Creature Discomforts

I have Entomophobia, a fear of insects. It may stem from the time I was stung over 50 times as a child. I was at Day Camp, and we were sliding on our backsides down a steep dirt hill. It was WAY fun, until I veered a bit and knocked the beehive off and they stung me all the way down. Now bee stings are life-threatening to me, and I carry Epi-Pens wherever I go. They're stashed in the truck, bathroom, my purse, and one is always present on the kitchen table.

Epi-Pen

Minnesota's actually sort of low on my insect radar, despite the mosquito-filled air, black fly clouds, and bee swarms, because of my friend 100% DEET. They'll hover an inch away, but won't land. I also stash DEET everywhere. It even sort of blends with my favorite fragrance, Avon's Skin-So-Soft.

Mexico's all the way up there, though, on my anxiety scale for insects. Mexican insects appear to really like DEET, plus they have insects I've never had to worry about much in Minnesota.

There are these:

No-See-Ums

(Get it? No-See-Ums?) They're called Jejenes here, and they come in the summer and early autumn. And here's what they do to my husband: tiny red dots that he says don't even itch.

With me, each bite becomes a nickel-sized, raised, raging, burning, maddening itch, lasts 5 days, and I spend the whole Jejene season shut inside the air conditioned RV. The casita's not air conditioned, and those little fiends come right through the screens. Only ammonia dabbed on the bites eases the itch, and then only for 20 minutes.

Then there are these:

Bees

I probably wouldn't have as many bees if I didn't fill the birdbath and water the garden. They seem to like water. Hence all the Epi-Pens.

I've not seen mosquitos here, nor biting flies, but then I've not been here during the summer. Yet... In any event, maybe they'll respond to DEET.

The garden has these sometimes on the fruit trees. I'm sure they aren't a threat for biting or stinging, the basis for most insect phobias, but they are SO ugly and creepy-looking. This one actually reared up and audibly hissed at me:

Caterpillar

But to accelerate my phobia, Mexico goes the distance. We've found 6 or 8 of these inside the casita to date:

Scorpion

Yesterday there was one behind the canister of the vacuum cleaner when I removed it for emptying. Until then, all the ones I'd seen were either high up on the wall or dead in the sink, and I've been able to get my husband to dispose of them. Yesterday he wasn't around, so I carried the vacuum out to the deck, waited until it crawled out, and smashed it into an oozy wet spot with his walking stick. I could not believe how high the ICK factor got with that scorpion! My heart was pounding, I was sweating and breathing rapidly. And I felt zero remorse after killing it. I can't even kill spiders normally.

Which brings me to today. 3AM, I enter the casita, flashlight in hand, put the light on, and catch a movement out of the corner of my eye. There, on the sofa, was this:

Tarantula

I think I peed a little. Uttered a couple of those words my Ex-Marine husband taught me. Even a normal spider in the shower or ceiling paralyzes me, but Holy Crap, there was a frickin' TARANTULA on my frickin' SOFA! And it wasn't sleeping, it was moving back and forth, kinda fast, looking at me. I think it was stalking me. All I could think of was corralling it so I knew where it was until my Tarantula-Wrangler woke up. So I did this:

He doesn't get up as early as I do. Nobody does. (I once stood on my coffee table for 45 minutes until my husband came inside to get rid of a scorpion on the wall.) I tried to sit here at the computer, except I had to keep looking at my 4 pound casserole dish to see if it was moving. But I couldn't hang: my heart was pounding, I was sweating and breathing rapidly. Had to go back over to the RV, flashlight in hand (flashlight always because of these, found on the RV pad back in November):

Rattler

So I tried to be quiet, working on some of my jewelry-making, but my Tarantula Wrangler soon woke up. I told him of the situation next door and, after scoffing at my fear (why do men have to do that?), he dutifully went over and removed it unharmed outside in the bushes. I think I'll have to put him on retainer.

When I looked up the word for insect phobia (Entomophobia, first sentence), I also found the steps for desensitization for this phobia, something about drawing pictures of them, then looking at photos of them, ramping up exposure etc.  Which would be beneficial, I guess, to mitigate the heart-pounding, blahblah, but it sure wouldn't keep me from avoiding them.

It's now 5 hours later, and I'm still a bit queasy and anxious from the tarantula. Can't imagine where it got in, if there are more, just very nervous. One of the few areas where Minnesota's better than our Mexican Paradise...