It’s natural to want to shoo away a bee that is flying around, buzzing by you. And most people want to prevent getting stung by a bee, wasp, or hornet. However, if your reaction to seeing a bee is more intense, you may have a fear of wasps and bees.

A fear of wasps and bees can be scary and distressing. When people have a fear of bees, they may experience anxiety or even panic attacks if they see, hear, or talk about bees. It’s common for people with this fear to want to avoid anything to do with bees as well.

You may be wondering what to do if you have a fear of wasps and bees. Bees are a normal part of life, especially if you want to enjoy a sunny spring afternoon having a picnic at the park. However, having a fear of wasps and bees can be limiting.

In this article, we’ll cover key facts about bees and bee stings, causes of a fear of wasps and bees, and what to do if you have this fear. You’ll also learn how to get help for a fear of wasps and bees. So if you don’t want the fear of bees to dictate your weekend plans, keep reading.

What You Need to Know About Bee Stings

Bees normally are not aggressive and tend to ignore people. They are focused on finding food and bringing it back to the hive. If bees think they are threatened, or that the hive is in danger, they’ll sting you to try to scare you away.

Most bee stings happen by accident. If people step or sit on a bee, if they make contact when trying to shoo a bee away, or if they come too close to a bee hive, they could get stung. The most common bee stings are from honey bees, bumble bees, and wasps, although hornets can also sting you repeatedly.

For the majority of people, bee stings don’t pose any health risks. If you are stung by a bee, you may have a mild, moderate, or severe reaction. According to the Mayo Clinic, a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) to bee stings is potentially life-threatening and requires emergency treatment. A small percentage of people who are stung by a bee or other insect quickly develop anaphylaxis.

While it’s common to get stung by a bee, wasp, or hornet in your lifetime, most bees are docile. Bee stings usually happen by accident and aren’t more than an annoyance. However, if you’re allergic to bees, you might need to call 911 when you’re stung, to treat anaphylaxis and stay safe.

What Causes a Fear of Wasps and Bees?

While we don’t always know what causes a fear of bees, as with other types of phobias, there can be a link between past experiences and developing a phobia. For example, if someone has a bad experience getting stung by a wasp, or witnessing someone else have an allergic reaction to a bee sting, that may increase the likelihood that they would develop melissophobia.

Is my Fear of Wasps and Bees a Phobia?

If you’ve been stung by a bee, wasp, or hornet before, you know that a sting can be unpleasant. However, for most people, bee stings aren’t dangerous. It’s natural to want to be careful around bees to prevent yourself from being stung. But being nervous around bees or trying to swat them away doesn’t necessarily mean your fear of wasps and bees is a phobia.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), a specific phobia is characterized by a marked and persistent fear of a specific object, activity, or situation. The fear you experience is usually excessive or unreasonable and it is invariably triggered by the presence or anticipation of the feared object or situation. When possible the fear is usually avoided, but if you have to face the fear, it is usually endured with marked anxiety or distress.

The official name for a Fear of Bees is melissophobia or apiphobia. When faced with wasps or bees, someone with this phobia will experience anxiety, panic, or extreme distress. Common symptoms of anxiety and panic include:

Heart palpitations
Dizziness and lightheadedness
Nausea, vomiting, & upset stomach
Feeling hot, cold, or sweaty
Muscle tension & shakiness

Having a phobia of wasps, bees, and hornets can severely limit your daily life. People with melissohpbia typically will go to extreme lengths to avoid situations in which bees might be present including:

Picnics
Parks
Fields of flowers
Eating outside
Beehives

Avoiding these things means that you won’t be able to enjoy being outside in the spring and summer months. If your phobia is extremely severe, you may avoid going outside altogether. This can be limiting and you may miss out on a lot if your phobia is causing avoidance.

However, you don’t have to get stuck by your Fear of Bees. Phobias are treatable with therapy from a trained psychotherapist who specializes in therapy for phobias.

What to Do if You Have a Fear of Wasps and Bees?

If you think you have a fear of wasps and bees, but aren’t ready to start therapy yet, you can start gradually facing the fear on your own. Here are some tips for facing your fear of wasps and bees on your own:

Start small, with something that’s only a little scary.
Look at pictures or videos of wasps and bees.
Gradually face your fear of heights, little by little.
Slowly place yourself in safe situations involving wasps and bees.

For some people facing a fear of bees on your own might help reduce the anxiety and panic associated with wasps and bees. However, it can be hard to do on your own because melissophobia can be very distressing. Seeking therapy from a psychotherapist can help. Learn more about using therapy to treat phobias here.

Help for Your Fear of Wasps and Bees

If your phobia is interfering with your daily life, causing distress and anxiety, and making miss out on things due to your avoidance of bees, then seeking help from a psychotherapist may be the best next step to get help.

Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is a specialized type of treatment that is designed to help people face their fears. When someone is afraid of something, like wasps and bees, they tend to avoid the feared situation. While avoidance can help reduce anxiety in the short term, it can make the fear (and anxiety) worse in the long term.

Exposure therapy involves systematic and repeated confrontation with a feared stimulus, (in this case bees), according to the APA. It can be done either in vivo (live) or in the imagination. By repeatedly facing your fears, anxiety will decrease over time. When this happens your fears of bees will decrease.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for Fear of Bees

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of therapy commonly used to treat anxiety, panic, worry, fears, and phobias. In CBT you’ll work with your psychotherapist to learn about how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors interact to keep you feeling anxious. Your psychotherapist will help you identify and change unhelpful patterns in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Changing these unhelpful patterns can reduce anxiety and bring you relief.

A common approach to treating phobias includes focusing on unhelpful thoughts and taking a cognitive approach to learning how to change them, while also practicing exposures to reduce avoidance of the feared situation, object, or event. In this way, CBT and exposure therapy can be combined to help you get relief from your phobia, like melissophobia. Learn more about therapy for phobias here.

Summary

Bees are normally docile insects. They don’t want to interact with people, but will sting you to scare you away if they feel threatened. For most people, bee stings don’t pose any health risks and are just annoying. However, if you’re allergic to bees, you may have a more severe allergic reaction, which requires immediate emergency assistance.

A fear of wasps and bees is also called melissophobia. It is a specific phobia, which is a type of anxiety disorder. Fear of bees is scary, distressing, and can be anxiety-provoking. Melissohpbia can have a significant impact on your life, especially if you go to extreme lengths to avoid situations in which wasps or bees will be present.

Working with a psychotherapist can help bring you relief. The best treatment for a fear of wasps and bees is exposure therapy. It involves facing your feared situation (bees) in real life. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can also help with melissophobia.

To learn more about how to get over all of your phobias in therapy, check out my CBT for Anxiety or Therapy for Phobia page or schedule a free 15-minute consultation today.

What to Do if You Have a Fear of Wasps and Bees