VERTEBRATE PESTS: Vermin Phobias Are Real For Many

This summer I went on a nature hike with a group of college biology students, most of whom were seniors and excelled in their studies. In one area where the brush encroached on both sides of the trail, one student started cowering and crying uncontrollably and stood frozen afraid to go any further. Apparently, a large garden spider was positioned in the bush close to us. It took several of us to get her through the area and later she admitted that she suffered from arach-nophobia. Although I have read about animal phobias, I was amazed at the psychological shutdown of this intelligent, mature biology student.

NUMEROUS PHOBIAS. According to experts at the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, there are about 500 different types of human phobias. Although many of us know people who claim they are "grossed out" by spiders, snakes, mice, etc., a dislike of something is not the same as a phobic disorder. A phobic reaction is a central nervous system event and it is impossible to mistake. Phobics experience sweating, a racing heart, difficulty breathing and a panicked feeling of needing to flee or freeze — exactly what I witnessed that day on the trail.

In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that 50 million people suffer from one of the 500 listed phobias. Phobias range from to the unique and perhaps even bizarre (e.g., dendrophobia, a fear of trees), to the relatively common (claustrophobic, a fear of enclosed spaces). Those that are afraid of pesticides, for example, are toxiphobic; a fear of chemicals in general is chemophobia. Relative to everyday pest management, the following phobias occur among our clients: musophobia (mice); entomopho-bia (insects); ophidiophobia (snakes); arachnophobia (spiders); ornithophobia (birds); and apiphobia (bees).

A total list of the various phobias can be reviewed at www.phobialist.com. How some of the phobias are named on this list is quizzical. You would think a fear of "vermin" (as defined by the dictionary) would be verminophobia. But according to the phobia list, verminophobia is listed as a fear of germs (as is mysophobia).

Phobia terms can also be highly specific. For instance, a zemmiphobic is a person who is afraid of the great mole rat (the Norway rat and the roof rat do not apply). How such a phobia develops and how it warrants its own word is amazing to me. As a rodentologist, I have never seen a great mole rat. And if the etymology of phobias is this species-specific, then a fair amount of listing still needs completion considering there are about 1,685 different rodents.

WHAT’S THE CAUSE? What causes some people to suffer the psychological traumas associated with phobias? And why might a harmless animal psychologically paralyze one family member, while another member of the same family be unaffected? According to psychologists, some of the fear may be inherent in humans as a survival mechanism (prehistoric people learned over time that some snakes, spiders and other animals of all shapes and sizes could, in fact, kill them). Other reasons may stem from a person experiencing a painful and traumatic event in their childhood (e.g., being clawed by a cat, stung repeatedly by a hornets, having a mouse in a sleeping bag while camping and so forth). Or a young child may have witnessed a phobic event (screams, crying, fleeing) with a parent to a spider, cockroach, snake or some other animal. Other phobias are associated with a range of complex psychological issues and some phobias may even be genetic in nature (i.e., some individuals might possess a "phobia gene").

Research thus far indicates that women seem to be more prone to phobias than men. But many men are affected as well. In fact, while I was writing this column, Jeff Edwards of Pioneer Pest Control in Terre Haute, Ind., coincidentally e-mailed me to inform me he has a client who plays for the Chicago Bears football team that is deathly afraid of mice.

Can phobias to the various pests be cured relatively easily? According to psychologists and recent research, the answer is yes (for many cases at least). The treatments involve various programs that have the patient directly confront the fear via exposure therapy. This might involve visual acclimation (movies, photos, etc.) or even direct contact. An arachnophobic person, for example, might eventually hold a tarantula spider and allow it to walk up his or her arm. For people with true animal phobias, especially to those that are synanthropic (animals living in close proximity to people), the phobia might be curable within several hours of therapy. For severe cases, it might require several days of repeated exposure therapy. But based upon what I witnessed with the college student, treatment would save phobics a lot of agony in their lives.

Perhaps the fascinating aspect of "verminophobia" is from a business end. How much of our business, (especially at the residential level) is from the public’s fear of spiders, mice, bugs, snakes and other vermin? I’m not aware of any data that specifically addresses this, but maybe it’s significant. Someone should conduct such a survey. Unless they are papyro-phobic or telephonophobic. Then, never mind.

The author is president of RMC Pest Management Consulting and can be reached at rcorrigan@pctonline.com or 765/939-2829.