Friend to Bugs

Even bees, Leon?

"There must be a pet here that will fit the ticket!
How 'bout a ladybug, or a cute cricket?"

— Fluttershy, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "May the Best Pet Win!"

Typically, the Animal Lover archetype will gloss over bugs' status as animals, so it's often expected that only a bug will be a friend to a bug. Not always, though. A character that is a Friend to Bugs adores even (or perhaps especially!) the insects, like a pet owner adores any other pet.

Because this involves being affectionate toward creepy-crawlies, the unstoppable force of the stereotype that women hate any insect other than butterflies meets the immovable object of the expectation that guys aren't affectionate toward animals. The result is that this trope tends to be gender-neutral but rare. Male examples often fall under Boys Like Creepy Critters.

They may or may not be able to control the bugs to aid them. Not to be confused with Beetle Maniac and/or Bug Catching, which explicitly describe interest and collection but not necessarily endearment. Also not to be confused for being friends with a certain cartoon rabbit. If the bug dies, it's usually played for laughs in a Black Comedy Pet Death.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Legosi of Beastars has an affinity for insects, which shows how much of a Gentle Giant he is. He is seen picking up bugs and talking to them and keeping some in a terrarium his room. A important moment in his character development is when, in order to gain an understanding of Tem's murderer and become stronger, he consumes a live insect larvae and speaks with the insect's spirit. This moment is treated as him losing his virginity, and it may have (it is unclear if this was actually real) given him the ability to turn into a swarm of moths.
• The one time Remi's house is shown in Horimiya, it's full of terrariums and bugs mounted on the walls. She pretends to not be this to allow her boyfriend to "help her" whenever a bug is on her, despite him being terrified of bugs too. Her dialogue implies that she gets it from her father.
• Fujiwara of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War had no problem handling a cockroach, and was even able to identify it's species at a quick glance.
• In Kamichama Karin, Himeka thinks bugs are absolutely adorable and is apparently oblivious to her cousin Kazune's phobia of them.
• Lutecia Alpine of the Lyrical Nanoha franchise, an insect summoner who has a strong connection with her insects. One artwork included in StrikerS Sound Stage X even shows that she owns custom mittens that have the picture of one of her Big Creepy-Crawlies on it.
• Mr Ando from Mori no Ando is kind to all living creatures, including the bee.
• Naruto has the Aburame clan, who have bugs living in their bodies and use them as weapons, as a partnership where the bugs have a secure home in exchange for letting the ninja control them.
• In Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Nausicaä is sympathetic toward the giant insects of the poisonous forest, particularly the dinosaur-sized ohmu. She even attempted to keep a tiny ohmu as a pet as a small child, though eventually the adults found it. One of the inspirations for Nausicaä was an old Japanese tale, The Lady Who Loved Insects.
• As an inversion to his normally cowardly demeanor, Usopp in One Piece actually likes bugs. He has not only named his weapons after beetles, he associated with large spiders when he was younger and can understand them to a limited extent.
• Ouran High School Host Club has Haruhi. In episode 8, when she finds a centipede on a crab, instead of killing it she simply picks it up and throws it aside. When asked if she could have been easier on it, she said "it takes a lot more than that to kill a bug."
• A flashback in Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it shows Himuro as a child researching isopods and their ability to navigate a maze. A bully even wrote "bug girl" on her bag.
• Viciously subverted with Tommyrod from Toriko. Despite being able to create bugs (by literally birthing them from his mouth and essentially being their parent) to do his bidding, he feels absolutely nothing for them and sees them as just a tool. He even spits one up just so he can kill it to prove how little he thinks of them.
• In Wagnaria!!, Souta loves everything small, including bugs. He compares a bug getting squashed to murdering Popura. She's unsure if she should feel praised or insulted by that.

Comic Books

• Depending on the Writer, Ant-Man of The Avengers. The second Ant-Man in particular gives his favorite ants names.
• In Marvel Comics's toy tie-in title The Sectaurs, the insect-like humanoids of planet Symbion form telepathic bonds with giant insects. Most of these are about the size of a large dog, but a few are big enough to ride. The hero, Dargon, is unusual in that he has bonded to two such insects.
• In Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil, Billy lives in an abandoned building full of roaches, and while he's seen shooing them away, we never see him harm one. When all the insects in the city come under the control of Mister Mind, this turns out to be very helpful.
• One of Spider-Man's less formidable enemies was Buck Mitty, aka the Humbug. Originally an entomologist at Empire State University, he tried in vain to convince the rest of the Science Department of the value insects had to humans (he perceived more of a value than they did) only for his funding to be cut off. Desperate to continue his research and prove his theories, he cobbled together a sonic weapon system that amplified the sounds of insects into destructive beams, but wasn't much of a crook. (In his first attempt, he tried to steal an armored car full of black pearls, only to blow the tires and leave him with no way to transport them. The second time, he tried to rob ESU, and broke into the girls' locker room by mistake. When he took a woman hostage, Spidey actually convinced him to give up by threatening to smash a specimen jar full of roaches.) He later acquired actual superhuman powers due to a deal with some mutated ants, but ironically, when he tried to make a Heel–Face Turn after Civil War (2006), it turned out those ants were using him as a Trojan Horse to get at the Brood Queen, their Arch-Enemy. Dying and in agony, the martial arts hero Shang-Chi slew him as a Mercy Kill.

Fan Works

• The Ace Savvy Extended Universe: The Exterminator's shtick is that he unleashes hoards of bugs on the populace.
• Better Bones AU: Spottedleaf is interested in all the creatures that aren't considered cute and popular - in particular, she takes a liking to leeches, admiring them for their medical uses in treating arthritis, and keeps three pet leeches in the medicine den.
• In the Mork & Mindy fanfiction Mork and Mindy Get a Kitten, Mork adopts two spiders named Legs and Manny and gets sad when Mindy and her cat kill them, accusing Mindy and the cat of being murderers.
• Fu in True Potential has the ability to talk with insects thanks to her Tailed Beast, and she seems to be in very friendly terms with every bug she meets.

Films — Animation

• Bee Movie: Vanessa the human and Barry the bee make friends. It's sometimes even implied that they're a couple.
• WALL•E: WALL•E has a pet cockroach, though he is a robot...

Films — Live-Action

• In Ant-Man, Cassie Lang becomes pretty fond of the Ugly Cute giant ant.
• Beetlejuice begins showing Adam treating a large spider with an affection usually shown toward puppies (yes, arachnid, not insect, but still).
• Charlotte's Web: Wilbur the pig and Charlotte the spider are best friends. Fern the human also seems to care for Charlotte and, to a lesser extent, the other animals, who eventually end up being friends with Charlotte's daughters, even the horse who used to be arachnophobic.
• Enchanted: Giselle makes friends with a group of animals who help clean the apartment, including some cockroaches and flies.
• In Frankenstein Island, the Amazon priestess has a special affinity for spiders and snakes and allows them to crawl over her body.
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Madison shows signs of forming a bond with Mothra when the latter is in her grub form. Her Monarch profile also says she likes to study backyard insects.
• James and the Giant Peach: James is seen being kind to a spider who eventually becomes the giant spider that he befriends along with the other giant bugs.
• Joe's Apartment: Joe has many, many cockroach roommates who he eventually becomes good friends with.
• The title character in Lucas is a nerdy 14-year old boy who's fascinated by insects. He doesn't collect and pin them like most entomologists, however, because that would mean killing them.
• The fairy twins whose singing can summon Mothra.
• In Phenomena, the heroine, Jennifer, combines this with a Pest Controller-like supernatural ability. She uses it to cast a Serial Killer terrorizing her school.

Literature

• Charlie and Lola: Lola seems to like bugs. Her favorite book is titled Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies and she makes friends with two spiders in one episode (when she stops being afraid of them, that is).
• Charlotte's Web: Wilbur the pig makes friends with Charlotte the spider.
• Gari in Chronicles of the Kencyrath spontaneously attracts flies, wasps, moths, and other flying insects, and he develops a limited control over the swarm.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: When Greg was younger, he kept a pet inchworm named Squirm.
• Dirty Bertie: The main character Bertie really likes bugs, even fleas.
• The Villain Protagonist in Eat Them Alive sure does love his giant praying mantises, but only insofar as they make a convenient took for his evil schemes of Revenge.
• In Fairy Oak, Lavender keeps a pet spider named Regina. She also likes picking up random insects and keeping them in her pocket, either for observation or as Regina's next meal.
• Implied in Famous Fred, when Sophie and Nick are shown to have cared enough about beetles to make a grave for one.
• A Fly Went By: The boy is willing to stop the frog from eating the fly.
• The title character of Franny K. Stein is very fond of insects and arachnids, to go with her general fascination with all that is icky and scary.
• Idgie in Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe loves bees.
• It's noted in Galaxy of Fear: The Swarm that some S'krrr worship drog beetles as their closest living relatives. One of them, Vroon, makes it his mission to kill the birdlike animals that eat drogs and can communicate with small swarms of them using wingsong. Doesn't stop him from being Eaten Alive by a larger swarm.
• Sarah Zellaby in InCryptid is friendly to at least one bug, Greg the Giant Spider (who she telepathically tamed). She won't let anyone harm him, and despite his simple mind, he feels likewise about her. At the end of the book, a doctor calls him her "emotional support animal".^note It's worth noting that Sarah herself is frequently mentioned to be physiologically similar to a wasp, though she appears completely human.
• Megan McDonald's children's book Insects Are My Life features this kind of protagonist.
• James and the Giant Peach: James makes friends with a group of giant bugs.
• In The Lady who Loved Insects, the title character is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, and is regarded by her peers as something of a cloudcuckoolander for it. It's believed Hayao Miyazaki drew inspiration from this character in his design of his character Nausicaa's personality.
• Little Princess: Zigzagged for the princess herself. Everyone hates lice and fleas, no exceptions, but the Princess has made friends with a snail. The Gardener doesn't like snails and the King and Queen are repulsed by them, but the Gardener does like worms. The Princess used to be afraid of worms but she likes them now.
• The Phantom Tollbooth: Milo ends up making friends with two talking insects: the Spelling Bee and the Humbug.
• Ratburger: Zoe intends to include bugs in her future circus, and she rescues some roaches at one point.
• The Saga of Darren Shan: Darren loves spiders, as does an elderly vampire named Seba Nile, who teaches him about the spiders in Vampire Mountain. Eventually, Seba names a new breed of spider after Darren.
• Jonathan Landers in Mike Cook's Scorpions (2016). As a child, he tormented insects (burning ants with a magnifying glass in particular), but now he feels guilty about it. He's made an unspoken pact to be The Atoner and never harm another bug again, not even Scary Scorpions; the book begins with him showing kindness to a scorpion. Giant scorpions are another matter...
• Amy Thomsett in The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School is a passionate fan of moths. She doesn't like butterflies much, though, thinking they take all the attention away from moths. And she hates people whose idea of studying moths involves a killing jar.
• Sheila Rae, the Brave: Sheila Rae kisses a spider.
• Vorkosigan Saga: Eccentric scientist Enrique Borgos is downright soppy about his genetically-engineered 'butter bugs', so nicknamed after the bland but nutritious substance they produce; he even cries whenever a queen dies. These are creatures described as looking like a cross between a cockroach, a termite, and a pustule.
• Willy from Willy the Wimp worries about stepping on insects.
• Winnie the Pooh:
  • Rabbit is friends with several beetles named Alexander, Henry Rush, and Very Small Beetle or "Small" for short.
  • Alexander also made friends with a small human boy in one poem.
• The Witch Family: The children all like bees, particularly Malachi, who's a literal spelling bee.
• In Worm, Taylor initially finds bugs as creepy as most 15-year-olds would, despite having a bug-controlling superpower, but the intensity of her first months in costume working with bugs on a daily basis leaves her finding their presence comforting, instead. Indeed, a few months into making active use of her powers and she's frequently wearing a writhing layer of bugs all over her body, including her face, which tends to freak other people out pretty badly.
• The grandma from Yucky Worms likes worms, and she teaches her grandson to respect them.

Live-Action TV

• Wednesday and Pugsley Addams from The Addams Family have a pet spider named Homer.
• Forensic entomologist Jack Hodgins from Bones sure loves his bugs. This is probably best exemplified by the episode where a worm lays an egg in his neck; instead of getting it removed like most people would, Hodgins is so honored to be a part of the bug's life cycle that he voluntarily hosts a parasite for weeks, culminating in what is essentially a Screaming Birth. It's an interesting episode.
• Dr. Mahesh "Bug" Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy of Crossing Jordan, is not only fascinated by insects, he sometimes comments that he prefers them over certain people. He waxes poetic about all sorts of their characteristics and keeps several insect pets in his lab. In one episode he excitedly awaits his butterflies hatching out of their cocoons only to have to chase them around the medical examiners' complex when the lid to their insectarium is accidentally left open.
• CSI-verse:
  • Gil Grissom of CSI has a pet cockroach, and in one episode he takes it to an entomologist convention to participate in "roach races."
  • After spending an entire episode looking for the killer of a famous chef in CSI: NY, it was discovered that the murderer was a sous chef who did it...to prevent the chef from killing a cockroach that had wandered into the kitchen and obviously was a health hazard. A cockroach that was covered in gold plating and had a very valuable emerald glued to its back (it was the pet of an eccentric model who lost it), but a roach nevertheless, and the sous chef only cared about its life and not the baubles. Detective Messer, who has to hear to the man's gleeful Motive Rant about how roaches are awesome, can only drawl out a disbelieving "you killed a man...over a cockroach?"
• Swarmin' Norman from The Haunting Hour is an antisocial kid who enjoys his friendship with the insects who live around his home, one in particular is his pet praying mantis who becomes The Lancer to him. With the help of his insect pals he fights back against the bullies who tormented him and rules the school thanks to his minions. Subverted when he grows into a bully himself and becomes a Bad Boss to his former friends, resulting in their friendship severing. This causes the praying mantis to lead the other abused insects into a rebellion against Norman and all of humankind.
• Masters of Horror: Ida is an entomologist (and a lesbian) who keeps a huge collection of various insects in her apartment. This quickly scares off most girlfriends she invites into her apartment.
• Screech of Saved by the Bell loves bugs, has various collections of them, names them and even tries to marry two "bugs" to each other in one episode (although the other "roach" in question was a marijuana joint, which was then flushed).
• Sesame Street: Oscar the Grouch likes worms, and his pet worm has a pet insect. Most Sesame Street characters like insects, with the exception of flies.
• Star Trek: Voyager: Mezoti the girl who used to be Borg claims to like bugs, she has an ant farm of sorts.
• Supernatural has an episode featuring a teenage boy who loves and collects bugs. His knowledge helps when the bugs attack his father's housing development.
• Yo Gabba Gabba! has a whole song about liking bugs.

Music

• Cavetown: The narrator in "Boys Will Be Bugs" loves bugs and beats up anyone who is mean to them.
• Songdrops: In "Little Joe," the narrator has a pet caterpillar named Joe.

Pro Wrestling

• During New Japan's tours of North Korea and Brazil, Masahito Kakihara wanted to explore their jungles during NJPW tours there just to see the bugs.

Tabletop Games

• Insect shamans in Deadlands: Hell on Earth are the evil version.
• Pathfinder contains a few options for these. The Vermin Heart feat allows druids and rangers to use their abilities that normally only work on animals to work on vermin and the Blight Druid archetype trades the druids ability to befriend the cute and cuddly creatures of the forest with bugs and skeletons.
• One NPC in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay mutates into a giant cockroach — bizarrely, he keeps his wits and habits (he is quite friendly as far as mutants go) but develops warm feelings to bugs, sharing his apartment with a giant swarm of normal roaches.

Toys

• Lalaloopsy's Tuffet Miss Muffet, unlike the nursery rhyme she's based on, loves spiders, and is the only one in Lalaloopsyland to do so. She comes with a pet spider, and her birthday is Save a Spider Day^note March 14th.

Video Games

• Alice Little from Alice: Madness Returns grows into this after befriending the caterpillar in the first game, even though insects in Wonderland are intelligent, sentient life forms exactly like humans. To the point where she's saving villages of the insect people from the growing corruption in Wonderland. It helps that her spirit animal is a butterfly.
• Blathers is a pretty infamous aversion in Animal Crossing (although he still begrudgingly accepts and cares for them out of professional courtesy), but all of the available villagers will happily accept an insect that you offer them as a gift, and the player is obviously free to adopt any they catch as pets.
  • Flick in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a straight example, buying your bugs to study them for his art commissions. This was implied to put a strain on his relationship with his father Nat (who ate any bugs that were given to him).
• In APICO, your family members talk highly of the bees and speak very frequently about the importance of bees in the world ecosystem. Truth in Television.
• Danganronpa:
  • In Ultra Despair Girls, it was revealed that that Touko Fukawa from the first game has a pet stinkbug by the name of Kameko. Prior to Komaru, Kameko was Fukawa's only friend she ever had. Fukawa believed that Kameko is a special stinkbug able to understand her feelings; the only one who understands how it's like to be hated for how one smells, and that the bond between her and Kameko is stronger than any bond there ever was before between a human and an insect. Fukawa also affectionately calls Kameko her "friendsect".
  • In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist, has shown a massive love for bugs ever since he was young, but at one point he got lost in the forest while bug-catching. Luckily, a family of wolves (which turns out to be a lie, he was actually raised by dinosaurmen) came to his rescue and took him in, even teaching him how to communicate with animals, bugs included. Now a teenager, Gonta still shows a massive passion for bugs and can become quite intense whenever the subject is brought up.
• Downplayed but present in Final Fantasy IX. While trying to go undercover in Doma, Princess Garnet gently picks up an oglop without any revulsion, and only pretends to be freaked out after someone tells her that most girls hate bugs. It probably helped that her beloved uncle was turned into a sentient oglop by his scorned wife for some time.
• Goodbye Volcano High: Trish is enamoured with bugs; she spent her summer before senior year studying bugs at camp, she has a pet velvet worm named Mango, and she has countless bug facts memorized. When she becomes concerned about her future career ambitions and college, Stella and Rosa encourage her to pursue a career as an entomologist.
• Harvest Moon: Some characters love being shown bugs that you can pick up from the forest.
• Identity V has The Entomologist Melly Plinius. Her power is to release a swarm of bugs that can carry her teammates, or push the Hunter away from them.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has 10 year old Agitha, the self appointed princess of the "Insect Kingdom". If the player chooses, Link can embark on a sidequest to find the 24 golden bugs for Agitha's ball. She squees over each one you bring to her and rewards you accordingly. She rewards you for the first bug by giving you the Adult's Wallet, which allows you to carry up to 600 rupees. For every bug after that, she bestows you with 50 rupees as, "compensation for your efforts" and 100 for each matched pair. The final reward, for successfully escorting all 24 to her castle, is the Giant's Wallet, which can hold 1000 rupees, after which, you are made an "honorary member" of her kingdom. If you try to leave her "castle" without giving her all the bugs you're carrying (perhaps because you've got no more room in your wallet) she'll menacingly growl, "I know you have bugs" as you go.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Beedle is an insect lover in this game (it was never specified in his prior appearances whether or not he was already an enthusiast on the matter back then). He not only sells you a Bug Net to capture insects, but also a special Medal to track their locations. At one point uyou have to find his missing pet beetle.
  • Hyrule Warriors: Agitha fights with massive golden bugs, learned to pick locks from termites, fights the Dark Sorceress because she thought Cia was after her insects, and will go on the offensive in Adventure Mode on the grounds that you stepped on an ant.
• Moshi Monsters:
  • In one mission, the Super Moshis befriend a spider and a firebug.
  • Bug the bug is friends with Ratty the rat.
• Gertrude, as portrayed in MySims Agents. One dispatch mission involves your agents rounding them up for her.
• Neopets: Some petpets (creatures Neopets keep as pets) look like bugs such as the Spyders (which look like spiders) and the Buzzers (which look like insects). And petpetpets (creatures petpets keep as pets) are all bugs.
• Tallulah in New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star is an entomologist who never quite grasps that other people don't find bugs as cool as she does, at one point letting a jar full of insects loose in the live music club on open mike night. At the end of her storyline, her final outfit is either green or flowery, all the better to resemble bugs' natural habitat.
• In Pikmin 2, Louie has a familiarity with bugs from playing with them as a child, and this extends to the alien insects on the Pikmin planet which can be much bigger than he is. It doesn't stop him from trying to eat them, though. Following the true final boss battle with the Titan Dweevil, a large spider, both Olimar and the Hocotate Ship theorize that Louie may have been controlling it himself. He even insists that his proper title is the "King of Bugs".
• The Pokémon series includes many examples. Heck, Satoshi Tajiri based the entire concept of Pokémon on catching bugs as a child and making them fight with his friends' bugs, so it's only natural that the series is full of bugs and bug trainers.
  • The Bug Catcher and Bug Maniac trainer classes are the most common examples.
  • Bugsy, the Azalea Town Gym Leader in Pokémon Gold and Silver, is an avid fan and researcher of Bug-type Pokémon who hopes to one day become an authority on the subject. His title is even "The Walking Bug Pokémon Encyclopedia". Naturally, he specializes in Bug-type Pokémon.
  • There are plenty of other characters like this to lesser extents in the series, including the Sinnoh Elite Four member Aaron and Unova Gym Leader Burgh.
  • The player can be one if they choose to have a team full of Bug-types. It's even more impactful in the later games where you can feed and play with your party of giant bugs.
• Puyo Puyo: Sig generally is unemotive and isn't motivated by much, but is genuinely fascinated with bugs, enjoys Bug Catching, and even keeps a pet ladybug with him at all times. Puyo Puyo Tetris also reveals that his red hand houses a family of bugs, which disgusts Schezo.
• Touhou Project: Wriggle Nightbug, obviously. Justified because she is a firefly spirit, but her powers allow her to befriend and command creatures that aren't fireflies, beetles, or even technically insects, such as demonic harvest mites.
• Uncle Albert from Uncle Albert's Adventures likes animals in general, but he seems to really like bugs in particular. In the first game's intro, the narrator says that raising bugs is one of Uncle Albert's hobbies.
• Welkin Gunther, the protagonist of the first Valkyria Chronicles title, is an Animal Sociology student with the discovery of several insect species to his name.

Webcomics

• While the animals in Boy and Dog eat bugs, Rowan the baby just likes to look at them and try to pet them.
• The main premise of Bugged Run, whose protagonist is a Bug Catcher who vows to show the whole world how awesome Bug Pokémon are by becoming the League Champion with a team entirely composed of them.
• Subverted with Camp Weedonwantcha's Darla, who likes bugs — to eat.
• The Manchild robot Helix from Freefall, as a part of being a Friend to All Living Things (or at least trying to).
• The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: One of Bob's closest friends — and sometime romantic interest — is Princess Voluptua, whose true form is that of a giant butterfly creature.
• Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: June, the Commander's daughter, has a two-foot-long pet millipede. Her father, who did two tours on the millipede planet in millipede season, is less than enthusiastic, but in his words:
  "Just 'cause I hate millipedes doesn't mean she should hafta."

Web Original

• Jonathan Wojcik, creator of Bogleech, is this trope up and down. Many of his biology articles are focused on the world's most misunderstood and/or least-known crawlies, and he's kept a number of bugs as pets. He does have an incredible fear of ticks, yet even then he has this to say about them:
  "No matter how unreasonably scared I've ever been of these eight-legged Nosferatu, I don't dislike them on a personal level. My psychological glitches aren't their fault. There isn't any malice or cruelty in their simple, natural quest for survival. I don't wish they were gone. I don't even wish they were different. I would rather a world with giant, blood-sucking mites who have given me panic attacks than a world where they never evolved at all. Like every other organism that ever has and ever could possibly exist, ticks add something unique, exotic and interesting to our planet that I feel only the utmost respect and admiration towards, even if they leave me in mortal fear of entering tall grass."
• In a stark contrast to her peers, Gawr Gura of hololive does not find bugs inherently creepy or gross. Among other things, she has mentioned that the grub she found when shucking corn in her youth seem like they're just chilling, has told Kiara that she's looking to get a pet tarantula, and she doesn't dislike cockroaches though she understands the worry of them being potential disease vectors.
• Discussed in The Most Popular Girls in School:
  Tanya: Oh, please, you wouldn't hurt a fly.
  Deandra: You're absolutely right. A fly is an innocent creature that never knowingly did anything to anybody. You, on the other hand, I would MAIM.
• TheOdd1sOut: James and his sister Faith once adopted a moth named Harry, but he died. They were very sad when he died.
• Implied in the Translations Gone Wrong video where the Cutie Mark Crusaders enthuse about "ear moths" and "nits".

Western Animation

• Angelina Ballerina: Angelina once makes friends with a butterfly named Arthur.
• Arthur: Animals can talk to each other, and babies can talk to animals, so the animals and babies made friends with two fleas named Pepe and Sale (although they still bite Pal, judging by how he itches when they're on him).
• The cartoon take of Lydia Deetz on Beetlejuice is this. She loves spiders, especially.
• The Ben 10 villain Clancy is this, considering his numerous bug minions to be his family. He even refers to himself in a Hive Mind mentality.
• Squirt from Camp Lakebottom, whose Friend to All Living Things tendencies extend to bugs. This results in him attempting to make a pet of every creepy-crawly that finds its way into camp, no matter how terrifying or potentially lethal it is.
• The Crumpets: Pfff has a blue-nosed worm in one episode which happens to be similar to a prehistoric worm inside the valuable pink diamond stolen and kept hidden by his grandmother from a former criminal partner who wants the diamond back. When their family has to sacrifice Pfff's worm into a clay replica of the diamond, he protests in one of his uncommon furies. Fortunately, the worm survives and ends up returning to Pfff in the ending.
• One shot Darkwing Duck villain Lilliput had a device he could use to talk to ants, and used them as his accomplices. While he yelled at them occasionally for doing dumb things (like stealing a hamburger during a heist, slowing them down) he was quick to apologize later, so this Trope clearly fits.
• Dex Hamilton: Alien Entomologist: Dex is a friend to anything that can remotely be called an insect. The more disgusting or dangerous it is, the more he'll wax rhapsodic about how gorgeous it is.
• Double D of Ed, Edd n Eddy is shown to collect bugs and seems to be the only kid who finds them both fascinating and totally unscary. In the Valentine's Day episode, Ed gets a spider on him and promptly begins panicking, Edd simply admonishes him for "frightening" it and carefully desposits it out of the nearest window.
• In Franklin and Friends, Bear is both interested in and fond of insects to the point that they are one of the very few things that will cause him to stop paying attention to Franklin.
  Bear: Centipede! I've always wanted to meet you. Sweet!
  Franklin: Bear, what are you doing?
• Growing Up Creepie: Creepie. Justified as she was raised by insects.
• Jumpy Ghostface of Hero: 108 has a soft spot for many insects, even going as far as defending them from his own teammates (such as a swarm of voracious locusts in one episode). His compassion gets returned in kind at least a few times when said insects end up coming to his aid.
• Nadine in Hey Arnold! is a big fan of bugs. This leads to conflict in the episode "Best Friends" when she and her fashion-conscious best friend Rhonda can't agree on a topic for a school project. (They eventually go with insect-themed fashion.)
• The human best friend of the title character of Hyperion Studio's The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a young Bespectacled Cutie named Leslie.
• Kaeloo, being a Nature Lover and a Friend to All Living Things, likes insects just as much as everything else.
• Zigzagged for Lana Loud from The Loud House: She once tried to keep a flea as a pet, but she's also known to eat bugs.
• Phoebe on The Magic School Bus, as part of her being a Friend to All Living Things.
• Dr. Robert Scorpio from Mighty Max. He loves scorpions, and the bigger the better.
• In Milly, Molly, Alf likes to count ants. Nobody likes flies, though.
• On Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, Miss Spider urges her family to "be good to bugs"... but then again, they don't really have much choice of anything else to be good to.
• Molly of Denali: Vera loves bugs, even spiders. She mentions having a book for identifying spiders and is a budding entomologist herself.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Fluttershy refers to a parasprite as "the cutest thing ever," and everyone else except Pinkie seems to find them quite cute as well. ^note They are, of course, as virtually everything in this show is Ugly Cute at worst. This ends up turning into a deconstruction: Fluttershy can't tear herself away from the parasprites even after they reveal themselves to be a Horde of Alien Locusts. Fluttershy shows a general fondness for bees, spiders, and, of course, butterflies. In "May the Best Pet Win", ladybugs, butterflies, crickets, and wasps are among the many species of pet Fluttershy recommended for Rainbow Dash; and Rainbow Dash herself actually considered adopting the wasp or butterfly.
  • In the toys, many ponies are accompanied by animal friends, some of whom are bugs. Ponies with toys that are accompanied by bug friends include Applejack, Cheerilee, Daisy Dreams, Fluttershy, Honeybuzz, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity.
  • Granny Smith is friendly to bees, even giving them names, bringing flowers for them, and letting them swarm around/on her before getting their honey. Being friendly to the bees is an integral part of making Zap Apple Jam, as it will make their honey sweeter when mixed in with the Zap Apples.
• The Owl House: Angmar in "Through the Looking Glass" loves bugs such as butterflies, and he entertains the notion of using the Galderstones to build a butterfly sanctuary. It's also enough that his Alpha Bitch ringleader can get him in line by threatening to force him to eat them if he gets too distracted.
• In an episode of Rocko's Modern Life, Flecko the Fly escapes from Ed Bighead's clutches, and flies over to Rocko's house. There he witnesses Rocko allow a ladybug to pass in front of him instead of stepping on it. Flecko heads on over to Ed's house again, frees the remainder of his friends, and they all party at Rocko's house. Ed tries to get them back to eat, but Rocko protects them.
• Rugrats: Chuckie once made friends with a pill bug. Phil and Lil like bugs, but to eat.
• Tiny Toon Adventures:
  • When Furrball gets infested by a family of fleas, he eventually becomes friends with them, even though they make him itch.
  • In another episode, Shirley is a Friend to Bugs and tries to encourage Dizzy to become one too. After a Dream Sequence, Dizzy decides to be kind to insects as well. Sort of.
• Winnie the Pooh: The series My Friends Tigger & Pooh has Rabbit's friend Small the beetle, and also a group of ants that are on nodding terms with the main characters.

Real Life

• Feudal Japanese Imperial bureaucrat Fujiwara Munesuke◊ was noted as having been very interested in insects. Indeed, he may have been the real life inspiration for The Lady who Loved Insects example mentioned earlier.
• During his time on The Ricky Gervais Show, Karl Pilkington would recite many stories, both personal and ones he read, about insects with absolute fascination. For example, he told a brief story about saving flies that landed in the pool he was nearby.
• If Yuzuru Hanyu sees a bug stranded on an ice rink, he’ll save it. He’s been caught on camera at least once doing that. Additionally, an interview reveals he thinks bees are cute and brave (for defending their home from attackers).

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