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Fear of wasps, hornets, etc.
First of all, I loved your site! Lot’s of good information to be found here & I’m sure I’ll be back. Now, is there a name for the fear of wasps & other stinging insects? Fear of spiders is arachnophobia, so what is my phobia called? Yes, I am phobic of stinging insects! I’ve actually injured myself numerous times trying to flee when they got too close (20 ft. or so to me). I have read everything I can find trying to reassure myself that they aren’t going to harm me if I leave them alone, but I cannot seem to rid myself of this horrible fear. It s really starting to ruin my life. I was city girl all my life until 4 years ago when I married & moved to the country. Now, I have so many species of stinging insects that I’ve developed this phobia. I call it that because it truly is an irrational fear I have, but I cannot shake it. You see, we had an large invasion of Cicada Killers in our yard last year. They seem to want to fly very near people – almost to the point of landing on you. Also, we have an usually large number of carpenter bees on our property. Again, from what I’ve read, they aren’t known for their aggressiveness, but they are quite social which scares me and I just want them away from my property. Then, we have big, red wasps that fly up under the siding on our house at all 4 corners and under the siding above all the vents in the cement block foundation of the house. We live in a flood zone, so our house sits on a 5 ft. high cement block foundation, so when you are in the yard, they are flying in and out of the nest just below eye level. I am so afraid of all of these stinging pests that I am hyper-aware of them, I can spot them 50 ft away from me flying around. So far this year alone, I’ve went through 12 cans of wasp & hornet spray trying to kill them at the nests under the siding to no avail. Not only is this costly, but it’s making me crazy. Maybe I should try hypnosis or something to get over my fear, because it’s obvious that they aren’t going anywhere, so I either deal with it somehow or move out. The funny thing is that I was never fearful like this when I lived in town – possibly because I had never seen them in such high numbers like this. I’d also never had them fly around so close to me like they do out there. I’d never even heard of a Cicada Killer until last year – but now I dread the summer in fear of those large, scary things. Help me!!!!! Or, at least give me a name for my phobia?? Lisa Crow
Mount Vernon, Indiana

Hi Lisa,
Sometimes we love doing research. Your fear of wasps was located on an amazing site devoted to phobias and is called Spheksophobia. A related phobia would be Cnidophobia, the Fear of Stings

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