by Len Morse

Created on: October 26, 2009   Last Updated: February 19, 2010

For many people there is no greater fear than confronting insects. These tiny terrorists crawl, fly, sting, bite, and often appear in vast numbers. Also, the individual roach, fly, or ant frequently seems to pop up in the most unlikely of places. Despite the different types of insect-related fears, there are a number of ways to fight them off, including reading, therapy, and medication.

== Types of Insect-Related Fears ==

Fear can be defined in a variety of ways, depending on the intensity: Some folks actually do not mind insects and go through life with a "live and let live" attitude; some people can not help but be concerned, and will take steps to avoid the nastier bugs; then there are those who suffer from full-on phobias (intense fears) and will panic irrationally when confronted by even the smallest insect.

The subjects of phobias are also used for classification. For some, it may not only be insects that cause Entomophobia (fear of insects), but any of the small invertebrates called arthropods, including arachnids (e.g. spiders), myripods (e.g. millipedes), or crustaceans (e.g. crabs). Entomophobia is from the Greek "entomos" (insect) and "phobos" (fear), and is also called Insectophobia.

Other folks might suffer from more specific fears:

Acarophobia - Fear of itching or the insects that cause itching

Apiphobia - Fear of bees

Arachnophobia - Fear of spiders

Isopterophobia - Fear of termites or insects that eat wood

Spheksophobia - Fear of wasps

== Reasons for Insect Fear ==

Why are we afraid? People will give a variety of reasons for their insect-induced fears, from the physical to the mental, including the following:

* Fear of being poisoned - Unfortunately, sometimes this fear is well founded, as some people have hypersensitivity to insect venom. They may experience a condition known as Anaphylaxis or Anaphylactic Shock after being bitten or stung. According to Anaphylaxis.com, an estimated 0.5% to 5% of Americans are allergic to insect venom.

A frequently life-threatening allergic reaction to a substance, Anaphylaxis is usually brought about by a specific food (e.g. peanuts), medicine (e.g. penicillin), arthropod venom (e.g. bee sting), or the material latex. Symptoms can include labored breathing, a swelled tongue and throat, bluish skin, a rapid drop in blood pressure, and dizziness.

This is a serious condition, so if symptoms do appear, administer epinephrine (adrenaline) if the victim has an auto-injector available, and then immediately

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