Soooooo, OK. The topic I’m about to discuss has become enough a part of my daily life that it seems worth sharing. This takes a lot of humility, but it’s a part of who I am. So here goes…
I’m irrationally terrified of crickets.
It’s pretty bad. I’ve actually considered seeing a therapist. When I see a cricket, I totally lose my mind. And it’s embarrassing, cause I’m a country girl. Spiders and rodents and snakes don’t bother me AT ALL. I’m pretty chill in general. But something about crickets makes my blood run cold.
I googled it, and it’s a legit phobia. Orthopterophobia to be exact. Does this make me feel like my fear is validated? NO.
And I know that this fear is completely foolish and inconsequential. I mean, it’s not like they can hurt me. And, after all, I’m about 100,000 times larger than they are.
But I just can’t help it. It’s a serious problem.
It’s gotten worse over the years, and it’s starting to interfere with my ability/desire to go out to the garage to work on furniture. I try to get as much done as possible during the day while the girls are napping. Because for some reason, they’re more numerous in the evenings.
Something about how shiny and black and crunchy they are, and the fact that they are so unpredictable. They can (and will) jump in any direction without warning. This makes me terrified to even try to quickly step on them. Chances are, I’ll miss, and the little critter could go anywhere… including ON ME.
There, I said it. And this is your opportunity to make me feel better by sharing your irrational fears. And please do. Ready set go.
I am afraid of the dark, snakes, birds (dreadfully afraid of birds), fish when I’m in the water with them, lakes… uhmmm…. Yea.
Lol! I’m afraid of a LOT!
I can completely relate to what you’re saying. I have a ridiculous fear of…..whales! Obviously, I don’t have to worry about them in the state of Pennsylvania…..but even seeing them on a commercial (pacific life) or sitting on the beach knowing they are “close by”….I can barely stand it.
Mine is mainly spiders, however since having kids i’ve grown up…just a teency bit. My oldest is going to be 5 tomorrow and he kills all the bugs for me now. My daughter is scared of bugs too, so he kills them for her too. He calls himself the bug king lol. I also don’t like crickets, They used to not bother me, but they seem to be getting worse than spiders to me. Well, maybe just equal. And, I totally empathize with Maria Deleon and am afraid of the dark. I also have a system for turning out the lights. before I got married i would go to bed with the lights on and make my parents turn them off for me after I was already asleep, but then to try to make me “get over my fear” they started making me turn them off myself, I didn’t have a lamp beside my bed so I would tie a long string to the switch and pull it after I was in bed. Now, if hubby goes to bed before me I often just go to bed with lights on. It’s pathetic I know.
Don’t ever visit Waco, TX in the summer. We are overrun with crickets and the grackles were late to the party this year. It’s bad. Crickets everywhere.
Well now I feel silly………I told you in the above post you needed cats!! I just read and saw the pictures of your calicos and I’m WAYYYY jealous!!! I have 3 cats and have been searching for the perfect calico, but with no such luck 🙁
You need a few cats!!! My cat Spook caught a cricket last night and kept it in front of his paws watching it……..eventually it disappeared into his tummy 🙂
So, as you can see from the above comments….you are not alone! If you are looking for an all natural bug/spider repellent, try mint oil. Spray it all over the garage floor, any cracks crevices they may get into. Should repel them and any other crawlie things. The girls won’t be poisoned and it will smell nice! ALSO: don’t let the girls see your fear, as it is usually a learned/hereditary behavior!
frogs. they are totally unpredictable and might jump on my flip-flopped, half bare foot with their gross little bellies!
Spray around your foundation, doorways, basement floor and garage floor with Tempo. They will be gone. One of the great (side effects) of using this is that it gets rid of spiders, ants and anything else you don’t want in your house! No more bugs!!!
I’m terrified of bunnies. Yep, bunnies. But my terror is justified- I had a bunny attack me years ago. I don’t care how cute and fluffy they are, I get panic attacks just being in the same room as one.
K, you are totally normal! No judgement here! My whole life, I was really bothered by certain textures. I can’t sleep with fleece or flannel, or anything fuzzy. I can’t eat foods that are fuzzy like rice. The feeling of dust or powder or paper makes my skin crawl. Certain sounds and levels of volume would make me feel like I was going to explode. I always felt super lame about it. I thought I was just a picky person. Turns out it’s an actual form of OCD. I was never “OCD” about cleaning or organizing. Just about my senses.
Okay, I have no irrational fear (or am in complete denial and believe it to be a RATIONAL fear . . .) but I do have a suggestion about the crickets: if there is a sink in the garage (or maybe you could use a bucket?) put a wet rag in it. For some reason the crickets are attracted to this and will go there. Whenever we have crickets in our basement we do this at night and the next morning the cricket(s) are under the rag. You are awesome regardless of your level of rationalization! 🙂
I HATE ants!!!!! The are so gross and are always a ton of them! They make my skin crawl!!! I hate spiders, moths grasshoppers, snakes, lady bugs and most other little creapy crawly things as well!! It doesnt matter that im bigger than they are. They are GROSS!!!
I know the feeling, I was terrified of spiders for the longest. I actually didn’t realize how bad it was until one of the first dates with my boyfriend – I sat next to him the inside of a booth and a spider crawled out from under his jacket collar. Then i told him to get it off quick and oblivious to the problem he started trying to brush it off-in my direction! I almost climbed over the backrest to get the bleep out of there until he finally got up to let me escape to the bathroom. I cried, freaking cried because I was so scared and embarrassed. The rest of our meal I couldn’t look at him and refused to talk about it. My hands were shaking so bad and I was literally twitchy, he honestly thought I had gone to the bathroom to get high. Luckily, we cleared things up pretty quickly after he told me hi suspicion.
A few months after that incident I started working as a nanny for a friend’s girls who love being outside. Oh and there are pleeenty of spiders all over outside their house. I realized that it would not be good my job or the girl’s peace of mind if I freaked out every time a spider got close. I especially didn’t want to give the girls the same complex. So I started making conscious efforts to just deal with the spiders being around. I would hang out a few yards from places I knew there were spiders. When I gardened and I saw a web somewhere I’d get close enough to be able to see the spider (still several feet away) and just look at it awhile. I’d make myself work a few feet from them.
That was more than 3 years ago. I am much better now. I still really really really don’t like spiders. If I find one on me I will still jump and squeek and fling it off and be unhappy for a bit, but I won’t cry or run. I don’t avoid places that have them (unless it’s a crawl space covered in cobwebs, that’s reasonable). In the yard I can manage working within a foot of a spider I know is there. There is still a ton of room for improvement but I’m getting there.
You can too <3
I am terrified of clowns. It must be a genetic thing because both my sisters are afraid of clowns too. When I see a clown I have an anxiety attack. They totally freak me out! The worst are the crazy-looking clowns at Halloween. I guess it’s fairly common to have a clown phobia but that doesn’t make me feel any better.
Lori : )
Thrifty Decor Mom
Cobwebs – totally freaked out by them! If I accidentally walk through one I have a mini panic attack! I avoid our attic completely due to it, my dads attic is fine due the lack of webs.
I am ashamed to admit that at 27 years old I am afraid of the dark. I have a whole routine in place when I am the last one up in the house. Before I turn off the lights in the living room I have to turn on the hallway light & my side table light in my bedroom.As I walk into each area I turn off the lights along the way. That way I am never in complete darkness until I am next to my hubby under the safety of my blanket. I also have a fear of being completely alone in my house, especially after dark.
so I’m totally afraid of blackness. This can be a really black basement, or the black lines at the bottom of a swimming pool….
How do you survive being in the basement at the farm? You covered well 😉
You are not alone! My fiance is totally afraid of them as well as our oldest cat! They are all over our front yard/font windows in our living room! I find myself shooing them off the windows every day just so our cat doesn’t have a panic attack! As for me, I don’t do well with centipedes or millipedes witch we also have a bunch of here in GA!
Your fear is not uncommon at all and I sympathize. My fear is just dumb but still freaks.me.out. !!
IT’s not bug related, and it’s not even anything that is alive in any way. I don’t even know what they’re called, those masks – happy, sad, like you see in an ad for theater? Yep. Spook the heck right outta me.
I am freaked out by all bugs! Maybe except for Lady Bugs. Even if I can’t see any bugs I have this irrational fear that they are still in the room while I’m asleep and going to crawl on me, which I KNOW happens anyway. They are just so gross, ugly, and make me get the heebie jeebies! Bug bombs and spray should work… just make sure your babies or any of your animal pets are around to inhale or lick the stuff.
Spiders. and now I live alone so I have no one to kill them for me. I am guilty of both throwing shoes at them and going to get my swiffer to kill them from afar. So. Creepy.
A cricket almost jumped on my face the other day at work! I could hear it chirping under my desk, so I bent down to look for it and it was LITERALLY inches from my face on a piece of metal under there!! I had coffee in my mouth, so I didn’t scream, but I surely would have! You’re right, they are soooo unpredictable!
My totally stupid, irrational, clinically insane fear is Freddy Krueger. Yep, the fictional scary guy with a burned face and knives on his gloved right hand that terrorizes and kills you in your nightmares. I think my parents accidentally exposed me to him too early in my young life and I have since been terrified. Evan as a grown woman, I will bust out in tears if I hear his voice, see his face, or hear that creepy “One, two Freddy’s coming for you…” song the kids in the movies sing. (I’m actually tearing up as I type this) My siblings have taken a lot of pleasure out of this phobia over the years, taking me to haunted houses/maize mazes and specifically telling the ghoul dressed as Freddy to pick on me until I am running or on the ground in hysterics. So not funny. I even have nightmares about him from time to time. I’m always trying to play it cool and make him think I am not afaid of him so he won’t hurt me. One time I was working for him at his used car dealership, but chopping up dead bodies for him in the back. SO gross.
The weird thing is, I LOOOVVEE horror movies and being scared, but he just terrifies me. Can’t handle it.
Bug bombs. They work wonders. I had a roommate for quite a long time who was TERRIFIED of spiders. Living in MT, it was essential to set off bug bombs in the spring and fall… we assumed these were their migrating season as there would suddenly be bajillions of them jumping out from behind doors just to get her. Plan a day (or two) trip, load up the babies and set off the bombs right before you leave the house. When you get back, air out your place and you’re good to go.
Maybe there’s a spray you could get which you could spray around your work area before you start. Or encase yourself in clothing from head to toe so you feel protected. Or get some kind of mesh screen to hang over the garage door while you’re out there so they can’t come in. I feel that way about sharks – even though I’ve never actually seen one – I imagine I’m seeing them when I’m diving which is probably worse since the one I imagine is the “Jaws” one, of course.
I have an irrational fear of cats! They freak me out. If I see one outside I will wait until it goes away before I walk out the door. If one comes by me I run. I feel your pain lol
Confessions – I’m terrified of waves. Yes… WAVES. I Googled it once too and sure enough there’s a name for it (although I don’t remember it now). Don’t get me wrong, I love the beach, but every time the tide starts to come in, I get horrible anxiety attacks and am on the verge of tears. Point is – everyone has something they’re afraid of that is seemingly irrational. Except clowns. I think the world agrees that clowns are terrifying. haha You’re not alone! Just have the hubs stomp on them all. 🙂
this isn’t going to make you feel better, but, there are even more crickets out there right now because of the dry conditions. Every morning I go out to the barn, I knock on the door before opening it to scare any potential mice (petrified!)away. Never fails, a cricket will hop in front of me and I almost lose it. My farmer dad says they’re thriving in our dry weather. wonderful.