Big bad bug

This is crossposted so sorry if you see it twice. Have any of y’all dealt with bug fears? My soon to be three year old is terrified of “big bad bugs”. He is unapologetically fearless with everything else and is even curious about like ants and ladybugs, hell even spiders a little, but we live in the Deep South and are plagued with wood roaches and horseflies which are not passing the vibe test. It’s even spread to butterflies and moths. I totally understand that we all inluding myself have aversions to stuff like this but I’m not talking about a dislike or healthy fear. Yesterday we were going to my moms to swim. She lives in a cleared out wooded area so we’re not stranger to bugs when we’re out there but the damn devils hair pins looking horseflies are just awful this year. Well one landed on the outside of his windowsill and he just lost it. Screaming, sobbing, not breathing, begging, pulling at his car seat straps… my momma heart is breaking. I couldn’t convince him that it was outside and that he was safe. It wouldn’t fucking fly off either so I couldn’t tell him it was gone. When we pulled up to the house it finally left but he wouldn’t even look that direction. We sat for a minute but when it became clear that he wasn’t going to calm down I asked him if I could come around, pick him up, and take him inside. He agreed and my normally very independent happy boy cling to my neck the whole way inside. He refused to go swimming after that which he NEVER does. He’s a water bug.

If you’ve read this far thank you. I need ideas and I’ll take any of how to fix this before it becomes a true phobia. I don’t want him to be scared of the outside. It’s not cooling off or raining anytime soon so this is just our reality for a while so I need this to not be so petrifying that it’s affecting his lifestyle.

Thanks in advance.