I have a phobia of caterpillars. Yeah, I know, they're mostly harmless, but i'm terrified of them.
When I was about 9, I was pushed into a wattle bush filled with spitfires, and I'm fairly sure that was the cause although i've never really liked them. I'm not a big insect fan at all, but they're the worst. I'd much rather have 100 tarantulas crawling around my body tan a single caterpillar in my hand. Anyway, I've been trying to find the correct term for the phobia, and I think I might have found it, when I found this link:
http://www.cartoonbarry.com/2006/09/scoleciphobia_fear_of_worms.htmlFirst thing I saw was a massive caterpillar-not so good. I'm at the stage where I can cope with seeing butterflies, chysalis and moths (although I turn into quite the gymnast when I see a moth, some of my evasive manouvers have been pretty spectacular, including jumping off a balcony...) but seeing a caterpillar-even a photo of one-still makes me flinch and recoil. So if someone could copy the text, without the image, I'd really appreciate it, so I can find out if it really is the tem i'm looking for.
I've also found
this site, which amazed me a little because there are some, if only a few, others. It suggests the term 'lepidophobia', but that isn't specific to caterpillars. I have to say, reading some of the comments made me do some crazy spasming. Yeurk. Even thinking about how they move freaks me out. Coincidentally, I also really, really hate maggots and stuff like that, but i'm not that bad with earthworms or even leeches.
My phobia doesnt really affect my life too much, I just weave away from moths and butteflies and in caterpillar season, I generally dont look too closely at trees and bushes. The only really significant thing is that I won't ever open up cabbage, or a lettuce, or anything like that, and won't touch that kind of thing until I know it's been washed thoroughly. Bad experience with a caterpillar about the size of a AAA battery in a lettuce a few years ago. Either way, i'd like to know more aout it, so if you could do that copy-paste thing for me, that'd be nice.
