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fear of insects

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Insectophobia and Entomophobia - Two names for the fear of bugs

A lot of people have a few of insects, or at least a discomfort around them. It's not an uncommon phobia.

I don't think I would classify my fear as a full blown phobia, but I definitely am not 100% comfortable around insects.

Baby Bugs - Buy at AllPosters.com

If bugs were as cute as the ones in this picture, I don't think anyone would really be afraid of them. While we can all appreciate what bugs do for us (heck, the environment would fall apart without them), I think that we have a love-hate relationship with them.

How common is a fear of bugs?

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My fear of bugs - How it started

Grasshopper from the Moca Area of Bioko Island - Buy at AllPosters.comTo start off, I just want to say that I don't fear all bugs.

Some bugs are amazing. Dragon flies, glow bugs and lady bugs. These aren't at all threatening.

Mosquitoes and black flies are annoying, but not scary to me. I find this interesting because mosquitoes can carry diseases, so from this alone I can tell my fear isn't 100% rational.

Grasshopper from the Moca Area of Bioko Island - Buy at AllPosters.com

I can tell you where it started though. when I was younger, I lived out west in farming country. As anyone out there can tell you, there are some BUGGY years. One year in particular, I was 2 or 3 years old (an early memory for me). I was standing on my driveway surrounded by grasshoppers. Hundred and hundreds of them. They weren't bothering me at all. However something startled them and they all jumped.

At once.

Grasshoppers can get a pretty good jump going, and when you're small they can sting a bit if they hit you. Multiply that by however many hit me (in my head I say hundreds, but it might have been dozens) and you have the beginning of an issue with bugs.

Attitudes towards bugs

I don't think that my attitude towards bugs is very uncommon. I like what they do, but I would generally prefer that if they do their thing away from me.

Bugs - Do you Love them or Fear them?

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Love them. We couldn't live without them.

skiesgreen says:

There is only one bug I fear and that's cockroaches. I get a fright when they appear out of no where. We have white tail spiders in Canberra and many times they come into the house, but I don't actually fear them. Learned a long time ago that they make the world go round so I certainly don't fear them

Posted September 27, 2010

OhMe says:

I usually don't like to see a bug but not afraid of one unless it is harmful. Some bugs and spiders fascinate me.

Posted June 13, 2010

Janiece says:

I like most of them fine. My son was given a baby praying mantis to raise a couple of years ago. I enjoyed watching the praying mantis. And yes, we had to feed him other bugs. Of course, we had even more experience catching bugs when we had frogs...wow, that was a daily job - catching bugs for the frogs to eat. It didn't bother me any (other than that I felt sorry for the bugs). But maybe that's because they weren't crawling on me!

Posted June 09, 2010

Fear them. I know they're important, but can't they be important AND invisible?

Ashley says:

I HATE BUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am soooooo afraid of them!!!!!!!! I once locked myself in my room for half an hour because there was a blowfly in my house I had to wait until someone came and killed it befor I could come out.

Posted September 28, 2010

 

Getting over my fear of bugs

Your Courage - Buy at AllPosters.comI still have issues with bugs when they surprise me, such as when a spider comes down in front of my face, but I'm getting a lot better with bugs in general.

I don't go out of my way to find them, but I can deal with them when I need to.

I think part of this comes from just growing more. Considering that I'm now thousands of times larger than a bug, I understand their ability to hurt me is almost insignificant.

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It's taken a long time, and it hasn't always been a straight road, but I think I'm able to deal with this fear on a daily basis.

Conquering your fears

Sometimes insects are just scary because we don't see them frequently. Get a few images of them into your life and they would definitely lose their shock value.
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The Cold is Coming

As it gets colder and the insects try to move indoors with us where it's warm, I wish you all the best of luck in working with your fear of insects.

With any luck, you have a nice vacuum to suck them up or someone else to deal with them for you!

How to deal with bugs

Because some day you'll need to

Unless you happen to live inside a bubble, you're going to encounter a bug someday that you'll just have to deal with. It's not a pleasant idea, but you'll likely have to do it.

One of the best tips that I've ever received for this is using the vacuum cleaner. If you want to be VERY kind, there are some specialized capture vacuums that let you catch and release the bugs involved. To be honest though, I'm not always so kind.

My vacuum has some long attachments for use in cleaning cobweb filled corners, and I've used them on occasion to get rid of creepy crawlies inhabiting those corners as well.

Good luck!

Do you have any fears?

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Kyecerulian

A writer, a reader, a poet and a cook. I love learning about the world around me and looking at it through my own quirky viewpoint. I write about Happy... more »

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