how do i not be scared of wasps? I keep freezing in fear around them. Outside is ok because i can avoid them, walk the other way if i see one coming, but if one gets stuck in a room where i have to be im a complete pussy about it. I can't help it, its a crippling fear, it was so much worse as a kid too growing up in a woodsy state that had them swarming all over the place. I rarely ever went outside back then or went out looking like Kenny with a giant coat in summer to protect me. I would notice the nests in every window at school. We had an above ground pool at home and they'd swarm all over that making it unusable by me. I remember trying baseball and not being able to stay on the bases over it. Even if I left them alone they'd chase me down. I only got stung twice but still.I'm afraid of everything about them, the stinging that one can do multiple times without dying, the way they fly, the sound they make, their aggression, the way if you kill one (which i never have, I've never been chad that successfully throws the bottle and saves the classroom at school) it releases pheromones to summon others, wondering if every wall secretly is containing nests where they can break through the wall, seeing their shadows moving with those dangling legs zigzagging behind a curtain, even looking at one in a picture gives me pause and goosebumps. They're like little alien eldritch monsters. I may confuse some bees for wasps/hornets/yellowjackets, its hard to tell when they're flying. Pretty sure yellows are the ones that zigzag and stay close to the ground, zooming round your legs, wasps have the long legs, hornets are like giant black flying ants with the biggest sphere nests, and bees are fuzzy and less aggressive but may still steal your girl and doom the human race.
>>31677014Logically I know they're smaller than me, and the sting wouldn't be that bad, these are reasons my dad gave when i was a kid, but that doesn't help in the moment of primal fear. Mom on the other hand gave me a magic spray can to keep to repel them in the wild, full of water that'd just make them madder.Other bugs that normies are scared of are fine by me, like spiders for example. Unless they're really poisonous or actually dangerous I'm not afraid of spiders at all. Roaches, caught a huge one the other day to melt it with soap so it cant spread eggs by smashing. But wasps can fly, organize and terrorize. I always miss when i try to hit flies, they're too fast and chaotic, and these are assholes flies from hell with knives and poison. I currently live in a city with barely any around so it hasn't been a problem (until one showed up at work and led to this thread, smashed itself against the wall a bunch of times till it dropped, the psychopath) but I might move to arizona sometime this year, and im pretty sure they're all over that, just waiting, along with common bigger ones like tarantula hawks and various scorpionsLets see if you can cure me where years of childhood therapy failed, adv. I have to get over this somehow. Before a single one flying into the car causes a wreck. If I ever have another gf and we live together and one is in our room I have to be the one to get rid of it. If we have kids and theres nests I have to be the one to get out there and spray like my dad was. Outside would be enjoyable if not for this phobia.
BZZZ BZZZ MOTHERFUCKER. I'M AN ASIAN GIANT HORNET. YOU CAN CALL ME MURDER HORNET THOUGH BECAUSE I HAVE KILLED AND WILL KILL AGAIN.
>>31677090yeah i know about those. one reason im never going to japan. they shoot acid too.so glad the murder hornets in US turned out to be nothing. not sure if warriors went out to destroy the nests before they got big or the hornets just decided to show mercy and flew off to space to terrorize another more challenging civilization
>>31677014Wasps (not all bees) are diurnal for the illiterates that means they only come out during the day.When its dark out they do NOT fly. Which BTW is why you're supposed to spray or otherwise attack them at night.During the day, you are the hunted. It might be mildly comforting that at night, you're the hunter.Maybe get a big tiddy goth GF and do vampire cosplay at night when there are no wasps around.It's possible if you exterminate enough of their nests at night you'll eventually stop being scared of them during the day via gradual exposure therapy, or by locally genociding the wasps you won't have to deal with them during the day anyway because there will be none left alive.
>>31677410the one that appeared at work came at night. they can fly at night they're just not supposed to. and they're attracted by light you hear them banging against the glass of your door if the light's on. in the past we had a giant basketball nest in a bush right out front and we had to take it out at night, but some still flew from it once it was gassed.so does the night rule still work if there's light? like if they're in your room and the suns down but the lights on, will they deactivate till morning and then keep trying to crawl the window, fail, fall off it and get angry and keep hitting the window?
>>31677517They get very confused by flashlights and similar but if it's dark you can attack wasps with impunity. They just can't see as well as mammals in the dark if it's dark enough you will see them but they cannot see you. If you insist on swatting at them they will sting but they can't chase you in the dark.
>>31677014I don't have any psychological advice but this thread has some interesting info: >>>/diy/2815204
