting, he couldn't keep his honey.(2)
He who would gather honey must bear the sting of the bees.(8)
Boys avoid the bees that stung'em.(9) (English)
If a bee stings you once, it's the bee's fault; if a bee stings you twice, it's your own damn fault.(2)
If you let the bee be, the bee will let you be.(2)
Its the roving bee that gathers honey.(2)
No bees, no honey; no work, no money.(2)
Old bees yield no honey.(2)
The bee that makes the honey doesn't stand around the hive, and the man who makes the money has to worry, work, and strive.(2)
The bee works all summer and eats honey all winter.(2)
The drone bee dies soon after the wedding night.(2)
When the bee sucks, it makes honey; when the spider, poison.(2)
Where there are bees, there is honey.(2),(8)
While honey lies in every flower, it takes a bee to get the honey out.(2)
Sit on a wasp's nest and say "God wills it!"(6) (Lebanese)
For every grape a hundred wasps.(6) (Persian)
A wasp stings the crying face.(11) (Japanese)
Every ruler sleeps on an ant hill.(6) (Afghani)
Let each person drive away his own wasps.(11) (Japanese)
Better a handful of bees than a basket full of flies.(6) (Moroccan)
Better an ant's head than a lion's tail.(6) (Maltese)
A dead bee will make no honey.(7) (English)
Bees do not become hornets.(7) (French)
Bees that have honey in their mouths have stings in their tails.(7) (English)
Better have one bee than a host of flies.(7) (Italian)
Every bee's honey is sweet.(7) (English)
He's like the master bee that leads forth the swarm.(7) (English)
One bee is as good as a handful of flies.(7) (German)
One bee is better than a thousand flies.(7) (Spanish)
The bees make honey but cannot eat it; the sea-swallows build nests but cannot live in them.(7) (Vietnamese)
The bee stays not in a hive that has no honey.(7) (Turkish)
The wise bee does not sip from a flower that has fallen.(7),(10) (Chinese)
When bees are old they yield no honey.(7) (English)
Where bees are there is honey.(7) (English)
A hive of bees in May is worth a load of hay. (12) (Maine)

Isoptera

Small termites collapse the roof.(7) (African)

Lepidoptera

Butterflies store no money.(2)
Happiness is a butterfly.(2)
You are like the butterfly that flies from flower to flower.(5)
The butterfly often forgets it once was a caterpillar.(7) (Swedish)
The butterfly that flies among the thorns will tear its wings.(7) (African)
Take not a musket and kill a butterfly.(8)
He dreads a moth who has been stung by a wasp.(7) (Albanian)
The moth does most mischief to the finest garment.(7) (Italian)
When the moth flies around the flame, it burns itself to death.(7),(10) (Chinese)
What is good of a red apple if it has a worm.(8)
Every cider apple has a worm.(13) (Vermont)

Mantodea

The mantis seizes the locust but does not see the yellow bird behind him.(7),(10) (Chinese)

Orthoptera

The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands. (Proverbs 30:27)
The locust flies with the wings of a falcon.(6) (Saudi Arabian)
The locust lives only a little while, but it does great damage.(7) (Rumanian)
A bell cricket is kept in its cage because of its song.(11) (Japanese)
Until the crickets sing it is not summer.(7) (Greek)

Siphonaptera

If you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas.(2),(4)
The dog in the doghouse barks at his fleas, the dog that hunts does not feel them.(2)
Who play wid de puppy get bit wid de fleas.(9) (British Guiana)
The lean dog is all fleas.(2)
A reasonable amount of fleas is good for a dog. They keep him from broodin' on being a dog.(2)
Do not flay a flea for hide and tallow.(2)
Even a flea can bite.(2)
The brave flea dares to eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.(2)
The fatter the flea, the leaner the dog.(2),(7) (German)
A flea-bitten horse never tires.(2)
Nothing should be done in haste but gripping a flea.(3),(7) (German)
Only fleas are to be caught quickly.(7) (Russian)
Who does not think that his fleas are gazelles?(6) (Arabic)
A dogs fleas are its jewels.(6) (Maltese)
It is easier to guard a bushel of fleas than a woman.(7) (German)
Better the wolves eat us than the fleas.(8)
An elephant does not feel a flea bite.(11) (English)

References Cited

Gaffney, S. and S. Cashman. 1974. Proverbs and Sayings of Ireland. Wolfhound Press. County of Dublin, Ireland. 124 pp.
Mieder, W., S. A. Kingsbury and K. B. Harder. 1992. A Dictionary of American Proverbs. Oxford University Press. New York. 710 pp.
Simpson, J. A. 1982. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. Oxford University Press. New York. 256 pp.
Gluski, J. 1971. Proverbs. Elsevier Publishing Company. New York. 448 pp.
Glazer, M. 1987. A Dictionary of Mexican American Proverbs. Greenwood Press. New York. 347 pp.
Lunde, P. and J. Wintle. 1984. A Dictionary of Arabic and Islamic Proverbs. Routledge and Kegan Paul. Boston. 158 pp.
Mieder, W. 1986. The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 582 pp.
Baz, P. D. 1963. A Dictionary of Proverbs. Philosophical Library, Inc. New York. 169 pp.
Marvin, D. E. 1922. The Antiquity of Proverbs. G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York. 329 pp.
Hart, H. H. 1937. Chinese Proverbs. Stanford University Press. Stanford, California. 83 pp.
Buchanan, D. C. 1965. Japanese Proverbs and Sayings. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman, Oklahoma. 280 pp.
Whiting, B. J. 1989. Modern Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 709 pp.
Mieder, W. 1986. Talk less and Say More - Vermont Proverbs. The New England Press. Shelburne, Vermont. 64 pp.
Mieder, W. 1989. Yankee Proverbs - New England Proverbs. The New England Press. Shelburne, Vermont. 72 pp.
Mieder, W. 1989. Love - Proverbs of the heart. The New England Press. Shelburne, Vermont. 80 pp.

Today is:
Questions or problems?
Email Webmaster

UF/IFAS
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences