Fear of bees

File:Die Gartenlaube (1897) b 476 1.jpg

Depiction of a beekeeper wearing protective equipment while handling bees

The fear of bees, also known as apiophobia, apiphobia, or melissophobia, is a specific phobia triggered by the presence or apprehension of bees. It is a variation of entomophobia, a fear of insects. The phobia arises primarily from a fear of bee stings. Fear of bees often coincides with a fear of wasps, another stinging insect, and the two are sometimes conflated by people with bee phobias. A fear of bees can affect quality of life with anxiety around outdoor activities, and people with a bee phobia may experience symptoms of panic upon seeing a bee. Negative attitudes toward bees can also have negative effects on beekeeping and conservation efforts. Exposure therapy is an effective treatment for fear of bees and other specific phobias. Fear of bees may also occur in people who risk life-threatening reactions to stings, but this is considered a rational fear instead of a phobia.

Description

The fear of bees is called apiophobia, apiphobia, or melissophobia. The api- prefix comes from , the Latin word for 'bee',Template:Sfn and the melisso- prefix comes from Template:Translit, the Greek word for 'bee'. The -phobia suffix comes from Template:Translit, the Greek word for 'fear'.Template:Sfn

Bee phobias are diagnosed as animal-type specific phobia by the DSM-5, and they are related to entomophobia, a broader fear of insects.Template:Sfn It is especially related to the fear of wasps,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and the two are often comorbid.Template:Sfn Bees are generally more well-liked than wasps by the public, in part because bees are more widely recognized as pollinators.Template:Sfn Black-and-yellow striped bees are the most well known in public consciousness, which can cause conflation between bees and wasps. As wasps are more aggressive than bees, this conflation has a negative effect on public perception of bees.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Causes

File:Bee-sting BHL.svg

The anatomy of a bee's sting—fear of bees most commonly comes from a fear of being stung.

The fear of being stung is central to the fear of bees.Template:Sfn Experiencing a bee sting or knowing someone who has experienced one can increase a fear of bees.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Conversely, individuals who have never been stung by a bee may believe that the stings are more dangerous than they truly are.Template:Sfn They may exaggerate the severity of a sting in their minds, with the exaggeration subsiding after experiencing a sting.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Fear is also a common response to the buzzing sound of a bee.Template:Sfn

Fear of bees brings a greater evolutionary advantage than fears of other insects because they are venomous, and can cause life-threatening harm through anaphylaxis in some individuals.Template:Sfn As phobias are diagnoses of irrational fear, individuals who have life-threatening allergic reactions to bee stings are not considered apiphobic when experiencing a fear of bees related to their own safety.Template:Sfn Fear of bees is less common than fear of spiders, though humans are more likely to come into contact with bees relative to other widely-feared arthropods. Bees are more easy to find accidentally when they congregate as swarms, and individual bees are attracted to food that humans may be carrying.Template:Sfn Swarms especially can trigger panic, although bees do not typically sting while swarming.Template:Sfn

Africanized bees, a hybrid of the western honey bee and the East African lowland honey bee, are more dangerous than other bees and are more widely feared. Relative to other bees, they are more easily provoked and will chase humans over long distances.Template:Sfn Popular culture sensationalizes and exaggerates this danger, making fear more common.Template:Sfn Fear of Africanized bees in the United States can play on xenophobia, as they embody the concept of a threat emerging from Africa and traveling through Latin America.Template:Sfn Africanized bees are colloquially known as killer bees in North America and (Template:Translation) in South America.Template:Sfn

People with a fear of bees are less likely to be knowledgeable about bees, and they frequently overestimate the likelihood of a bee becoming aggressive or stinging.Template:Sfn People may be less likely to fear bumblebees relative to other bees, as they can be perceived as cuter and they are less likely to sting.Template:Sfn Fearing an insect for its sting is learned behavior rather than instinctive,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and bee phobias most commonly develop in childhood.Template:Sfn

Effects

A sign reading "Bee Activity: Please avoid this area"

A sign warning people about the presence of bees

Fear of bees can affect a person's ability to enjoy time spent outdoors.Template:Sfn People with a fear of bees may avoid outdoor activities, be distracted watching for bees when outdoors, or mistake other insects for bees.Template:Sfn Emotional distress, panic attacks, and urges to flee are common responses to bee sightings for people with bee phobias, and they may attempt to kill bees upon seeing them, making it more likely that they will be stung.Template:Sfn Since bees are attracted to flowers, the fear of flowers is most commonly associated with the fear of bees.Template:Sfn Being a specific phobia, exposure therapy is an effective treatment for bee phobias.Template:Sfn

Negative attitudes toward bees have a debilitating effect on conservation efforts.Template:Sfn Fear of bees also results in legal restrictions on beekeeping, especially in urban areas.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Beekeepers are often forced to reconcile a fear of being stung. They may consider it to be a routine part of the job, derive self-confidence from the nature of their work, or consider it a form of affective labor.Template:Sfn Companies that sell honey have to take aversion to bees in consideration when marketing honey products, often avoiding the mention of bees in favor of other imagery.Template:Sfn

The fear of bees has been observed in African elephants,Template:Sfn and beehives have been proposed as a form of deterrent to prevent elephants from damaging vulnerable trees.Template:Sfn

In society

In African folklore, swarms of bees are seen as punishments sent by an enemy with the assistance of a witch doctor. A swarm of bees approaching one's home can alternatively be seen as a good omen or a bad omen.Template:Sfn The Ancient Chinese similarly knew feng (bees and wasps) for their stings and considered them bad omens.Template:Sfn After the advent of beekeeping, this view was replaced with one of bees as an example for nobility and Confucianism.Template:Sfn The Breton, Cornish, and Welsh words for bee (, , and , respectively) refer to its sting.Template:Sfn

News coverage of bees is mixed; while it has raised the issue of declining bee populations and promoted conservation, it also instills fear by describing deaths relating to bee stings.Template:Sfn The spread of Africanized bees to the United States caused a panic in the country beginning in the late 1970s.Template:Sfn This fear was exploited in the horror film The Swarm.Template:Sfn

See also

• List of phobias