Many people are afraid of wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, bumblebees, and other winged insects in the order Hymenoptera (insects with transparent wings). The reason for this is that this order of insects has a fearsome reputation. Wasps and many bees have a painful sting, and many people have been surprised as children by painful stings. Some are allergic to wasp stings. In this case, their phobia of wasps is reasonable, since the wasp can threaten their lives. However, there are many more people who are not allergic to wasps, but still start screaming and running for their lives whenever some kind of buzzing flying insect appears in their vicinity. This reaction is out of proportion to the actual threat posed to them by the wasp or hornet.

Wasp Phobia

The Latin word to describe this irrational and excessive terror of wasps is spheksophobia. Unless you are allergic to the venom of hornets, yellow jackets, or bees, this unnecessary fear will seriously interfere with your life, especially if you plan to spend some time outdoors during the spring and summer months. The fact is that the most common varieties of wasps will not sting you without provocation. The only way they are likely to sting you is if you attack them or their nest directly. In fact, spheksophobia can even increase the chances of getting bitten. If a bee or wasp lands on you and you panic and flail your limbs, the insect may also panic and sting you.

Causes of extreme fleksophobia

What makes some people react in an extreme way to seeing wasps, without being allergic to these insects? The phobia can have any number of causes. One of the most common is, of course, being stung by a bee, wasp, or hornet as a child. What can make these first experiences so traumatic is how sudden and surprising bee and wasp stings often are. Most people who get stung do so because they accidentally disturbed the flying creature, for example by accidentally stepping on it while running barefoot through the grass. Others develop these fears because of repeated and strong warnings from parents or guardians.

Effective techniques to stop the fear of wasps

Whatever the cause, the fear itself tends to follow a predictable pattern in most people. This means that victims of this phobia respond well to treatments that involve mental reconditioning, such as hypnotherapy and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). These techniques teach victims to analyze and discover for themselves the harmful thought patterns they wish to change.

Because a phobic person’s terror tends to follow a predictable pattern, these patterns can be recognized and changed. Think about how Pavlov’s dogs learned to “instinctively” salivate at the sound of a bell, even though they were born without such an instinct. Similarly, using a combination of NLP and hypnotherapy, he can learn to “instinctively” experience a clear conscience in response to the wasps (despite his “natural” reaction having previously been outright panic). In this way, he can use powerful psychological techniques to quell his fear of wasps.