Dead mice. Live ones don't bother me. Spiders and snakes don't bother me. I have no problem picking up live tarantulas with my bare hands and carrying them off to a safe place. I was a tomboy, and am proud of it. But, for some unknown reason, dead mice freak me out. Clowns do, too. I HATE clowns with a passion . . . and I, sadly, passed that on to my sweet daughter.

Spiders. If I see one I totally freak out and big ones will make me scream so loud I can probably be heard a mile away.

Good grief Lynn, I swear I would prefer to do just about anything rather than pick up a spider.

I used to have a terrible fear/phobia of moth's, too! If one got in the house and was flapping around, I'd shut myself in another room until my husband got it. One time, I fell asleep in front of the tv and awakened to two gigantic moths at the window (outside) fluttering on the glass trying to get to the light. I almost fainted/threw up. We were living out in the country and I'd NEVER seen moths like that. They were bigger than butterflies...omg. And I WAS awake.

But then my husband died and I had to learn to deal with them myself, so I've gotten over my fear. I can now even cup them in my hand and shoo them outside. But I still think if one of those giant ones got in the house, I'd faint.

I am really freaked out by bats in the house. I don't mind them outside, too, much, but still not my favorite.

I do not like moths either!

Just the other day, I was trying to put on a sneaker and I could not get my foot in. There was something in the toe of the shoe and I was very confused.

I dumped it out and a dead round solid big moth creature, one that looked like some other kind of animal (you know how they disguise themselves) was IN THE SHOE in a round hard gross ball. I started screaming so much I think the others in my house thought someone was murdering me.

Slugs! They're so gross. I refuse to pick them up.

Fish. I'm an ichthyophobe, and have been for almost as long as I can remember. Even seeing them swim in a tank - something that most people find calming - is very uncomfortable for me. I've had some rather awful experiences with fish in my younger years and that surely only exacerbated my issue.

I don't eat them or swim with them. I simply can't.

I actually forced myself to undergo a bit of therapy to try to overcome my phobia but it was too disturbing for me to continue. I've made peace with my phobia and no longer feel compelled to try to change it.

I feel for anyone who has a phobia. They can be debilitating and at times, consuming.

Dead lambs ears leaves--because they look like dead mice!

I have a fear of heights in certain situations, and unfortunately, I'm not able to predict when. The last time I was on a ferris wheel with one of my kids, it stopped and we were suspended at the top for a few minutes. It was the scariest time of my life--our seat was swaying, my heart started racing and I was trying to keep it together for the sake of my child. I felt absolutely trapped and horrified. I started to panic and had to call my husband. Oddly, though, I can peer over the edge of a bridge and not feel any fear at all.

I'm terrified of horseback riding. I've been on a horse twice in my life, and I just can't...

I'm also afraid of many dogs. I was bitten a few times as a child and we lived in the country where farm dogs often chased me on my bike. As a result, dogs often sense my fear. Just last week, I was sure my friend's dog was going to bite me.

I'm also on the spectrum for trypophobia... has anyone read about this? I can't look at certain images that have holes.

Bugs!!!. Any kind, any where and I have the uncanny knack of being able to see them no matter where they try to hide. My husband has my heart for many many reasons but the one that really makes him extremely special is he will patiently get up at any time day or night to kill a bug for me. 3am? Yup.

A while after moving into our home there was a praying mantis on the garage entry to the house. I'd never seen one before and was so freaked out I sat in my car for hours waiting for it to move. I even tried to get my daughter, who was about 10 minutes away, to run over real quick from work to get it. She was laughing, I wasn't.

ants

And I don't go into underground parking. I'm not afraid of being attacked, I am afraid of the building on top of the underground parking lot suffocating me. If I'm with DH he lets me out at the entrance. If I'm by myself I know where the above ground lots are in our area,

Clowns....!!!

Bridges. I always have a bit of trepidation and an increased heart rate when driving over a bridge or one of those very high, curvy spindly on/off ramps at an interstate interchange.

:shudder:

yellow jackets - not rain slickers, but those nasty wasps. I did have a brutal encounter with a nest of them. Last September DH and I were riding through our property in our Kawasaki Mule, which is a 4 wheel drive utility vehicle, something like a heavy duty golf cart. We drove over a ground nest and disturbed them and they came after us. They are very aggressive and gave chase, stinging and swarming around us. DH tried to outrun them in the Mule but it isn't an ATV and they easily stayed with us - all the way up the hill, across the meadow and back to the garage.

They were on our clothes and hair and as we tried to brush them off they stung again - unfortunately they can sting multiple times. We managed to get into the house but I had already been stung about 20 times - mostly on my hands, face and ears. It was awful, my face and hands began to swell. DH called in a prescription for cortisone to help with the swelling, inflammation and itch. One eye was swollen shut and my fingers were so thick I couldn't bend some of them. I was miserable and even tried cold packs to reduce the pain and swelling. Fortunately I'm not allergic to their sting and didn't have an anaphylactic reaction but I don't ever want to experience that again.

This is from Gardener's Supply:

"Yellow jackets often nest underground in rodent burrows, so if you see lots of flying insects emerging from a hole in the ground, they're probably yellow jackets. By late summer, a colony may contain thousands of individuals that will aggressively defend their nests from intruders. They're easily provoked and will attack in force, chasing the perceived threat for large distances. What's worse, each yellow jacket can sting multiple times. Sounds and vibrations, such as those from a mower or trimmer, can trigger an attack."

I fear drowning. I had to be saved twice from drowning in my life, once as a little kid and then as a teenager. I dont like water, I do go out on boats occasionally but dont enjoy the experience at all. If I see a scene on TV or in a movie where someone is drowning I have to leave the room as that panic feeling comes back to me. Flying over water scares me, if the plane crashed, I think I would have a better chance of surviving on land, because the fear of drowning would probably give me a heart attack before I hit that water.

Wasps and yellow jackets. I stepped in a yellow jacket nest as a child at camp.

Birds. Yeah, it was the movie. Clowns is a recent one for me, but it's pretty serious.

Lisa, it took me a while to decipher "dead lamb's ears leaves", sounds like "Maisy doats and dozey doats..." I love the plant, just never thought of it in that phrasing lol.

Scorpions

i got stung by one in my washing machine once. They freak me out!

Edges. Most of the time I do not like being on the edge of anything high. I cannot stand on the edge of a rock for instance and look down. If there is a rail I am ok. I don't mind the height itself but have a fear of falling off an edge.

Beagles your story reminds me of me trying to put on my outside sneakers a couple of years ago. I could not get my foot in one. I shook it and out came a toad. I about died right there in the garage!

Not that I'm bitter and still hold a grudge or anything but years ago we had a similar thread. I admitted my fear of snakes and, after I mentioned that, someone posted a photo of one. No warning, just BAM here's your fear next time I opened the thread. I thought that was a very Mean Girls thing to do. I will now bow out and not reopen this thread in case the same offender repeats the photo.

Lisa, I'd never heard of trypophobia before. I don't have a fear of holes, but I think I can understand how a pattern or repetition (e.g., honeycomb) could trigger something unpleasant. You might not even like talking about it, but if you're willing, can it be just a single hole (pot hole, digging for a new plant), or does it only happen when there are multiples together?

I get the moth thing. They're more primitive looking and have huge bodies. Whereas, everyone's gaga for butterflies.

When I was in high school, I spent the night at a friend's house. We got home midnight or so. Her bedroom had been painted and the windows were open with the screens off. Someone had left the light on. Uh oh. There were throngs of huge moths we had to chase out or dispatch. It was awful. The Night of Rodan.

Hhireno, that's terrible! How awful.

Linelle, it's when there are multiple holes or circles together. A single hole doesn't bother me. Multiples are disturbing, and I have to concentrate and focus on something else.

I'd never heard of trypophobia either, but I think I can kinda understand it. There are images I've seen of some plant's seed pods that are full of holes, and those images deeply disturb me. I've even had nightmare about those images.

Oh, I'm so glad I didn't post a picture of the gigantic moths I saw...it didn't occur to me that even pictures of the things might be disturbing; I was just too lazy to find one on the internet. That's good info to know that we should keep it to words.

Oh my gosh, I never knew this had a name !!!

I have had, my entire life, a weird love/hate relationship with things with multiple holes. It's not a fear, but it's this most bizarre feeling I can't really explain, in that I can't stand looking at them and yet can't stop looking at the same time.

Swiss cheese was a huge trigger as a child, as were things like bubble wrap.

It is nowhere near as acute now in my middle age as it was when I was younger. As a child I could get almost physically sick looking at those holes, and again, yet couldn't stop looking.

Aside from this most bizarre quirk (which I've never told a soul about in real life because it sounds like something that should get me committed), I swear I'm normal. Relatively anyway. .

My DD is as fearless a person I know but is terrified of spiders.

My DGD will worm her hook to fish, picks up snakes & spiders,bugs, etc. but a gathering of ants on the ground will stop her in her tracks. She can't even make herself walk around them.

I am scared of snakes. I think I will find them everywhere. If I get up at night I check the bathroom floor before going in to make sure there's no snake. (BTW There has never been a snake in our home). Last summer I opened up the garage door to take my dogs out. Suddenly, what I thought was just a small crack in our asphalt driveway began to move. It was a small black snake. I nearly had a stroke! Now I can't walk onto our driveway until I scope out each crack to make sure it's not a snake.

I know I'll have a nightmare tonight because I wrote this :-(

Those giant camel crickets that live in the basement. Horrible. Thousand leggers. Cockatoos. My brother has one and I have seen that thing do some damage when it bites. Stink bugs when they fly. I can easily grab a sitting one with a tissue, but when they fly they sound like B-52 bombers.

bpathome, my mother has always had an extreme fear of birds too. She was born with severe scoliosis in her back had to have several surgeries for it. It was back in the late 30's early 40's, no a/c so of course the hospital would have to keep the windows open for ventilation. Well while she was in a body cast and couldn't move, the birds would fly in and freak out from being indoors, some would even dive bomb her. They'd cause her so much anxiety that the fear never went away.

I have a fear of getting shocked, even mild static shocks. I'm always grounding myself. I will not knowingly touch anything if there is the possibility of getting shocked.

I once found a rat sitting atop the rod on the vertical blinds in my bedroom. It took a major effort to get him out of there. For years I couldn't go in my bedroom without first checking that stupid rod. Ugh, vertical blinds.

I don't like butterflies all that much either-but I can at least look at them. I have more recently developed a fear of mice indoors. We had a cat who caught one and brought it inside and I felt myself getting physically ill looking at it (it was alive) and when it started to run I had to run from the room myself. But outside, no problem.

Also not a fan of edges, but I'm not as bad as I used to be. When we were in Las Vegas we went to the top of the Stratosphere and I was able to stand at the floor to ceiling window and look down-but couldn't touch that window.

I do remember that old thread and some were posting photos of things. I had a friend who inadvertently sent me a picture of a luna moth and I almost cried when I opened the picture.

Whew! Some serious fears out there!

Heights are kinda my weakness. Bridges don't bother me though...the guardrails I s'pose! Being down in a cave...NOT my favorite!

Other fears.... ;-)

1) Green-Bay Packer fans/clothing...

2) Ugly/dirty/rusty cars near me/my cars. I swear I'd go nuclear if I saw some clueless dolt ding my door, etc.

3) Seeing a guy with a "Man bun". Don't even get me started....;-)

4) Being around country-music too long. God help me....

Faron

This mornings Family Circus comic is about ants walking down the sidewalk. I just about had a fit. I don't like them, they completely creep me out.

For all of you who cannot abide ants, DO NOT watch the new 'Brain Dead' series.

3) Seeing a guy with a "Man bun". Don't even get me started....;-)

I dunno, Faron. On the right guy, a man bun can be extremely - I mean extremely - hot.

I just did an image search for man buns, and stumbled across this pic of Apache/Yaqui model and actor Rick Mora. No man bun here, and yes this is a thread highjack, but my goodness, this guy is gorgeous. His hair ... swoon.

On the right guy, man buns can be very hot . . . Oh, yeah! Just wait until you get to New Mexico, especially Albuquerque and Santa Fe. They know how to do them right out here. Of course, you can so see some sad ones, too (LOL!).

outsideplaying - thanks for the warning. I have the first one dvr'd. I will delete it.

I couldn't think of anything until OutsidePlaying mentioned edges. I don't have a fear of heights if I feel like I can't fall. I can't stand at the edge of the cliff, but if I can sit, I'm OK. Balconies, bridges, no problem with a railing. DH has finally learned that I really, really don't like going up on a roof. If it's too steep, I'm sure I'll skitter off and fall to my death. And getting to/from the ladder? Hahaha, no. I hate having to launch myself into thin air for that split second when my feet aren't planted.

I am terrified of getting trapped in a space and not being able to move in any direction. Close quarters is something I try very hard to avoid so being in a very crowed space is not a place I want to be. I have developed these as I got older. I used to be front and center at huge concerts and I was into spelunking in college, very dark confined spaces there! I had a dream recently where I was stuck in a place I woke up in a full blown panic attack. I had to get up and walk around, get something to drink and calm down.

I will do a screaming crazy dance if I see one of those giant flying cockroaches. Unfortunately they are in the pine trees here and swarm at night. I left the light on in the atrium one night and it was literally crawling with swarming flying roaches each about 2 inches long. My skin was crawling. I turned off the lights and within minutes they were all gone. I was still scared to go out there the next day. I have had them fly into my hair from the pine trees when I was a kid probably why I hate them. Not fond of snakes either.

cockroaches

copperhead snakes

Ida, he is absolutely gorgeous! OMG!

I have fear of heights-and like Roseabby, I cannot watch a movie where someone is drowning!

To paraphrase a post I saw on Facebook:

Little snakes

Big snakes

Climbing snakes

Sticks that look like they might be snakes

Littlebug you sound like my husband! He always says snakes can make you hurt yourself.

I preface this by saying as far as I know this story is totally fabricated but funny anyway.

Subject: IT'S JUST A GREEN SNAKE

Green garden grass snakes can be dangerous. Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes.

A couple in Rockwall, Texas had a lot of potted plants, and during a recent cold spell, the wife was bringing a lot of them indoors to protect them from a possible freeze. It turned out that a little green garden grass snake was hidden in one of the plants and when it had warmed up, it slithered out and the wife saw it go under the sofa. She let out a very loud scream. The husband, who was taking a shower, ran out into the living room naked to see what the problem was. She told him there was a snake under the sofa. He got down on the floor on his hands and knees to look for it. About that time the family dog came and cold-nosed him on the leg. He thought the snake had bitten him and he fainted. His wife thought he'd had a heart attack, so she called an ambulance. The attendants rushed in and loaded him on the stretcher and started carrying him out.

About that time the snake came out from under the sofa and the Emergency Medical Technician saw it and dropped his end of the stretcher. That's when the man broke his leg and why he is in the hospital at Garland. The wife still had the problem of the snake in the house, so she called on a neighbor man. He volunteered to capture the snake. He armed himself with a rolled-up newspaper and began poking under the couch. Soon he decided it was gone and told the woman, who sat down on the sofa in relief. But in relaxing, her hand dangled in between the cushions, where she felt the snake wriggling around. She screamed and fainted, the snake rushed back under the sofa, and the neighbor man, seeing her lying there passed out tried to use CPR to revive her.

The neighbor's wife, who had just returned from shopping at the grocery store, saw her husband's mouth on the woman's mouth and slammed her husband in the back of the head with a bag of canned goods, knocking him out and cutting his scalp to a point where it would need stitches. The noise woke the woman from her dead faint and she saw her neighbor lying on the floor with his wife bending over him, so she assumed he had been bitten by the snake. She went to the kitchen, brought back a small bottle of whiskey, and began pouring it down the man's throat.

By now the police had arrived. They saw the unconscious man, smelled the whiskey, and assumed that a drunken fight had occurred. They were about to arrest them all, when the two women tried to explain how it all happened over a little green snake. They called an ambulance, which took away the neighbor and his sobbing wife. Just then the little snake crawled out from under the couch. One of the policemen drew his gun and fired at it. He missed the snake and hit the leg of the end table that was on one side of the sofa. The table fell over and the lamp on it shattered and as the bulb broke, it started a fire in the drapes. The other policeman tried to beat out the flames and fell through the window into the yard on top of the family dog, who, startled, jumped up and raced out into the street, where an oncoming car swerved to avoid it and smashed into the parked police car and set it on fire. Meanwhile the burning drapes had spread to the walls and the entire house was blazing.

Neighbors had called the fire department and the arriving fire-truck had started raising its ladder as they were halfway down the street. The rising ladder tore out the overhead wires and put out the electricity and disconnected the telephones in a ten-square city block area of south Rockwall along Texas State Route 205.

Time passed .......... Both men were discharged from the hospital, the house was re-built, the police acquired a new car, and all was right with their world .....

About a year later they were watching TV and the weatherman announced a cold snap for that night. The husband asked his wife if she thought they should bring in their plants for the night.

She shot him.

We don't have snakes where I live. One day we were running way in the hills and I noticed a twig in the middle of the trail, well this thing moved and slithered away. I didn't know that I could jumps sideways so far and so fast. I'm surprised I didn't hurt myself. My running partner was behind me and almost peed her pants she was laughing so hard.

Lisa, and other trypophobes: What about colanders and ceilings with acoustical tiles (e.g., office buildings), bread, sponges?

None of those things bother me, Linelle, esp. the colander perhaps it's because it's a man-made pattern. A dish sponge doesn't bother me, but some images of sea coral that look spongey do.

Over the weekend, I had scrambled eggs at a restaurant and cut into them. Where the steam or air pockets had formed, there were a cluster of holes. I couldn't eat them and had that image in my head all day. I can't describe the feeling. It was just --I wanted it out of my mind but I couldn't stop going back to it.

The bubbles that form when its time to flip the pancakes--those really bother me. I can't explain why bread doesn't have than impact.

I think it's holes in nature, or that occur when something is filled up and then burst open (like air pockets).

If you do a google image search for trypophobia, there's a skin rash/disease/something that makes me especially uncomfortable and anxious. It was all over the Internet a few months ago on some Web sites.

I'm phobic about balloons. I was two or three, celebrating that birthday, when apparently I went into panic mode until the things were removed.

This is horrible when one is a child. Birthday parties were miserable events where the worst thing ever one could do was to allow your peers to know your weakness. Because then several if not more of them would come chasing after you with the horrid things. I seriously learned NOT to trust anyone from this.

Mice, spiders, insects, snakes - they've never bothered me. Edges do, as described by others above - and I have far less tolerance of them with any other people nearby, even friends, than I do when I am by myself. Hmm, I wonder why.... See balloons.