Have No Fear
Have you ever experienced the dizzies, sweaty palms, tunnel vision or fluttering heart when you’ve seen a bug run across the floor or ceiling. If you answered yes, you might have a phobia. In some cases the fear is so bad people will go to therapy to learn how to deal with their phobia. The most common phobia is arachnophobia which is the fear of spiders. The truth is there’s a phobia out there for everything. Here’s a list of some phobias and the fears they trigger
- acarophobia – fear of mites or scabie
- apiphobia – fear of bees
- cnidophobia fear of stings
- delusional paracitosis – mistaken belief of infestation of parasites
- entomophobia – fear of insects
- helminthophobia – fear of being infested with worms
- isopterophobia – fear of insects that eat the wood
- katsaridaphobia – fear of cockroaches
- lediopterophobia – fear of butterflies
- myrmecophobia – fear of ants
- parasitophobia – fear of parasites
- scoleciphobia – fear of parasitic worms
- spheksophobia – fear of wasps
Along with phobias, there are a lot of different ways people respond to insects when they are outdoors. Which one describes you?
Dead insect syndrome – What do you do when you see an insect? Why stomp, swat, or otherwise squish until dead, of course! Most people respond to insects almost automatically by killing them, this happens more frequently around campgrounds or a picnic table.
Perfect leaf syndrome – We all appreciate finding that perfect leaf on a walk. But some people panic at finding even the smallest nibble on a leaf and feel the need to alert a park manager of their findings. It’s common to see holes in leaves or nibble marks since leaves are a common dinner items for bugs.
Entomophobia – Irrational fear of all insects causing people to avoid nature all together.
No reaction – These are the people that understand insects are a part of our outdoor environment and should be tolerated. This is usually the person telling you that wasps is more afraid of you than you are of it.
Environmentalist response – These people believe that insecticides should not be used in any situation and favor the protection of all bugs under all circumstances.