Have you ever gone on a picnic and an ant crawled onto the table? Was your reaction to just kill the ant and continue forward, or was it to run back to your car to be safe from the tiny little insect? If you would have ran away, it is possible you have entomophobia.

Entomophobia, or the fear of insects, is actually a common phobia to have. According to Cleveland Clinic, roughly one and five teenagers and one and ten adults have entomophobia. The fear itself is an irrational panic disorder that gets triggered from seeing insects. Popular causes for entomophobia can include environmental irritations, family history, and modeling after someone with entomophobia or another panic disorder.

Unlike some phobias, entomophobia actually has multiple sister phobias. One of which is more popularly known as arachnophobia. Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders and spider-like creatures. Roughly 3% to 15% of the population is diagnosed with Arachnophobia.

Other less popular sister phobias of entomophobia are apiphobia or melissaphobia. fear of bees, and vermiphobia or scoleciphobia, fear of worms. These fears are more specific and narrow down what you are actually scared of more than what entomophobia already does.

Since entomophobia is a mental disorder, there is not just a pill to take to get rid of it. Instead, the treatment of entomophobia is just exposing yourself to creepy crawlies. Treatments like exposure therapy, gradually adding more and more exposure to insects to build up a tolerance, or VR therapy, where the subject is exposed into a controlled environment with the insects, all revolve around the fact that you have to deal with it. 

For the most part, these treatments are quite successful in lowering the panic levels of entomophobia, and its sister phobias. The best part is that you don’t have to do any treatment alone. There are plenty of support groups, that help a group with their entomophobia. 

More than likely, if you have entomophobia, you know someone else with entomophobia, so watch out! This is your only trigger warning.