My DD is now petrified of things that fly..insects that is. I'm pretty sure she has learned this from her father who is deathly afraid of bees and thinks that anything that flies is out to get him. When he comes for his visits he takes her to the Zoo almost every day. Where I live we have lots of things with wings...so I'm not positive but pretty certain he has had more experiences than usual and that my DD has witnessed his strange reactions while in his arms. (he screams and runs)
Since her father was here for over a week and saw her everyday she is now terrified of anything that flies. Even beautiful butterflies. She starts to physically shake and scream. When I connected everything I took her to the natural science museum butterfly exhibit thinking if I showed her other people's and my reaction to these winged beauties she would "reset herself." It took a little bit of time there and she learned again to enjoy them.
DD and I use to play with June bugs. She would pick them up and put them on her shirt and then watch them crawl up it and fly away. We had lots of giggles and laughs. (those of you from my neck of the woods knows exactly what I'm talking about if you grew up here) But tonight we went to play with the June Bugs and she is hysterical. I brought her back inside. Then she was upset that we weren't playing with the June Bugs and wanted to go back outside but the minute that one flew over she started screaming and for her daddy.
I sent him an e-mail but trying to get him to understand child development etc is like trying to reason with a cobra. Best just to find another route...

I'm sure that we are going to be faced with other situations like this as he has many many fears. I might be able to figure this out on my own but I love to hear all of the different creative ways each of us deal with different challenges.
I'm trying to help her avoid a phobia.