hi thanks for the welcome
i seem to be getting worse instead of better as i age
it really annoys me as the rational side of me knows they cant harm me, a sting at worst (i have been stung once but had the phobia prior to this)

I know this will be of little comfort but here goes


If you dont swing at a wasp/bee/whatever it wont sting you unless ur too close to its nest. They dont just attack because they feel like it.
Also the reason your afraid Im sure is because you dont want to get stung, Ive been stung dozens of times and 90% of the pain you feel is the shock of it. The venom doesnt really do anything, its meant to paralyze but its not nearly strong enough to affect a small mouse nevermind a person.

[quote="SuPaGrAm"]I know this will be of little comfort but here goes


If you dont swing at a wasp/bee/whatever it wont sting you unless ur too close to its nest. They dont just attack because they feel like it.
[quote]

The problem is if you do have a fear of them then instinct makes you swing at it anyway :roll:

Hello everyone out there with the wasp phobia!

Well, it's obvious we're not alone, and that counts for a lot! These things helped me to deal with my phobia, so maybe they can help you too:

1. Realise that if you're avoiding doing things that really impact on your quality of life, it's time to get some proper help.
2. Understand that you can get better and that you don't need to feel like this forever. So-called "simple" phobias are the easiest to treat and have the best results of any psychological problems!
3. Try and have a good think about what *exactly* it is about wasps you don't like: the noise, the sight, the sting, the persistence. For instance, for me, although most people assume I'm afraid of them because I don't want one stinging me, that's not it. For me, it's the aggression and unpredictability. People can cause the same reaction in me when they behave in the same way.
4. Remember to treat yourself well in the summer (peak stress season!) - eat well, make sure you get plenty of rest and give yourself time to relax and unwind.
5. Try keeping a fear (and depression) diary - write down how you feel on a scale of 1 to 10. This can be useful for giving some perspective.
6. Avoiding certain situations usually only makes them worse. Try confronting your fear in baby steps - maybe just thinking about them, or looking at a realistic, large-scale picture, or a YouTube video (there's a great one of a guy calmly letting a wasp walk on his hand). As you feel more comfortable, try increasing the fear levels. You'll gradually be able to cope with much more than you ever thought possible!
7. Give yourself a pat on the back every time you make even the tiniest bit of progress and remember to reward yourself.

Knowing these things has helped me get a long way in overcoming my fear. I'm not quite there yet but I know that with a bit of work, I will do it!!

(11-26-2007 12:30 AM)Gothic Raven Wrote:  Though I have studed to be a mental health nurse, I have prtty much all my life lived with a phobia of wasps. I hate the little blitters with a deep seated passion. I am absolutly terrfied when one flies in to the same room or space that I am occupying. All rational thought goes totally out of the window when I am near one, yet more so through my studies I know it is an irational thought. If anyone has heared of the fight or flight process I deffently for the flight as my brain tells me I have got to get away from this object of fear. But as I have grown up I have tried to handle the incounter with a wasp better by burying my head in someones arm or covering my eyes, but this only takes me so far, when after a while I have just got to get away.

But where does this fear come from? That is the question I have no idea as to the answer. No one in my family has this fear, though my mum does have a fear of heights, maybe thats a connection, who knows? One thing I do know is that I never look forward to summer as I know it will be a season of jumping at the slightest flying insect and being warm as I am very wary of opening the garden door. So people laugh at me when I say I love winter, because all those little blitters are asleep leaving me alone in peace to enjoy the cold, lol _cheesygrin::

Kassie (aka gothic Raven)

I used to have social anxiety and have been able to overcome it. However, I am still afraid of wasps, bees, etc. Pretty much anything that buzzes.

Are you also afraid of electric razors

I used to be extremely allergic to bees and nearly died from a bee sting when I was about 8 years old.

For whatever reason though, I'm not as afraid of bees as I probably should be? In fact, they don't even worry me enough to carry or even own any type of bee medication.

Bizarre that I'm afraid of doctors that are there to try and help me yet bees that (used to anyway) have the potential to kill me don't seem to worry me whatsoever.

Video of guy using a sweet substance on his finger to feed a presumably queen wasp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGJUREA0c...re=related

I was looking at that and other videos of people getting up close with wasps to help my fear. They're infrequent where I've lived the past few years and the last time in encountered one flying into my car, I spazzed a little and jumped out. My fear started when I stepped on a yellow jacket nest and got stung a couple times when I was a kid. I'm much better now to where my fear is kinda rational.

I researched some more into the stinging critters the other day. Some conclusions:
* Sting pain generally correlates with the size of bee or wasp. The exception is the cicada killer wasp, which is big but doesn't deliver a particularly painful sting, by most accounts.
* Only female bees and wasps have the capacity to sting.
* Bald-faced hornets and yellowjackets seem to be the most aggressive, according to my readings, slightly over paper wasps and hornets. The latter generally have more painful stings, however.
* Female bumble bees, carpenter bees, and cicada killers are fairly passive. If I interpreted the multiple readings correctly, if a member of either of these behaves aggressively toward you, it's probably male (non-stinging), whom are more territorial. The tarantula hawk wasp, which is large and dark with colored wings, has a particularly painful sting, but you mostly have to try to get it to sting you.
* Stings or dead bees/wasp in the hive-massing types release a pheromone that put the others into attack mode. So if you kill one or one stings you and there are others nearby, get out of there.

I have a quite intense wasp phobia and desperately want to get better.

-Whenever I am close to a wasp, particularly if one enters my bedroom, I automatically try to get away from it - a 'flight' response.
-If one buzzes around me outside, I flinch and make a startled sound.
-It affects my day to day life because I always try to make sure I don't encounter them, such as by having my bedroom door closed all of the time, and acting wary when the patio door is open during dinner.
-The fear has also moved to flies (as in blowflies), because when i hear a buzzing sound and see a relatively large insect buzzing around, the same response is triggered. Bees aren't so bad because they rarely enter houses and don't buzz around you outside.
-I am even conditioned to dislike sunny weather during the summer, and I feel much more happy when it is raining. When it is winter, it feels like it is my 'free time' because it is cooler and most insects are dead/hibernating.

Overall, I feel like I am trapped because of this phobia.

Funnily enough, I was fine up until a few years ago - I only began to develop the phobia during Summer 2010. I don't remember being even remotely scared before that. The strange thing is that when I look back on it, it seems impossible for me to be like I was then. I am frustrated sometimes because I think 'Why can't I just be like I was then?'

WaspPhobia,
I hate bug buzzing too. I tend to spaz when any buzzing creature gets close enough to my face. Something for you to check out, and probably buy, is a bug zapper racket. Google the term, and probably on Amazon too to look up reviews of various models. I don't own a model myself, but only because I've lived in a somewhat urban area the past 7+ years, which has the benefit of significantly reduced flying bug activity. I'd generally rather live somewhere less urban, but there is that one plus.

I have been afraid of bees, wasps, and hornets for as long as I can remember. However I consider it a rational fear for 2 reasons. The first one is that they can sting or even bite you. The second reason is that I have no idea whether or not I am allergic to their venom. Also I live in Texas and there are some species of bees and wasps here that will attack you even if you did nothing to provoke them. There are even a few species of wasps that can kill even a non-allergic person with just one sting here in the American south.

(05-02-2012 03:06 PM)Goldenknight422 Wrote:  I consider it a rational fear for 2 reasons. The first one is that they can sting or even bite you. The second reason is that I have no idea whether or not I am allergic to their venom.

I just did some research and found that venom reaction isn't hereditary, which I didn't know. Bee, wasp, and fire ant venom are also unrelated in terms of whether they cause an allergic reaction. There's such a thing as venom immunotherapy, but it allegedly takes years of periodic treatments.

Quote:Also I live in Texas and there are some species of bees and wasps here that will attack you even if you did nothing to provoke them. There are even a few species of wasps that can kill even a non-allergic person with just one sting here in the American south.

Rest assured that a single wasp sting of any type can't kill a non-allergic person, unless perhaps it's in the throat or what not but it's not likely in that case either. It's the swarming nature of most stinging insects which makes them potentially deadly. Scorpions and venomous snakes, on the other hand...

hi everyone, its coming up to wasp season again and my phobia is escalating !!! need to try and sort it out now . my phobia began from observational behavior my mum ran away from wasps hence i have always run away from them. when i see a wasp i panic and run this solves the panic so now this is conditioned behavior. i also use avoidance behavior basically after every wasp related incident i keep a mental log and change my behavior so to minimize that situation happening again. for instance the last time i had an icecream outdoors i got chased by a wasp so dont do that anymore, i dont have fizzy pop outside either for same reason. had a particular panic in a beer garden where i couldnt untangle myself from table and chair quick enough so whenever im in a situation with garden furniture and food/drink i subconciously carry out a risk assessment and will only sit in certain places otherwise i will stand up the entire way through a family meal which kind of spoils it. there are also certain items that i cant touch during wasp season like washing on the line ect . however despite all my avoidance tactics i did get stung i am a nurse and i was working on the ward and had a wasp tangled in my hair that was stinging me this caused quite a commotion as you can imagine !!!!! however you would think that for me that would be the absolute worst thing that could possibly happen yes it did hurt a bit but im not scared of the sting it was the fact that it was out of my control and the wasp won. this made my phobia more acute. the last time i saw a wasp myself and mark my boyfriend were in the car on a dual carriage way behind me in the rear passenger seat window was a massive wasp as soon as i saw it i demanded he stop the car full blown panic attack going on he calmly told me he couldnt stop as we were on a dual carriage way , only his lightening responses as a pilot stoppped me from launching myself out of the door he had managed to swipe the locks i then found myself trying to climb over the gearstick but he pinned me in my seat absolutely hysterical the whole incident lasted about 30 seconds before he pulled into the garage , i then stood and watched him dismantle the entire inside of the car looking for it but it wasnt there his rational explanation was that it must have flown out of the window and i had to agree but as i did not witness this my anxiety of being in the car was very high !! we carried on with our day out without any other problem but it had left me with the need to check the car for wasps before getting in two days later same thing happened it had to be the same wasp it was massive !!! this only confirmed my irrational behavior to be correct i havent seen a wasp since that day and i know this year my phobia is going to be worse the fact that im already getting anxious is a sign i havent felt like this in the lead up to wasp season !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello Hayley......It sounds like you are getting very worked up so you certainly need to seek some help. Have you tried talking it through with a Counsellor?

Being a Nurse and having access to Doctors, is there erhaps one you can have a friendly chat with and seek some advice from him (or her)?

I know I've posted here before but I really need help!

I have a very intense phobia of wasps, which has stretched to bees and other flying insects. It started with wasps nearly 3 years ago, can't really explain how it started, but now even large flies (those that make a buzzing sound) trigger the same fight or flight response. I'm not sure if it's the idea of getting stung (I've never even been stung!) or their appearance that began the fear.

It's worse indoors than outdoors (particularly at home) because outdoors the insect goes away but indoors someone else has to get rid of it. I feel most anxious when I'm in situation where I can't escape (such as on the bus). The phobia has already ruined 3 summers, and I really don't want this to be the fourth.

I've tried desensitisation times over but it hasn't worked. I still get the same fight or flight responses and constantly worry about and make large sacrifices to avoid situations with wasps. I really can't think of any other way to cure my phobia. I realise that I'm overreacting but feel powerless to overcome the fear!

Please help!