Thats good. I've been trying to find out what its called for a while now. I've just been calling myself a wormaphobic.
However "childish" it sounds it got the point across. Like anything with the word "phobia" at the end would.
But is it Scoleciphobia or helminthphobia.
And is it only for certin worms (gross...), or all kinds?

Hi,

It is really stupid to include an image of "worm" on this page. If a person is afraid of something like that, how would she read that ???

Please remove that IMAGE.

Thanks,
P.

They are also afraid of worm images?

It is a web site, not real life. The worm cannot jump out of the screen.

Fear of worms is called Scoleciphobia, and fear of becoming infested with worms is Helminthphobia. I suffer from both. I get panick attacks when I see them on the grass when it's raining. And even though they are "not going to jump from the picture" , I'm not able to see them in pictures. Is also difficult to even say the name. The picture in this website is not a worm, is a caterpillar, not afraid of those. Only maggots, worms, and parasites.

to tell you the truth i can barely write this comment because of the constant shaking of my hands...i cant believe someone would put the picture of a catipillar on this web site...THATS INSANE!! its been raining lately so i have spent the last 3 days straight crying in my room and the only way i can leave is if this really attractive guy carries me...what do i do??? help!!!

Are you kidding?

I am also kind of confused why they would put a picture of a caterpillar on this page... I know it's not a worm, but still. So I guess I have Scoleciphobia, because I have a very big fear of worms. I am 18 and I've been afraid of worms every since I can rememeber. At my old house each and everytime it rained there would be a worm infront of the door. I had to have my dad or brother carry me over the worm just so I could get to the car and go to school, up until I was in 2nd grade. Then my family thought I was just being dramatic, but I would stay in the house crying, not being able to get around the worm. My brother would tell me to just jump over it, but I couldn't. Somebody had to move the worm just so I could leave the house. Then from 7th grade to 11th grade I had to walk to school because we moved. The side walks were lined with grass. I dreaded walking on rainy days, because thats when "they" would come out. so finally I learned how to jump over them, but it would cause me such anxiety that i would usually just cross the street. So walking to school would take twice as long because I would be continiously crossing back and forth. But finally I started getting rides! And now I have graduated from high school and am in college where i haven't had any bad encounters with worms. But because of this "worm phobia" I try not to eat pork, canned meat, or hotdogs, unless I burned them. I try and avoid grass, and NEVER go on wet grass. Well if anybody has any suggestions or ANYTHING let me know.

i am terrified of worms and have also been calling myself wormaphobic. when it rains and they come up on to the pavement i cant even step outside without shaking and almost crying. i have major panic attakcs over them and it is horrible. i cant even lay in the grass without wondering if there is a worm around. in the summer i have to pick weeds out of the flwoer garden as a chore and it is one of the most horrible things in the world. i have ended up loosing almost all of my favorite shirts to my sister as a plea for her to pick them for me. i dont know why anyone would put a picture of a worm or catapiller on this page even if they cant come out and attack you, it seems mean.

Does anyone know the term for a phobia of caterpillars?

I am deathly afraid of worms as well. It seems that after it rains they know to be in the right spots. The college that I attended was in a hilly area so when it rained the worms would run down the asphalt with the water leaving them by the hundreds. My frieds thought my fear was funny. Some people just dont understand fears. I do not know what triggered my fear but I constantly study different types and species from land dwelling to the parasitic species. I have learned so much about them until I feel that can become a Nematologist with ease. I have a dog that I keep wormed. Too afraid to detox myself...scared to see what may be lurking inside of me.

OH MY GOD!!! I feel as though a weight has been lifted from me!!! I was telling my boss this morning about my fear of worms and he found this website for me. I feel a sense of hope just knowing that I am not alone and that there are others who go through what i've been living with all my life. When everyone is excited about Sring approaching, I dread getting out of bed in the morning because I know "they're" out. My husband has carried me to the car after unsucessfully trying to coach me past "them". I'm tierd of being called crazy and i'm excited to know that there is hope for me.

Hi,
I'm 31 years old and i've been living in fear of worms for as long as i can remember. I'm also very scared when its raining that they will come into my home. I had experience when i was renting an apartment and everytime i open my door i would see these worms in the hallway or sometimes when i go to take a shower their in between the door and it scares me alot. Sometimes i would find worms in my room where i sleep, once i came from work one night and saw one crawling on my bed spread uuhhh!"that was disgusting" Thats when i decided i had to move from that place. And the bad thing was there were 3 apts but, i was the only one cloose to the entrance of the yard so, they would always come to my room. My landlord thought it was my airco that keep them coming in my apt because sometimes i would find 5 to 6 worms in my room like 3 or 4 times a week and when its raining its worst. My fear is when i see worms crawling i would cream and my hair on my skin would starts to raise then i'd have this fright in me as thought their going to hurt me, then after that i would keep imagining its still there or keep looking around to see if there another. I also have dreams of all kinds of worms and scream out in my sleep.
I'm really terrified and need some advice. HELP ME!!!

I couldn't leave this page without seeing something...I never in my life have met anyone else with a worm phobia, and it's crazy to see there's people who have the same reaction to them. Everyone always laughs at my intense fear but don't understand that it's a PHOBIA and cannot be helped. I get panic attacks, cry, you name it. the other day a friend of mine rake the worms off the driveway for me so i could run into my house. haha.

the comment above this honestly gave me the chills.

Ok, that is not a worm but a caterpillar. Anyways. I have a terrbile fear of worms. I don't know why. They don't bite, they've no teeth. They don't have a brain to plan how to get to you, they don't even have legs to chase you around and one stomping alone could splat them so this fear of them is ridiculous but it's real.
Anyways, thanx for this post and God bless

I just found this website this morning. I have been TERRIFIED!! of worms, (the kind that comes out when it rains). I have been terrified since childhood about 8-9 years old. I'm 32 now, and still terrified. My maternal grandmother used to be afraid of them but no longer is. I think the phobia has been passed down to me. Also i have a 6 year old daughter she will be turning 7 years old this July 2007. My daughter this morning went out to the end of the driveway and looked down guess what she saw, WORMS!! Her fear has just set in! She had a full panic attack at the end of the driveway this morning because of worms. Is this hereditary?? my daughter was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified), An Anxiety disorder over any bug that flies, and has ADHD, Also before she was diagnosed with PDD-NOS she was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder. My mom says I was the same way but was not dignosed with the disorders that my daughter has. Is there a link to worm phobia and my daughter's disorder?????????
Thanks. Margaret

hi im zac and my best friens chelsea has a problem wiht worms lol she even looks liek one she is very odd and she claims to be a vegetarian

i knew i wasn't crazy with all the phobias out there i knew there had to be one for worms....eewww just writing that word creeps me out. my friends think i'm pathetic and don't understand that i am seriously afraid of them. i've been afraid of them since i can remember and it has to do with the bad experiences i've had with worms. one of them was watching someone cough up one when i was about 4 y/o. now whenever i get a little itch in my throat i swallow really quickly or get something to drink and take the biggest gulp down because i would die if one of those critters ever came out of my mouth...eewwww.....grossssssss!!!!!!!!! and forget about when it rains and there is grass around. i tip toe all the the way cuz god forbid i step on one of them i would probably cut my own foot off or i'd leave the shoe there. i might sound pathetic but its that serious. worms, slugs snail caterpillars, maggots big ones, tiny ones, medium ones i dont care they all gross me out. and seriously get that damn caterpillar off the site....i'm afraid of those too even though they turn into beautiful butterflies.

This is ridiculous. I have been terrified/freaked out by worms for as long as I can remember. The problem is, all the posts so far have been by women. Being a boy, its twice as humiliating. I can still remember from the age of 6 to even 13 having my mother walk me to the bus and guide me away from them. I dread mornings after it rains. I've never been so happy to find other nut jobs like me, but also terrified of hearing their stories. When i was younger 5 or 6, i remember being at an Arbor Day thing in the grass. Anyway worms were crawling around every where, and my friends were throwing them at each other(including me) and girls. I stood up to avoid the whole thing only to shake out three worms crawling up my pants around my thigh. They spazed out and it was the worst feeling I've ever had. After i yelled i was sent to the principle's office for not respecting the holiday. People think I'm crazy, i think I'm crazy. I still get totally irrational when I'm around them. A kid messing with me brought on near my face, and i i swung my trumpet at his face when i was 14. He got 12 stitches below his eye. The thing is its not a fear like when you watch a scary movie, or hear about serial killers. Its just an awful feeling inside that makes you want to just leave the area and be in a clean room or something. I want to help myself, but I'm almost sure i would never make it through any treatment. i guess we can just sympathize with each other, and take solace in the fact that were not alone. like the guy who was afraid of the whole world turning into a piece of fruit.

It is so nice to finally come across people who have the same fear of worms that I do. Nobody gets it, hell I don't get it. All I know that ever since I was a little girl I've been terrified of them, and most things wormlike. This would include all types of worms, magots, slugs, centapieds, and most caterpillars. I have no problem with snakes though and I'm not nessecarily afraid of becoming infested with them.
The thought of stepping on one is enough to make me cry. When it rains it's the absolute worst. Seeing them in a parking lot or side walk is always a challenge. I look rediculous hopping around them. I actually panic. I will tear up, and can't breath. My hands clentch and heart races. Seeing them everywhere is just too much. I HATE them and it only seems to be getting worse.
I remember having to be carried to the bus stop when i was little anytime it rained, beacuse I would be such a wreck. Surprisingly enough, my little brother never tourtured me with the threat of comming in contact with one. That's not to say others haven't though. Some people just think they are too funnny when the throw one at me ect.
One time I was swimming in a lake, my friend had been fishing and decieded that it would be funny to throw one at me. Well, it went down my one piece bathing suit. I almost drowned. Luckily I managed to pull it together to get out of the water and rip off my bathing suit by my tent. I felt disgusting the rest of the day. Don't worry. I smacked the shit out of him when he got the courage to get back onto land.
Needless to say I don't go fishing with people who use any type of worm as bait anymore.
Well good luck to all of you on rainy days.

I've researched this word about 6 months ago, scoleciphobia, so it's not new to me. But this website is. It never came up when I was researching how to brand my fear. It's not just the "W" word I'm afraid of, it's anything slimy. Caterp....'s and silk w...'s, snai...'s, slu...'s and centipe...'s make me want to vomit. I'm not as bad as most of you, but I can cry in an instant and feel shaky and want to throw up. But I've never needed to be carried to my car.

When I read articles on nature and see something slimy (insects, not snakes) I have to take a Sharpee and black it all out and only then can I read it. Same with whales, when I see a picture of them with those nasty crustaceans and barnacles growing all over them I have to sit there coloring the entire picture in with a black marker. It reminds me of scaly, crusty, rotted flesh - like ancient leprosy. But I digress....

To that Randy person who questioned a worm (or caterpillar) not being able to jump out of the screen, I think you are misunderstanding the fear. It's not the fear of it harming us necessarily, or "getting" us, but it's the thing itself that scares us. So whether it is real life, or a picture in a website or magazine, makes no difference. Would you be grossed out if you saw a picture of body parts strewn across the highway?
**It's just a picture, it won't get you.** It's the same effect, it's profusely disgusting.

The irony with me is I used to play with worms and put snails in my mouth when I was a kid. I am guessing that is why I am so direly afraid of them today. One time when I was a teenager I ran barefoot through the grass and found a baby slug on my foot, the size of a granule of a nerd candy. I screamed and cried. It was horrific.

To be honest, I would never want to cure my fear. Why would I want to be at peace with worms and slugs and vile creatures like that? No thank you. Plus it's not ruining my life. If anything it's keeping me safe from those horrid, slimy, lilliputian enemies. In my head it's logical. People that aren't afraid are the ones with problems. They should learn to be afraid more than I should learn to not be afraid.

A few years ago I was watching Road Rules I think it was, and each castmate made a dish with insects and the person eating it didn't know until after they ate it. One person I think had something like macaroni and cheese made with worms, probably pasta too. And of course they were grossed out, but that was it. Every now and again I replay that in my head and think what I would've done if I were that person. And I always come up with the same conclusion: I would be in jail right now. I would have beaten the castmate to a pulp (I am against violence), smashed every camera belonging to the camera crew, and then I would have filed a lawsuit against the writers and the network. And then I could never eat macaroni and cheese again as long as I lived.

ok so we saw a picture in a book of a girls legs and someone told us it was from worms. can worms kill you or give you a disease? and if so what kind of worms? do all worms carry diseases?

Okay im not at all afraid of worms like earthworms or caterpillers etc.. what im afraid of (very specifically) is maggots. I will cry and sometimes even vomit or pass out on sight and just.. ugh its an unbareable fear. Is there a name for specifically the fear of maggots or is that just included with the worms?

Fear of maggots is also under scoleciphobia.

I finally decided to look up the word for my aversion to worms. It's not just worms though. It's caterpillars, maggots, slugs, anything that even remotely looks like a worm. I especially can't stand the fuzzy ones. They gross me out so bad. When I was in high school my mother used to love to hang her towels outside to dry after a wash and I was horrified of ever finding a worm on one. Well, it happened one morning. I was just out of the shower and was drying myself with a towel when one of those little yellow fuzzy ones got on my back. I scrubbed my skin off just about and didn't go to school that day because I was so upset and grossed out. One of those same yellow worms made it's way into my apartment when my first child was only about 10 months old and he had it in his mouth and I had to finger sweep his mouth to get it out. Only the head was left. I was soooo traumatized. I can't believe I touched it. I NEVER would have done that had it not been for the fact that it was in my child's mouth. I just can't stand to even see one. If there is one on my porch I will not go outside until it is removed. The way they crawl makes me gag. I have no idea why I feel this way about worms. They are just the grossest thing in the world to me. I've never had anything traumatic happen to me when I was a child concerning worms so I have no idea why I feel that way about them but I would never ever try to seek help that involves me trying to touch a worm or get used to them. Worms I can live without.

Coming across this website is great. I never would of imagined that there were other people that had the same fear of worms, caterpillars, maggots, slugs,snails,etc. that I do. It completely paralyzes me most of the time. I've had this fear since I was a small child and am now 30 years old. Like most of the responses I've read on here, my fear is not due to some sort of traumatic experience that I've encountered with a worm,etc. I'm not sure why or how it developed. The mere sight of one of these type creatures just sickens me so bad. I constantly feel scared and anxious if I see one. Sometimes they get on my porch or sidewalk and I can't go on until I know it has been completely distroyed to the point of not being able to recognize it. Luckily my boyfriend does this for me most times. My other friends and family do not understand at all. They think I'm being silly. And lately I have been having nightmares about it almost every night. It's just nice to know that others can relate, even if I don't know you personally. God Bless all of you and hopefully one day this fear will be gone from all of our lives.

Like Naya posted, it's just maggots that I despise. Earthworms and the like are fine. You can throw all the gore in the world at me and I won't even blink, but so much as one maggot can make me go ashen white and dizzy. I'm a large man, so I'm sure it's hilarious to see me in that state, (I know I'd laugh), but when I see a maggot I'm gripped in uncontrollable terror and disgust, and it usually takes a day or two to fully recover. Gods forbid I ever touch one, I'd likely have to be committed.

Is there any kind of specialized therapy for this phobia? It's unrealistic to expect to never see a maggot again, and I'd like to be prepared the next time it happens.

You guys & girls ROCK!!!!
I'm sooo glad I'm not alone - earthworms, caterpillars, maggots, parasites... I HATE them all, just the thought drives me crazy. And it's so frustrating to look out at my backyard and not be able to go and make my own vegetable garden, plant lots of flowers...
I'm thinking about doing cognitive therapy, 'cause I really want to do some gardening and I must get rid of my phobia for earthworms & caterpillars... If anyone has any experience with it let me know. Since the whole concept is to expose you little by little to your fears, I keep postponing looking up info about it.
Take care - I'll be back!

i am really afraid of worms, yet still i want to become a forensic scientist. i really need to get over my fair because this is what i want to become.

I been afraid of worms since I could walk!!! Dunno what did it but I wish it didnt happen!!! As a kid I read How to Eat Fried Worms but that didnt help and last year or so they came out with the movie and seeing the previews scared the hell out of me!! Im so glad that ppl feel the same way I do because my boyfriend think its a silly phobia!!

Worms..?? When i was a lil girl i always wondered why God created such ugly and scary creatures as worms. I hate them so much and am terrified at em. Worms are the reason why i asked my husband to cremate my remains if i die. I would never let worms have a party over my dead body..i mean it!! they are my biggest enemy ever..yet i've never had the courage to even step on one!!

Wow what a relief to see that other people are scared of worms too. I've been afraid of them as long as I can remember - people tell me it must be from a traumatic experience but I can remember being in preschool not wanting to touch any of the earthworms on the ground while all the other kids were eating them and putting them in their hair. It's just gotten worse and recently it's been really bad. I've stopped eating meat altogether - not because I don't like it - because I'm afraid that maggots could have somehow gotten into it. I know they can't hurt me and I know my fear is totally groundless but I can't overcome it.
Has ANYONE found a way to overcome this fear?

Oh my God!!!

I'm so happy I found this page. I've had my fear of worms since the fourth grade and it started with my best friend being totally grossed out by them. I couldn't understand why but after seeing her scream and panic every time she saw them I started having bad dreams about eating them and throwing them up etc. so ever since I'm so afraid of them! I get panic attacks, I want to flee the area and I HATE the way they crawl around! The woman who posted a comment saying she had them crawling in her bedroom is gonna give me nightmares for a long time, that's so disgusting! Why is the sense of fleeing and panic attacks related to worms and caterpillars and such? I can't see how they've ever posed a threat to us ever..

im s**t scared of worms, if any 1 knows a good way to overcome it please e-mail me. cheers

Ugh, that is sick, i mean the picture. I had a horrible feeling there would be an image on this page. I had to scroll down the page really frantically! I find maggots and caterpillars really really sickening. Maybe it started out as a thought of them gnawing into my skin (sorry people!). Then recently, i stumbled across a really frightening picture of a translucent maggot gnawing on a cherry. I was hyperventilating! I can remember seeing a bright green tube writhing about in the grass....ergh, it was a caterpillar believe it or not. I guess earthworms and slugs are ok. Anyway, just wondering if this phobia really is an obstacle in life??

Actually, I may know a way to combat this phobia....go fishing! Oh no, all those different coloured magg---......

Like many of you I am also terrified of worms,caterpillars, maggots, slugs etc... When I see one lying still, I get nausea, when it wiggles or moves my heart jumps a beat, I scream from shock then nearly jump out of my skin, this experience will then proceed to affect the rest of my day sometimes days. I am 33yrs and have never known anybody else to have this phoebia, until my 2yr old came running into the house screaming in fear of something, it took a while to calm him down, when I asked my husband what happened, he said he was digging in the garden and saw a worm. My son has never seen me in a panic attack, I have several exits from my house, so if rains I always have a safe passage, and I always avoid any contact with grass, trees, plants etc...Could I have passed this phoebia on to my son. I also have asked my husband to cremate me as the thought of my worst enemy having a banquet on my body is just to much to bear. My phoebia nearly rules my life not one day goes by when I'm not on full alert of the wiggly ones, if I have to go to the park or a concert where you have to sit on the grass, I always take a blanket to sit on, usually frozen in the middle on full alert of the enemy. I am worried should one day someone throw one of the enemy at me, I would become a raving lunatic and KILL KILL KILL.....that's why you should take this phoebia very very seriously.

Hi,it is the first time I hear of anybody with the same phobia. I can´t even use the name and I called them the wriggly things. I don´t know how it started but everytime I am stressed it gets worse. When I was living in England I was very brave and I even plant flowers in the garden using two pairs of gloves (one on top of the other) and a very long instrument so I wouldn´t have to touch the earth, but then I saw one and I have to run home and wash my hands with bleach. The worse thing is not to make people move them for me to be able to enter or leave a place, or to have to cross the streets when it is raining. The worse thing is that the bastards seam to follow me. I keep finding them in food (I only thank god it is not when I am eating). I have found them in fish (so my husband had to bleach the entire kitchen for me to be able to enter the room again), I found them in meat,in vegetables even in a cookie. I have been so scared lately than I got my husband into buying worming tablets for me. I took them and I didn´t sleep two nights in fear of what could happen. I don´t eat fish anymore o pork and I literally inspect my vegetables with a magnifiying glass before cooking them. To prepare fish for my familly I have to wear marygold glaves and bleach everything inmediatly after I. I hate them with a passion and the thoght of one close to me gives me taquicardia. As well as some of you I have asked my family to incinerated me when I die. Every time I find one I spend one or two days without eating and I can´t even drink coffee because it is not transparent and I can´t see if there is anything inside. I really hate them with a passion and as I can see I am not the only one. If you have any tip to overcame this fear without having to be exposed to one please tell me becausse I am running out of things to eat.

Ever since I was little, I've been terrified of worms. My older cousin jokes that I was buried alive in a past life and was eaten by worms, but sometimes it's really hard to deal with. I'm in marching band at my local high school and sometimes when it rains I can't go onto the practice field without crying the whole time because there are earth worms everywhere. Once my parents were watching that special on parasites, 'Eaten Alive' and I walked in on them. I didn't eat or sleep for three days. If I wasn't hypoglycemic I would become a vegetarian. I'm so terrified of maggots or parasites in my food. I don't even eat lunch at school anymore. People thought it was funny in elementary school and they put a bunch of worms in my chair, but they thought different when I started crying and hyerpventalating. It's not a nice thing to live with.

Like many of you I thought that I was the only one and of course that no one else understood. I believe that I can trace my fear back to a specific instance. When I was little we used to walk up a hill to get to my grandma's house and the hill had crab apples that would fall. This would naturally attract all kinds of worms and caterpillars. I was terrified the entire time. The real incident however occurred when my cousin and I were on a tricycle out back of my grandma's house where the ground was covered with crab apples and worms & caterpillars. The little brat took off on the tricycle and left me there screaming and crying hysterically. She knew that I was afraid of them and it's been downhill for me ever since.

Although I don't like caterpillars and the thought of earthworms on a rainy day causes a mixture of fear, grossness, and all out frsutration (I have to avoid stepping on them), the worst fear is maggots (ewwww!). I HATE the word and I truly believe that worms are out to get me and that they know what they are doing when they come out. I think that they are trying to ruin me and intentionally cause pain/trauma. I know this is all irrational but after all it is called a phobia for a reason.

I put all flour in the fridge and pancake mix or anything open has to be put in zip lock bags if they are to be stored in the cabinet. I have had an instance or two when not doing this has caused a horrid surprised that left me screaming and crying.

Lastly this fear is waying heavy on my decision to get a dog as I hear that they get and always have (albeit dormant) worms in the bodies even if they are wormed. The thought of doggy butt worms is too much and that's a dog that I just couldn't bring my self to help should the incident happen.

om gosh...
i'm so afraid of everything that looks like worm... except snakes...

hours ago... our backyard floor have maggots.
i kinda like freak out...
i don't actually want any worms beside me....

and now... i'm sick... i can't stand them....
i'm paranoid about worms...

when we ate dinner... i thought the spaghetti noodles are worms...

Wow! I thought I was the only one? I've been laughed at for my fear of worms or anything that looks or moves like a worm.

As a child I had worms and I thought I was going to die. That was the first time that I found out that we have worms inside of us. I was so scared I drank clorox bleach trying to kill them.

Then there was a time my mother was being evil and she made me stand in a worm patch. I peed myself instantly.

A time I bought cod fish from the supermarket. I put it in lime and salt to kill the rawness. When I went to season the fish I started to complain about bones when the deli woman said it was bone free. To my surprise I started to pull out bones until it frigging moved in my dam hands. OMG the fish was filled with worms. I passed out! Cod fish is popular for having worms so PLEASE don't buy cod fish.

I don't eat pork because I know pork has worms and I cook all my meat myself. My poor husband thinks I overcook the meat because I'm trying to get it extra well done.

When it rains I hate to go outside and I'll often call out sick because of worms being outside. I don't stand under trees and I'm always looking down when I'm walking.

Is there a dam cure for this phobia? When I see them in person or on TV I literally start to gag or throw up. Not to mention I can't breathe and ecperience severe chest pains.

Oh my lord!!!!!!
I honestly thought I was the only one. I didn't even know there was a name for this totally irrational fear of the icky ones. I'm 18, and I've already made arrangements to be cremated because I don't want to be buried in the same ground they are in. Which makes no sense.
I usually make every effort imaginable, whether it be crossing the street, staying inside, or running the other way to avoid them... but the other day, I was walking to work, almost late, and they were everywhere. I ran.. and didn't step on any... but I was still hyperventilating, and crying by the time I got to work, and I had to calm myself down by drinking lots of water, and eating sugar... and imagining things that arent them.
Yeah, I'm also afeared of maggots but not so much as the icky ones.. and grubs too..

I thought I was alone on this phobia too - didn't even know it had a name until today... Thank you!!!
I am 41 years old. I didn't realize I had a fear of worms until I reached Jr. High. I used to walk to school most every day with a couple of boys I had known since 3rd grade. I was a tomboy and they were my best friends... We were walking to school one morning after a long spring rain the night before so there were plenty of worms on the streets and sidewalks. One of the boys must've noticed me tiptoeing around the worms to avoid stepping on them - next thing I know, they are both picking up worms and tossing them at me! I ran to school as fast as I could, never looking back. I can't tell you how many nightmares I have had since that day, or how many times I've avoided going outside after a long rain... At least I'm not alone!
Thanks for all the reassuring posts, everyone.

Hi; I'm so afraid of worms, I can't look at pictures of them. The worst is small ones like maggots or larvae.

Right now I'm freaked out because my cats have fleas and I just saw the larvae in their cat bed. I made a family member wash it and vacuum the whole house, but I'm so freaked out, I can barely sleep.

I'm like addicted to Valium and Klonopin right now because I'd go crazy without being completely sedated, but it's barely enough.

If anyone wants to chat about their fear of worms, please email me. (astral_stardust@yahoo.com) I'd love to talk to others because I don't know anyone else who has the fear.

i have a worm phobia too. it's gotten better since i have been forced to deal with them at times for my job
9landscaping) but if a co-worker is around i make them take over. it reallly does seem like a ridiculous phobia since they are fairly small, slow, and harmless compared to other bugs or insects - however i wanna know what to do to get rid of this phobia. i'm done with it! and why are so many posted comments by females? is there a connection with this phobia to gender? thanks...

My girlfriend has a problem fearing of worms. I was looking all over the web, trying to find the 'cure' for that, on my mother language, and still without results. I found this web page, and figured out that all posts here are about HAVING that problem, no solutions. Is there any solution, does any of you guys working on that fear with some psyhologist, or maybe get rid of fear?
Respect,
Vladimir

Hi everyone, I was reading all your stories and I can relate. I'm a middle-aged woman who has had this phobia her whole life! It has been awful, as most of you know. I found this site because I have been searching for and looking at pictures of worms, YES! I almost can't believe it, I also could NOT even look at pictures before. I'm overcoming my phobia, by myself and it isn't costing me anything. I'm going to share the secret with everyone so you can all help yourselves. The simple treatment you can do yourself is called EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). The creator Gary Craig will let you download the technique for free, just google for it, or you can go to youtube.com and put it EFT and there are many different videos to help and direct you, this is all for free. Just keep at it, I've just started but already my phobia is very much lessened, and I know that I'll keep at it and I'll get rid of it completely. All of you young people will not have to live your whole lives with this now. Best of luck to you all!

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows where this fear comes from. I am so afraid of worms, reptiles (including frogs), mice, rats even caterpillars. But I am ok with spiders and butterflies. Ever since I was about 4 yrs old I have been deathly afraid. It has gotten worse over the years and then back in October when I was taking the pool down for the season. A few worms were under the pool, but in my mind there was millions and I could see them in front of my eyes a black streak just like when your pictures taken and you see the spots from the flash. I felt like they were all over me and crawling. Needless to say I felt like I was having a breakdown and scared my elder daughter to death as she had to calm me down and keep telling me nothing was there and they can't hurt me. I am so afraid that I have told my family that when my time comes I want to be cremated as I do not want to be buried with fear of them getting to me. After the rain, my husband and son have to check the sidewalk before I step out and remove them, I can't walk barefoot on the grass.

My husband and family think I may have been traumatized as a child and the regression is coming out in adult hood. I do remember as a small child my uncle whom was only 7 years older than I would tease me with all sorts of creatures. But I would have thought growing up that way I could laugh it off.

It does have something to do with the look as I can hold a rat or mouse, but if the tail touches my skin, it's gone I have thrown them out of fear.

The other weird thing is if I am gardening, I must know they belong because if I am wearing a gardening glove I can pick it up and put it in another spot in the garden, but only little ones, large ones my husband or son have to move them.

I am also afraid to touch fish, I am not afraid of the species, but the thought of the slime and taking it off the hook. If anyone comes near me I have massive panic attacks and have even run into traffic and almost hit by a car to get away.

If anyone has any information or where to get help. Please, please let me know.

Thanks

I don't believe this. I thought I was the only one. I read all these comments and could feel the horrible tightening the rapid breathing, the heart racing, and the burning sensation on my skin my muscles tensing....I like all of you as soon as I see....those of ANY kind but not snakes (which are vertebrates) though they have a jump factor when I don't know they are coming, I begin scrunching up...if I make myself look longer to try to get over it...I almost verge on panic attack. I sob and cannot get it out of my mind. Let me begin by saying I have an invertebrate phobia in general. This is a challenge for me because I started keeping a salt water tank. For as long as I remember I have been afraid of anything that looks or moves like....well in this house and my friends outside the house know to use the code word "politicians" how fitting. I love my saltwater tank. It is however inevitable that they end up with invertebrates of some sort of the smaller usually variety in them. I have a bristleworm colony living in my tank and the smaller ones aren't bothering me for a change they look like little bugs. But ...big mama as I call it came out to eat some of the left over flakes under a rock tonight and I flipped I mean I screamed for my roommate who is trying to help me work through something called doyletics to trace down what age I started having this problem and address it. I recommen at least giving it a try. www.doyletics.com. Can't hurt in any case. I did notice that I can at least THINK about certain types of politicians easier than I could before. Not fr very long. And I m still in a teanse fight or flight mode after meeting up with 'big mama' God I want to decimate that whole population blech. I can't even go scuba diving or snorkeling, it's very hard for me to look at sea anemoney's, anything with tentacles like jellyfish or even corals! There are hard corals that are more like stone less problem with. many many sea slugs are beautiful...but....think to hard about it or look to long and I need to turn the page. Starfish absolutely freak me out. At our local fish store which has a phenomenal fish and invertebrate room i can only spend a little time looking at those things. IN fact I almost had a full blown sweat tears panic attack IN the room and had to go sit in the car to calm down where I burst into tears. Does anyone else find that GROUPS of these...politicians also seem to make it worse? Or thinking of things in swarms (God even thinking about it makes me want to scream and cry). I am also afraid of seaplants because of the way it feels though I can now touch seaweed on the beach if it has dried a little. IT's not so bad, feels a little like a stiffer thicker wet cornstalk. I was TERRIFIED and I mean run screaming TERRIFIED of MOSS yes green MOSS when I was a little kid. I can deal with it now. Not my favorite but it's not bad. Maybe it's the amorphousness of things as a kid you have certain paradigms that fit but new things can be scary. I don't know. I'd sure like to know why I feel this way. And for those of you that pray please please pray that big mama doesn't show it's ugly self anymore because I can't stand this. And I love my fishies. I'm not fond of insects. Oddly enough my favorite denizen of my tank is an invertebrate technically, a small hermit crab, named Samuel. I love him to death. Go figure. Used to live near a lake when I was a little girl an remember standing there on the beach with my mom and being terrified of the way the waterlililies seemed to move toward us when the wind blew even though they were rooted that's probably why...I thought they were coming....and when we went in that lake I stayed WELL away from them. Hate swimming in lakes because can't see th bottom and feel seaweed feels like seaweed....or politicians.
help.

please, please, please take the picture off!! My gosh, for those of us who know how crazy we are to have this fear and are looking for answers, the LAST thing we want to do is to go somewhere where there is a picture of the thing we fear most.

I always thought I was the only one. Everyone makes fun of me because i get so freaked out by earthworms. I can't tell you how many times I have been told how they can't hurt you and then the people try to get me to touch one or hold one. After a rain I look like I'm dancing as I go down the side walk, trying to avoid the worms. If I hear a sound under my foot as I walk it takes everything inside of me to look and make sure it wasn't a bug or a worm, the strange thing is I HAVE to look. I have also told my family I want to be creamated--I don't like the thought of being in the ground with worms. I can't even look at gummy worms, those fake fishing worms or look at them on tv. I had someone put one down my shirt in the back and I froze, I tried to talk or scream and nothing would come out. Thank God my Dad was there to rescue me, he got the worm off of me and acted like it was normal to act like I did. He never made fun of me like every one else. I can't handle any bugs but earthworms, slugs and maggots are the worse.

Ah my god! Im the only person i know who has this phobia. As kids wed play football on a field and on a couple of occasions id hear my friends or some other kids like "wow, check out this worm" and id literally run about 800 metres home, as fast as i could and wouldnt slow down till i got in the door! The worst thing was i felt whenever i went to the football matches everyone would gang up on me and hold me down and lower one onto my face or drop one down my pants or something. Its bad enough writing about it! The long ones, that you can see moving along make me leap in fear. I played for a really good rugby side too and thank god no one found out. I was on the bottom of a ruck once with like 4 people on top of me, and i turned to my side and saw a worm about 3 feet away from me. Somehow i managed to lift myself out of this ruck and just run back into a deep position, haha! I didnt make another low tackle that game, in fear of landing face first in worm!

OMG. I thought I was the ONLY one! haha... its a relief to know this is more common than i thought. I wish i knew what triggered my irrational fear. There are other things that gross me out but nothing gives me anxiety like the thought of coming in contact with a worm. UGH.

hi, i am larry and i am 12. i guess i am the youngest to post such things.i hate worms and my neck feels ticklish whenever i see a worm. i was even more afraid of worms when a prefect showed them close to my face. i was only 7 then!i am a singaporean and luckily for me,it is a small country and i have to be cremated when i die,unless i am a president. i guess i am going to die 6 years later, in national service where i have to go through training,even crawling through mud, where there are countless earthworms! last time on holiday,i saw a worm in the toilet! i then couldn`t sleep and needed 2 days till i recover.i seriously need a cure!

Good God yes. Worms are quite possibly my one and only phobia. In general I'm a rather strong stomached individual, and am pretty unphased by most things, but one earth worm writhing its way out of the grass is enough to make me recoil in disgust. I hate them, especially the way they stretch out and contract when they move. Creepy little bastards. I think I can trace it back to when I was 4 or 5, and some kids had cut a worm in half and yet it was still wriggling about. Just didn't sit well with me.

stupid worms. i wish they all explode and die. like this, no more earthworms and we live without fear.

why on earth have an image of a caterpillar up? I screamed before I could stop myself when the page loaded......at least I now know I am far from being the only one with what others see as an irrational fear of worms and caterpillars, parisitic and not........I've come to terms with it ( though I've been flinching with every second line I type) I figure they have as much right to be here as we do, only, they don't complain about having to put up with us...... No matter how hard I try though I cannot bring myself to be in their presence for long, in fact, the sight alone gets me panicking and the slightest movement and I bolt as far as possible...without a care as to how foolish I may appear......Why...? It started when I was nine and we did a chapter on parasitic worms in science, at ten I had a caterpillar fall on the back of my neck, and that coupled with the constant fear of being crept up on by these creatures has just intensified over the years, to the point where I cannot stand buerflies and moths, I avoid walking under trees other than in winter, and when in nature I am constanty looking over every inch of grass around me for as far as I can see...........and at the other extreme u have people who think their cute and like to prove so by picking them up.........(shiver)

that picture seriously freaks the hell out of me...
i feel like vomiting everytime i saw a caterpillar..even picture of it...looks like im not the only one scared of that little thing

I am not afraid of worms, I just hate them. I always have a driveway full after a rain. I cannot step on them because I then have worm guts on my shoes. If they dry up and it rains again, they are reconstituted and are gooshier than before. I do have ocd so I am sure that has something to do with it. Does anyone know how to keep them off the driveway?

i hate worms . so isgusting

Thank God for this site. There is no real information around the internet whatsoever.

My fear of worms probably started from my paranoia of parasites (tapeworms in particular) and definitely elevated from there. The worst nightmares I've had are about worms. I'm not too incredibly scared of maggots or caterpillars (though I will shudder at the thought of them too) , it's mainly worms-- worms of ALL kinds.

I have the biggest problem with earthworms because those are the ones I've come across the most. Like many others here, I absolutely dread going outside the day after it rains-- I can't stand seeing them wriggling and squirming on the sidewalks. The dead ones even freak me out sometimes.

I was helping my friend clean her backyard the morning after a party and since it was raining the night before, I moved the ashtray and found a worm under it. I ran and never went back to that area.

I was taking a zoology class and when I was thumbing through the book, I came across the chapter on worms with many photos and I swear I started crying. We also had to dissect a LIVE earthworm for that class and they were LARGE-- it was horrifying.

i am so afraid of worms and everyone just makes fun of me for it i remember one time at my neighbors pool i almost stepped on a big slimy one and my bf noticed, he picked it up with a dust pan and chased me around with it, i screamed, cried yelled, everything i also have the walking on the sidewalk with them problem and if you walk with me and point and say worm i will scream, jump and cry even if there is none, also every little stick or tree debris looks like a worm when its raining, of all my fears this is my worst and ill never be able to get over it even thought in about 3rd grade my best friend forced me to hold one for like 2 seconds, worst memory ever, oh and my dad threw a couple at me from a distance =P

i'm so scared of worms, caterpillars, maggots or what else that resembles them. i can't even touch a page of a book if it has a colored picture of anything like it. i get paralyzed with fear just seeing one when it rains. the mere mention of it freaks me out and paralyzes me instantly i break into sweat. it's horrible. i don't remember how i got the phobia but it's been here ever since i could remember. i remember this one class way back 2nd year and we had to bring worms, cultured or not and i couldn't do the experiment at all. i won't touch it, i won't get near it. i even cried. i love when it rains but the idea that its wet and there'll be worms scares me so much, i look everywhere i walk.

Oh my, I am 52 years old, and have a terrible fear of the gyspy moth caterpillars in particular. I dislike all worms, but that one, scares me profusely. I cannot walk pass, around, across the street, or get out of my car if I even think some are near, and around this time of year they are. I am been afraid since I can remember, and do not have a clue as to why. I do not like this fear, and it gets worse as I get older. I wonder if sometimes I need to see a special doctor because of this fear.....I can take it much longer..........

wow. im not alone after all : ) my phobia is also intense!
i cant go outside when its raining or just did rain without being terrified. i cant stand them. whenever i see a worm i feel like theyre all over me and i start seeing them even if theyre not there. i start sweating, shaking and crying. once i was on the beach and i saw a worm and i started hysterical crying and my dad had to carry be back to our tent. but worms(and centipedes) are the only bugs that scare the hell out of me. just worms. i refuse to take part in the planting my friends and i are supposed to do in front of our church cause worms ALWAYS show up. they get cups of them and name them. they chase me with them. lol.
my god i wish i could get over this. : /

I also am happy to have found this site. I didn't know so many people were afraid of worms. I can remember when I was quite young that I wasn't afraid of worms and would pick them up. Then sometime around 4 or 5 years old I became afraid of them. We had a maid that was terrified of them and maybe she frightened me or once the neighbors Catawba worms were all over our yard and when I went in and told my mother, she said I mustn't touch them and when I asked why, she said they were nasty. I even found one of the catawbas in my bed once. I am 75 years old and have managed to control the fear a lot by just forcing myself to be close to them and watching them. I still can't imagine touching them. No fear of snakes, though or spiders (can pick them up) and love lizards. Just hate the earthworms and caterpillars and of course maggots, and anything that looks like a worm. Have gotten used to the pictures finally. My husband fishes with them and I won't get in the boat with him and if he turns any of them loose, I ask him to release them away from our yard. Also wanted to be cremated when I was younger, but not anymore as I don't think they can get into the sealed concrete vault. The fear is irrational, so if we could be not afraid of the picture, we could also be not afraid of the creature. After all, it can't hurt us either, usually. Went to play miniature golf with some friends once and saw a caterpillar on the ground and when one lady saw I was afraid of it, she said "it can't hurt you" and reached down and picked it up before I could tell her it was a pack saddle. She screamed when it stung her and she stomped it. Sorry, guess I shouldn't have told that to people who are afraid of them, but it was a little amusing. Keep working with your fear and hopefully you can make some progress as I have.

I am so scared of earth W.s!!!! yuck gross. i cried once b/c it was dark and i forgot the flashlight and i was stuck where everywhere on the pavements there were long, big earth W.s. I didn't have any good light to really see them and avoid stepping on them in advance. so it's usually i almost stepped on them. you know how it feels to just about setting your foot on the ground then all of a sudden you notice the slithering beast on the ground right, them shiny squirmy icky things.... eeeeuuugh!!! shutters.... i know, it's frustrating that not too many people understand this fear. I don't know any of my coworkers who are afraid of W.s and I'm 23....

i've read that earth W.s don't like anything too acidic, that they prefer soil that is above 4.5 pH. So if I poured vinegar onto the sidewalk, would that prevent the earth Ws from invading the sidewalk??

I too am deeply, deeply phobic of worms. It's really not a "fear" in the sense that most people understand it, because that implies something that causes me anxiety on a conscious level in my everyday life - I don't worry about them crawling into my bed at night or anything like that. I think "revulsion" is a better word to describe it, as 99% of the time the problem only arises in the actual presence of a worm (although I think I have a minor, related fear of helminthic infestation - specifically tapeworm and ascaris).

Earthworms are my primary nightmare; it all stems from them. There is something about them that just hits some fear-response trigger in my brain when I see one, my heart-rate and breathing speeds up, my intestines knot-up, my limbs turn to jelly and I have to turn and look away. Usually, breaking visual contact with them is enough to calm me down, as long as I'm not standing too close. There is just something horrifying beyond words about those sightless, faceless, mindless tubes of living, churning slime... and the way they move - undulating, twisting, rippling, ELONGATING (*shudder*), probing the air with their wet, featureless snouts. It's like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft nightmare.

I remember finding one in the garden as a very young child (about three) and being gripped by sickening horror at the realization that such an obscene thing could even exist in the same world as me. When I was older, about seven, I was walking home from school along an old wooded path, stamping on branches to make them snap, when I stepped on what I thought was a twig but was in fact a huge worm which lunged up and squirmed under my welly-boot. I screamed and didn't stop running until I got home. It must have been no bigger than a foot-and-a-half long, but in my memory it is exaggerated to a metre-long behemoth.

My physiological reaction to them is so severe I don't think I could ever overcome it through systematic desensetisation therapy. My reactions when confronted with worms in the past, such as people holding them and chasing me, have been extremely aggressive and I would probably lash out violently if forced to confront them even in a therapeutic environment. Or I'd just die.

I'm glad there are others out there like me. I knew there had to be. What I don't understand is why there aren't more people who react this way to worms. How many people are terrified of spiders? And you can RELATE to a spider - it has eyes and legs and a mouth and a body and it runs about weaving nets to catch bugs. It's kind of cute really. But a worm: it's blind and limbless and it has no body except for a strange segmented cylinder. It shouldn't even be alive, but it is and it moves and it crawls and it sucks at the dirt. I think worm-lovers are the one who are deluded, not us! :D

I was afraid to click on one of this websites in fear of seeing pictures of worms so thank you very much for the picture RUSTYBRICK you clearly dont know what a phobia is. Any how i too im terrified of worms but is because i had a bad experience as a child. I cant stand to even think about them it makes my skin crawl. I hate it when it rains cause thats when they like to come out of the ground in warm weather, i usually look away from the ground like up into the sky or something at eye level and stomp my feet until i reach my destination i know im just pathetic but i cant help it i tried once to overcome it and i almost fainted my blood pressure dropped and everything it was horrible i feel like the worst worm phobic person ever but hey guess im not alone.

I was afraid to click on one of this websites in fear of seeing pictures of worms so thank you very much for the picture RUSTYBRICK you clearly dont know what a phobia is. Any how i too im terrified of worms but is because i had a bad experience as a child. I cant stand to even think about them it makes my skin crawl. I hate it when it rains cause thats when they like to come out of the ground in warm weather, i usually look away from the ground like up into the sky or something at eye level and stomp my feet until i reach my destination i know im just pathetic but i cant help it i tried once to overcome it and i almost fainted my blood pressure dropped and everything it was horrible i feel like the worst worm phobic person ever but hey guess im not alone.

OMG!! I am so scared of worms! i have been for awhile now! Im scared of pictures of them, hearing about them, and seeing them!! I hate them soooo much! I wish they would all just disapear and not come back :[ ... when it rains outside. i stay in and if there is a worm in my way my boyfriend has to kill it! or ill just stand there!! they scare me sooo much! *tear*

Wow I can't believe there are others like me! I I too have a specific phobia (meets DSM-IV criteria!) that is very well circumscribed to include slugs, snails, earthworms, catepillars, and larvae. Some similar sea creatures elicit the same response. I recognize that it is irrational. I don't think they're out to kill me, in fact, I'm even more grossed out by the idea of stepping on one. (probably because they are so fleshy) It definitely affects my daily routine, and living in Seattle has not made it easier on my phobia. There are LOTS of slugs here, and after a rainy day, I walk on the sidewalk with my eyes scanning up to half a block ahead of me. And I stop in front of my house to check for snails on the steps. If there are any, I go through the garage (if there are none in the driveway). Totally wacky, I know. I am trying systematic desensitization through exposure therapy. When there are tiny snails around, and their slimey little heads aren't sticking out too much, I try to go look at them. And as I walk home, i try to visualize them. So far, I'm making a little progress. I'm doing better with earthworms since it rains all the time, but the giant snails are still problematic.

by the way, I had to read the top part of this website with a piece of paper covering the gross catepillar.

Wow - this is amazing. So many are saying it, but I also thought I was the only one with this phobia. I am 41 and have been afraid of worms nearly my whole life. I know exactly what triggered it, but yet I can't get over it.
Everyone thinks it's funny and makes fun of me. But I feel sick to my stomach now from reading all your posts. Seeing worms before has actually made me vomit. Even that stupid bag of gummy worms makes me gag - just seeing it in the store.
People don't understand true phobias. Several years ago, I was helping run a kids camp. One of the other directors always made fun of my phobia. Well, I had to leave the lunch table for a few minutes to take care of something. When I came back and took a drink of my soda, there was something funny in it - they had put freeze-dried worms from the bait shop into my cup when I was gone. You can imagine what they became when they were added to the liquid. I acted like it was no big deal, but then I went into the bathroom and threw up and cried.
It's just nice to know that it's not something that I have just made up in my head.
As far as catterpillars - that picture doesn't bother me. They don't bother me - but any type of worm, maggots, slugs - I'm getting naseous just thinking about it.
Thank you all for sharing.

Wow! I'm glad there are other people who are afraid of/grossed out by worms... I don't mind caterpillars and such, but earthworms... uck. and anything slimy. I remember in the fifth grade a boy in my class chased me with an earthworm and I ran away screaming. I have since learned to mute my reactions but I still hate worms, I would never EVER touch one and I step around them on the sidewalk. I am terrified of being infested with parasitical worms but am too afraid to go to the doctor or get a wormer because I wouldn't want to see them come out... my mother thinks I am crazy. I try not to make a big deal out of it because then people think its funny to do things like throw worms at you...

I cannot believe there are so many others like myself. I never could understand why I have this fear and most of my life I have been teased about how ridiculous it is for me to be afraid of this little creature. I am 49 years old, and terrified of worms. It is not just worms but slugs and caterpillars - anything slow moving or slimy. As someone posted - it's that slow movement that just totally grosses me out and terrifies me. I cannot explain it. People just don't understand it and it obviously can't hurt you, but there is just something that does something to me physically. My heart starts to pound. I can't breathe. It almost feels as if I am being faced with an attacker. I know that sounds ridiculous, but the fear is just as intense. When I was young I wanted to be a vet, but I scratched that idea, because I would never be able to deal with worms. I don't garden, because of the worms. Once I was gardening with my sister-in-law and she pulled out this large earth worm, and stuck it in my face and said, "Ooh, look!" My shovel went 20 feet in the air, and I was two blocks away in 30 seconds, and that was the end of my gardening days. Another time I was at my mother-in-laws for a reunion. We were on the porch having a bbq, and most of us were seated. It had been raining and there were these large slugs. They had to be removed before I would even come out. When I finally came out, I sat down in a chair on the porch with my plate. My sister-in-law who knew I was terrified of worms came up to me and said, "Look, I have a surprise for you!" She stuck her hand in my face with a large slimy slug in it and I don't even know what happened because it happened so fast, but I was told I screamed, threw my plate which ended up on my father-in-law's lap, hit the street in 10 seconds (she lives on 5 acres) and was shaking like you wouldn't believe. My sister-in-law said "I didn't realize she was that scared". (yeah, right). I don't even like to tell people of my fear for fear they will try to tease me and do exactly what my in-laws did to me. I could go on and on with endless stories about how this phobia of mine, but most of these posts have covered it in one way or another.

Oh, god, THANK YOU!!!
I'm so relieved to finally find out that I'm not the only one with this terrible phobia.
I've had it since I was a little kid- and for no specific reason. I mean, I've never had any kind of traumatic experience with worms, caterpillars, slugs, millipedes, centipedes, snails, maggots, or anything of the sort, yet they scare me more than death!
Once, I had one (a caterpillar) crawl up my leg when I was outside walking. The minute I looked down I started crying and screaming... I immediately whacked it off, kicked my shoes off of my feet and into the woods somewhere, ran into my house and room, stripped myself of any clothing, and jumped in the shower and started scrubbing furiously. I changed into a completely new set of clothing, and refused to touch the old ones for a day or two.
...that was like 2 or 3 years ago, and I'm a teenager now, but the fear still runs strong.
And why, oh, WHY?????!!!!????
WHY DID YOU HAVE TO PUT UP A PICTURE OF AN ENORMOUS CATERPILLAR DIRECTLY ON THE FRONT PAGE???
I almost, but not quite, started hyperventilating. That was very traumatic.
...
Well, now that's over, I just wanted to say thanks to this site, and express my gratitude that I've found others with the same problem.
Very helpful.

P.S.
I am a proud vegetarian!

I just HATE caterpillars. Worms are also on my list, but caterpillars top them all (slugs, snails, maggots etc.) I almost ate one once that was on my salad and wouldn't eat anything fresh for 6 months afterwards

Wow!! I didn't know so many people shared my fear of worms, (slugs,caterpillars,maggots, or anything like these creatures) but I feel better knowing that I'm not crazy!!! I too, will cross the street to not have to walk near one of these things. If I accidentally come upon a worm, I will jump 5 feet in the air to avoid stepping on it. I don't know what triggered this fear, but I wish that I could overcome it. I'm tired of letting worms, etc. stop me from being able to walk in wet grass. What's the solution???

I am so surprised that there are actually other peopole that are afraid of worms, all of these years I thought I was crazy! I am afraid of all worms, but I am particularly afraid of the type that live in my area of the world; they live in the trees and spin webs and drop down on your head, it has never happened to me, but it did to my Sister. It is my living nightmare, if I knew that these exisisted I would have never moved here. This fear is ruining my life, I am not able to go outside and do the things that I like, and nobody understands it so it's ruining my relationship with the peopole I live with. Has any body had sucess getting rid of this? I would do anything to be rid of it.

hi i am 16 and have scoleciphobia. at least i think i do.i'm not to sure. ever since i was a kid i have been afraid of worms. i know i wasn't always afaid. but from the age of 9 i have been afraid. when i would go fishing with my family i would not be able to bait my hook or go anywhere near them. it's also the same with seeing them on the side walks or anywhere else. i can't look at them. so the picture does scare me. i know that its not a worm but i am afraid of them as well. in fact i am afraid of worms, maggots, slugs,anything like these.i am not so bad that if i see one i have to cross the street to get away nor do i need someone to carry me , but that maybe because no one would help me in that way. anyways. i scream and cry when i have to deal with them.i am happy to find that there are people out there that have the same fear.no one in my family understands me. just today i found out that the trash can that was left in the garage caused maggots to come and my mom made me clean it out. i did not realise the extent of my fear until today. i started to shake and cry. i was scared out of my mind.i was only able to read a few of these comments before i began to get the shivers. please if anyone could supply me with more information on this phobia please contact my email. i believe that i am going to need more proof than this to prove it to my mom.

Hi, Barry. I've had this phobia for as long as I can remember, and this phobia for me does not limit itself to worms but anything that doesn't have legs/arms (e.g., worms, maggots, snakes, slugs). Even though caterpillars technically have legs, the legs are so small that I'm also deathly afraid of them. In fact, I'm most fearful of the caterpillar. I love to cook and garden, so you can imagine what kind of hindrance this phobia has caused me. I nearly fainted once when I found a caterpillar in a bag of herbs I got from the farmer's market. I'm considering turning to hypnosis for help. If anyone has had luck with this method, please update us! Also, I saw some discussion about the photo of the caterpillar that you posted and just want to say that it is very disturbing to me. I came across this post a few days ago and had a nightmare with this particular caterpillar last night.

Gaghhhh.
I'm 13 and I can't stand worms.
Anything that has to do with worms. Pictures, drawings, and even those fake rubber worms for fishing. Blaaa. I'm always like...in constant fear during the summer because of outdoor pools, hoses, slip n slides, and water balloon fights are all water...and water + dirt = worms.
Ehhh I'm all like squeamish just talking about it. I'm not afraid of catapillars, there actually a lot easier for me to handle then worms. And slugs are pretty gross, but I can look at them. It's just worms. There like wiggling creatures from hell. Eh. I'm gunna leave now cause im all tingly and scared from talking about it. Peacies.

Argh!! i absolutely hate worms especially maggots. it all happened in central park. we took a short cut through the woods part and i thought i saw a pretty white flower (bad eyesight). i got REAL close to sniff it... and got the worst shock of my life. on the floor.. thousands.. of wriggling maggots. i wouldn't stop crying for 2 days. but anyways, thanks for the site it helped me ALOT. bye!

I have been terrified of earthworms for as long as I can remember I still will not go outside if it rains and I am 21 years old. I have panic attacks if I have to walk outside after it has rained because of all the worms. How is this phobia treated? It is comforting to know other people feel like me because usually I just get laughed at for this.

I have a huge phobia of worms, they really freak me out, i can't sit on grass any more, i can't even walk to sixth form anymore with out being scared of them, if i see one on the floor then i tend to cross the road. Many people think that my phobia is funny and chase me round the school with them, this then leaves me in tears and sometimes having an anxiety attack. I cant even say the word without cringing! I hate it! It seems as if my life is hold because of these horrible creatures! I dont think people understand the extent of this phobia. And WHAT???? How can anyone look at the picture on the screeen???? Its sooo scary :S... I didn't think that there was anyone else in this world that felt that same as me, but now i know that people can relate to me ! !

ive had a phobia of worms for as long as i can remember and im 14 now.
i cant look at one or be near one. a girl came chasing me with one other week and i burst out crying running off. everyone found it funny apart from me! but this girl who was about 10 just stood there ripping them apart with her hands right in front of me. thinking about it makes me feel like i did when she was actually there!
i never knew so many other people had this phobia though. so now i dont feel as bad and childish

FINALLY!! For as long as I can remember people have been calling me a freak and laughing at my so called "irrational fear of worms." After reading these posts, I find it so comforting to know there are people out there that experience the same anxieties. Thank you for all your posts! It's great to not feel like a freak anymore :0)

Thank goodness. I thought I was the only one with a fear of worms.. Most of my friends think it's funny when there are worms around. I can't stand rainy days at my bus stop, because they're always there.. Just the thought of it bothers me a lot. I don't know how I became afraid of worms.. But it's been like this for 3 years now. It never bothered me before, though. Sometimes, I'm on the verge of crying when I'm around worms.. I am absolutely TERRIFIED of them.

Oh yeah, and pictures of worms scare me..
Also dead worms scare me.
Just thinking about worms scares me....

I've hated worms for absoloutley ages. its the bit in the middle of an earth worm that does it for me, the segment bit. urghgrughgh, and everyone knows about my phobia and chases me with a worm every time they see one

for as long as i can remeber i have been absolutely terrified of worms. just thinking about worms scare the mess out of me. i hate walking on the sidewalk especially when it rains. my fear of worms hit its peak when i was in 3rd grade. it was "Wonderful Worm Day" ( which obviously for me wasn't wonderful at all)where the teachers brought in tubs and i do mean tubs of worms into the class room and poored them into pans so we could play with and analyze them. i had a fit. i was kicking and screaming and no one understood what i was going through. it was horrible "they" were everywhere i turned. i felt as if i was trapped in a nightmare. its just nice to know that im not in this alone and im not being childish.

WOW. I thought I was alone in this fear! No one seems to understand why I freak out so bad--I literally panic and cry when I see them, or even hear the -word-!
I don't even know why the fear started, but it's been there as long as I can remember...I'm 28 now, and it just seems to get worse as I get older.
It's nice to know I'm not alone.

Barry
I’m sure you have long since stopped reading these posts, but yes a picture does still freak us out. Same as the view from a tall building would freak out someone with a fear of heights.

I come from a family where all the women have the same fear.

Interestingly, ladies do you notice from this site we seem to outnumber men by something like 90-95%. And a few of the guys have mentioned maggots specifically. I assume if any of us went to a psychoanalyst he would start talking about our unconscious fear of willies or something. ....
I wonder if fear of maggots has different roots from fear of all wrigglys. Also, I skimmed the posts and no one mentioned snakes, and I personally have no problem with snakes. So really thats Freud's stuff out the window.

And the word phobia or fear doesn’t seem to describe what I feel. I would say revulsion is a closer description. I’m not scared that wrigglys will hurt me, I just don’t want to touch them. That need to NOT TOUCH them makes me feel itchy, ticklish and I need to stand in a clear space so I can make sure there is nothing near me at all. Ugh.. Hate em!!

Im 16. Im seriously afraid of ahything that crawls like a worm, or catapillar, millipede, etc. If a worm is outside my hose i will freak and almost cry. one time i cried cause i slipped on a worm. that the scariest thing thats ever happened. that and when I was helpin my lil bro empty the pool the water flooded a worm out, i grabbed my dog and took off running and screaming. People are like "they dont have eyes, how can you be afraid of something that cant see you" and etc etc. but it makes me mad, no one realizes Im seriously afraid. and my friend said she was gonna pick up a worm and put it near me, seriously, even if were best friends is anyone comes near me w/ a worm, or pushes/drags me near one, Ill probably never talk to them again.

oh, and oddly. Im afraid of all those things, but i could touch a snake if i wanted. they kinda creep me out a lot, but not nearly as much.

I have always had a fear of worms, maggotts etc (even typing the words make me feel sick)and so has my sister but no one else i know or have ever met has heard of the phobia. cant believe i found this page spacifically for the subject.... it took me well over an hour to walk home from the bus stop last night which is just down my street because it was raining heavy and they were everywhere! i was just frozen in fear most of the time. I was getting more stressed due to the fact i was crying and couldnt see the ground properly!
I never walk accross wet grass and carry a small torch with me incase i have to walk somewhere in the dark where they might be lurking!
I just really hope i dont pass this fear on to my daughter who is only 1 at the moment.

I am 16 years old and I too am afraid of worms. I'm shocked there are so many other people who suffer from scoleciphobia, I knew there must be other people afraid of worms but the stories i have read in people's comments resemble experiences exactly the same as my own. I am also afraid of slugs and snails but worms are my absolute worst phobia. I feel sick thinking about them. I have nightmares that they're in my room. It's ridiculous but i can't even eat long spaghetti because it reminds me of them. I dread leaving the house after it's rained because it's worm central on the pavements at this time. If i'm walking down a street after it's rained I have to walk right around the worms to avoid them but if there are too many i have no option but to cross the road. My friends think it's really funny and as much as I realise how irrational it is to be afraid of something that can do absolutely no harm to you it IS a phobia and people don't seem to understand that.

I am afraid of maggots. Is that the same thing?

there is another name for worm phobia it's Verminophobia which uses the latin root "vermis" which means worm. but i too suffer from it, but i'm slowly getting better, just reminding myself that no harm can come from ignoring them.

Yuuuuuck! That pic still terrifies me! Like some of the people above I suffer from phobia of any type of those slimy gross slow moving things, worms, earthworms, especially caterpillars!!! I've been afraid of them since I can remember. I'm a member of Wikipedia, but they obviously don't have enough information about this phobia. Someone please remove that pic! oh God...
And yesterday I was walking home as an excercise and I walked for 2 and a half hour. I would have got home earlier if that damn caterpillar didn't stick on my shirt! I discoverd it while crossing one of the intersections. Lucky I didn't pass out in the middle of the street!!! I got it off with my overcoat and ran, jumped and shaked my body which is obviously coverd in goosebumps...I didn't care if people were staring. It was my worst fear came true. What's worse I was only half way home...I had to avoid walking under trees since...and it was a main avenue very well 'greenified'...
If so many people are suffering from this similar condition why is there still so little infomation? I want some explainations...
And again, please remove that pic!!!

OMG!!!! i can't believe im not the only one who is afraid of worms...i have been afraid of them since i was a little girl....i get chills everytime i think about them....when i see them i have to move at least two yards away in order to get by them....that includes slugs, snails, maggots, caterpillars, and all the slimy worm-looking creatures that exsist. one time when i was 10 yrs old i was chasing a kitten, it went to a house so i got on my knees and started to crawl in order to get the cat. then all of a sudden i felt the worst thing that anyone could feel...i looked at my hand and my pinky was touching a WORM!!!! i think i ran a mile crying like a baby. i was shaking so hard that up until today i still remember that feeling....i am 21 now....also when i was in the 11th grade we had these fire drills so we had to go to the baseball field, i lived in washington state at that time so it was always wet....i dreaded going there, i tried soooo hard not to cry when i saw nests of earthworms everywhere!! when im talking about "nests" i mean ant looking nests except with worms....my teacher knew about it and he would often scare me by telling me that i was standing on a worm....getting to the field and out of the field was the worst....there was barely any space to step in, my teacher and some of my fiends would stand on either side of me and guide me out....everybody stared at us like we were some kind of freaks, but i didnt care all i wanted was to get out of there asap....those were my worst experiences ever.

When I see a worm, I get a funny tick with my head, my eyes start to twitch, and I cry. The worst is the red centepede thing I found under a stone this fall. It was horrible. I think that I might be the only guy with this phobia.

I'm so glad I googled "fear of worms" and found this site... so now I know that there are other people out there who share my hatred for these filthy little bastards. Ever since I can remember i've always cringed at the very thought of a worm. My mother and I share the same fear (except she's worse). And it's not only worms... but also slugs, grubs, snails, maggots, caterpillars... anything that's slimy and squirms I f**king hate with a passion. Whenever I see one I absoloutly freak out... I just wish I had the courage to crush the revolting little bastards under my shoe so that they can become one with the dirt where they belong. I've wondered for so long what this is called... now I know... I am a true Scoleciphobia.

As for the guy above me, you are not alone. I am also I guy who's carried this phobia my whole life.. and i've never told any of my mates (because I'm scared they might try a prank on me). But it actually feels pretty good to get this off my chest.

I'm really glad that I’m not the only person that fears worms, I have always fear worms long as I can remember. I'm a male and I can’t tell people that I fear worms because I’m afraid that they will try to terrorize me with them. Very unfortunately my fear increased at the age of 4 when my older brother got angry at me and went and grab some worms with his bared hands and pelted me with them. It was one of the most disgusting things that I can remember. He cut them in half and I remember the foul things kept moving individually even when they were in half. Years went by and every time my brother was angry at me he threaten me with this disgusting things. I really wish there was some cure for this Scoleciphobia. Even as I write now, I get the chills and feel like something is lurking inside my shirt.
Good luck to everyone out there!

I am glad that I am not the only one... Ive just tried to do some gardening when i noticed an earthworm... I cant help it, when i see one I always start shaking and crying. I dont know what to do against this fear, I think it comes from when i was 12. An animal had died above the ceiling of the biology classroom (dont ask me how), and worms were falling from the ceiling on us... The teacher thought it was funny, so we didnt even leave the room. It was the worst 2 hours of my life. And i guess the 2 weeks when I had training in a laboratory didnt help, as they showed me all the specimen of worms that can infect humans... x_x Anyway, i hope i will be able to overcome this fear one day... :(

I'm so glad to not be the only one..I avoid at all costs anything that might bring me close to a Maggot. Just the work makes my toes curl up and palms itch. The worse part about this whole thing is that if I do come across one I freak out uncontrollably like a nut case, I mean I really flip out . The whole shreak scream, running away, drop what ever I'm holding, scratch my palms and cry. I'm a 33 yr old mom. my daughters save me from any worm situation. I'm so embarrassed and then I feel awful like a depressive crash of sorts. Sometimes the post feeling and paranoia last all day. Does anybody else experience this crash feeling? And is there any help for this weird phobia???

when i see a worm i actually freek out. My heart beets really fast and i end up running away as fast as i can, i cant stop myself running, i have actually no controll

When one of my friends puts a worm on my back (happend around 3 times) i cant run however, i just freeze, i cant move even to push it off and every muscle in my body locks. Its horrible... :(

Geez i feel like this is the most rediculus phobia of all times...i am 17 years old an when i see a worm i freeze and freak out like a 2 year old. i have been just terrified of worms since i was about 12. when i was younger i used to chase my brothers with worms and i would have them freak out. i really dont know what happed but now if i see, touch, or talk about worms i get real nervous and look all around me to see if they are crawling around. it truly sucks because i live by a creek literally the creek is my backyard. when it rains the creek floods and ginourmously large worms come out, they almost look like snakes... i will lock myself in my room all day and not come out. i have skipped school so i wouldnt have to walk out to the car after it rained. i play Rugby this will be my 2nd yr playing. if you dont know what Rugby is it is basically football but no potection pads. i remember at one of my games i told the coach i couldnt play because i hurt my leg or some bullshit excuse... but the truth was that it rained an there were wroms crawling all over the field sidelines. i sat ontop of my car the entire game. i look absolutly rediculous when i walk out to the car or walking somewhere i hop around them. people laugh at me and i feel like nobody understands my fear. i dont ever tell anybosy because im scared that they will throw them at me or something.

Geez i feel like this is the most rediculus phobia of all times...i am 17 years old an when i see a worm i freeze and freak out like a 2 year old. i have been just terrified of worms since i was about 12. when i was younger i used to chase my brothers with worms and i would have them freak out. i really dont know what happed but now if i see, touch, or talk about worms i get real nervous and look all around me to see if they are crawling around. it truly sucks because i live by a creek literally the creek is my backyard. when it rains the creek floods and ginourmously large worms come out, they almost look like snakes... i will lock myself in my room all day and not come out. i have skipped school so i wouldnt have to walk out to the car after it rained. i play Rugby this will be my 2nd yr playing. if you dont know what Rugby is it is basically football but no potection pads. i remember at one of my games i told the coach i couldnt play because i hurt my leg or some bullshit excuse... but the truth was that it rained an there were wroms crawling all over the field sidelines. i sat ontop of my car the entire game. i look absolutly rediculous when i walk out to the car or walking somewhere i hop around them. people laugh at me and i feel like nobody understands my fear. i dont ever tell anybosy because im scared that they will throw them at me or something.

These experiences are all s very familiar. I've always had a fear of worms. My mum said that she first noticed it when I was very small (2 or 3) and was in the garden with her when she was planting some flowers; when she turned over the earth and a worm came to the surface, I apparently froze with a look of horror on my face. I remember her trying to get me over the fear by explaining they were good for the garden and that they couldn't hurt me or chase me and catch me, etc. but she was never able to get me over the fear of them.

The fear turned pretty much to phobia because my dad didn't realise how deep the fear ran and he put one on my neck when I was about 5 or 6 and when I pulled it off and saw what it was, I took off screaming. He picked it up and chased after me. He says it was to show me how small and harmless it was, but in my mind all I can remember is feeling boxed in (the garden was completely fenced) and being chased by him holding this worm and not being able to get in the house to get away from it.

I grew up in the southeast UK where it rained A LOT, and there were always lots of worms after the rain. Though I have always loved the rain, I also remember that tight feeling in my chest knowing that I'd have to walk on the pavement and they'd have come out from the grass.

When I was 10 or so, I was in scouts and trying to get a hobby badge or some such thing and I decided to build a worm farm to try and get over the inordinate amount of fear from being around worms. The feeling of the things wriggling in my palm gives me chills even today (I'm 37).

Building the worm farm helped and I'd say I'm now in the "extremely intense dislike and revulsion" category rather than a true phobia, but I still dread walking on paths at night after rain, particularly if it's not well-lit, because I have this intense fear that if I step on a worm, it will get caught in the tread of my shoe and I'll either carry it into the house or, worse, I'll fail to notice and it will crawl up my leg. I know it's stupid and completely implausible, but I can't shake it.

I've never met anyone else with this fear and the few who I have told outside my family have always thought it strange, so it's nice to see there are other people with this fear.

In my case, the fear is strictly limited to worms (earthworms, parasitic worms, etc.) but not worm-shaped things like maggots, snakes, caterpillars, etc.

Ahoy,

I just stumbled into this page by accident and thought it was interesting. I have Scoleciphobia, too. Not as bad as some of these cases, but this fear has roots in evolution.

Worms are completely harmless in appearance. No jaws, fangs, etc. But, they're incredibly dangerous because of their parasitic tendencies. Over many thousands of years, we have adapted to fear them for the purposes of our own survival.

If we didn't have a fear of worm-shaped creatures, our cavemen ancestors would probably digest them or bathe in ponds inhabited with parasitic worms, which would have made us go extinct quite early without proper medical care.

So we have this phobia to thank for the survival of our species!

I am in all of the people who have posted comments that live with the same fear that I live with. This is ruining my life and I am looking for help to overcome this. I panick and break out into a sweat when I see worms, even on T.V. I scream and everyone thinks its just so funny. But its not. With five children 4 of them boys, it does play a factor when they want to go camping, or sit under a tree. I can't do it. I once cancelled a trip to the zoo with my sons class for fear of worms @ the zoo...Can you believe that? I don't know what to do anymore. I have had one horrible experience after another through out my life. I'm so thankful I came across this website...

Worms never REALLY bothered me until recently. I guess it all just started adding up. The many encounterS with these worms were annoying and laughable at first, but now, I just can't tolerate worms, simply now for this reason: I do not want to step on one, slip, and have its' carcuss stuck to my shoe. I've actually had that happen to me before. It was funny when I was 18, even had a street rapper use that for his impromptu rap song for a few $$ while hanging out one night in Georgetown. On another occasion, my hubby and I moved into the first floor of a rental house only to be invaded by hundreds maybe even thousands of inch worms that descended from the tall trees and rooftop of a house we were so happy to rent, NOT. We couldn't even use the patio furniture because they were crawling on everything. They actually were hanging on a 100 foot web line from the trees and roof above and you would walk outside and be at eye level with them. What a nightmare. Moved out of there. Current worm encounters seem to be the typical icky wet worms after the rain scenarios. So for now, I will scan the sidewalks after the rain to avoid stepping and slipping on a wet worm. And having to peel a dried one off my shoe later. Ooooh.

Reading all these posts is giving me the heebie jeebies. I've had this very real, very irrational fear of worms since middle school; I'm 22 now. When it rains I have panic attacks just thinking about the worms on the pavement. Then when I do have to go outside, I pretty much cry myself to my car screaming and quickly tiptoeing to avoid them. The thought of them squished on the bottom of a shoe is so incredibly revolting. I don't know where the phobia stems from, but I've had my fair share of stories that have helped keep it going strong. When I was younger I was rolling around in the grass and found a slug squished in my hair. One time my brother threw a bunch of leaves in my hair and 4 hours later I found a tiny worm crawling on my shoulder. Another time I was eating raspberries and as I was about to put one in my mouth, I saw a meal worm inside of it, threw it across the room and would not go back in there for weeks. I've always wanted to garden, but the fear is so strong that I've been too scared to try. Last summer I finally tried and of course, my first scoop of earth had a horrible earthworm in it. I screamed like I had just seen a murder, dropped everything and frantically ran into my house. The gardening tools stayed there until my mom noticed them several weeks later. Now I'm dreading taking this biology lab because I know dissecting worms is one of the labs. Somehow I'm getting myself out of it. I cry just thinking about it. Right now, I just have to get through spring and the overabundance of them on my driveway and sidewalk when it rains. fmylife

YOU MIGHT WANT TO READ THIS VERY IMPORTANT TO READ VERY INSPIRING READ CAREFULLY!!

Hi My name is kelsey and I have scoleciphobia (Very intense very very intense!!).

Ever since I was in elementary school i have been scared of thing that are earthworms, resemble earthworms, and tapeworms and anything. I used to have it easy in elementary school because i was never outside and plus we never did anything with earthworms and such. Except in my 3rd grade textbook I only covered the picture. In that time, everybody was scared. Now in 7th grade life science, I am worst than ever. In the textbook I tell my best friend to cover them and rip the pictures out. I tried my best not to see one at all. I am scared of the pictures and how they look. until today was the worst of my phobia. Today a science project happened, we had to make a mini ecosystem for earthworms I was crying my eyes out. So my teacher told me to stay inside. I went under the desk and somebody tried to trick me by telling me they have worms. i was kicking screaming banging on the desk on top and running around the place. My teacher told the sudents to stay out. I stayed inside the cabinet for another 15 minutes and then the classmates came in and started torturing me. i grabbed 5 yardsticks and hit 10 people. i was humiliated but the phobia started to kick in really good. i was so scared I was daydreaming about what's wrong with me. when it's raining i cry and run away. when i see a worm i run away from that place and never see it again. Everytime some one sees a worm My heart beats faster like a choo choo train. Everybody says it's just a worm it's just a worm. but i keep on thinking to myself saying it is just a worm but something else is overpowering me. I hope this insipred some people as I print this out and show it to my classmates to show but i want to let everyone know that this horrible phobia takes over my life. classmates if you see this, don't bother me anymore ok!

now I dread for 9th grade biology. EEK!

P.S it's not just a worm for SOME people!!

e-mail me if you want to help

catkelsey@bellsouth.net

I am really afraid of worms..it seems like killing me..seems like I become mad..I am afraid in all kinds of worm..
I acted like an abnormal when someone show in front of me handling the worm..made me cry..I acted hysterically..I dont really dont know how to act normal afterall..please dont play worm in front of me..I will kill you for sure...

so,glad,i found this site,my fear of worms,maggots,and all other parasites and germs is legendary! this fear,begun, at 10 years,when,i passed out,a long earth like worm,after taking deworming tablets in boarding school.
I was so traumatised,i could not eat for days...Yuk!
oh! and when it rains,i dread going out,im so afraid of parasites and germs, that i donot eat,pork,fish,raw veg or fruit,Isaw an advert on tv,about friendly ,worm ,shaped bacteria in youghut-disgusting!

I have been afraid of earthworms almost as long as I can remember. I'm fine with caterpillars and snails, it is just annelids that cause panic attacks in me. I am typing this because today is a rainy day and I'm forced to skip my college classes because there are thousands of them on the sidewalk and grass and I don't want to flip out in front of my classmates. I can't even go to the dining hall right now as I'm so scared. My earliest memory with worms is when I was about 3 or 4 I was playing with one outside and it broke in half and died I was so sad that I cried the rest of the day. I'm thinking that might have something to do with why I now lose control when I see them. Sometimes when I see a wet twig I jump at first, but once I identify it as just a twig I am fine. If it moves, though, I go crazy. It is driving me insane and ruining my life.

I don't feel so freakish anymore ... so nice to know I'm not the only one with this fear that people call 'irrational.'

I have had an intense fear of worms for as long as I can remember. I am 37 now and one of my earliest memories is of standing in the middle of a large parking lot with my grandmother - both of us scared stiff and crying hysterically. I also remember the long treks to school - past a golf course on rainy days... i would have rather died than make that heart-pounding, fearful journey to school. One time when I was in grade 4, I remember freezing in my tracks while on the way to school in the pouring rain. I had been tip toeing through the worms, my heart in my throat, tears streaming down my face... then it overwhelmed me and I couldn't move. Luckily, some stranger driving by saw me standing there crying and offered me a drive to school after I sputtered out what my problem was. Thank goodness he wasn't some serial killer/child molester that I had accepted a ride from .... although I was soooooo scared that I probably STILL would've gotten in the car!!

Someone commented earlier that worms don't like acidity... Funny because one time I absolutely had to leave my house but my front walkway was covered in worms. With tears in my eyes, I went back inside the house and grabbed a bottle of vinegar. I went outside and poured the vinegar on the worms (from a bit of a distance) until they curled up the disgusting way they do and died! One day, I'm going to invent something to treat driveways when you know it's going to rain - to keep the worms away!

I don't mind maggots, slugs, snakes, squirmy things with legs - it's just worms. NIGHTCRAWLERS in particular. Ugh - what makes my heart pound and my skin crawl is the way they move, the way they change their shape, the way you can't tell which end is the head, and which is the tail, the way they point one end up in the air...and EEEWWW - the way one end is like dark burgundy, and one end totally clear - WTF???? Those rings on them, that fat part around one of their ends... they don't know if they're coming or going, which way they're going.... YUCK! And those damn nightcrawlers - I don't know what kind of animal that is, but it's like a super-worm or something. Have you ever seen how FAST they move??? Ugh - my heart's pounding typing this!!!!

Anyways, yes I have had my husband carry me to and from the car, piggyback me into the mall...all of the above. Oh and yes, I have been to 'desensitization therapy' to cure this phobia - but it didn't work for me. I had such a block that I couldn't get beyond the third session.

Anyways, so nice to have found this 'family' of co-phobics. I'll be back soon now that I've found you guys! Take care.... and don't believe people when they tell you it's just a twig - we all know better because we see that shininess move that way they do...

P.S. does anyone else know that 'worm smell' when it rains? Don't believe people when they tell you it's 'wet grass' smell!!!!

hi

my name is callie, i don't know why im afriad of worms, they are dissgusting, small but big if you think about it , they are so fragial looking , every one i know tries to scare me with worms and telling me that my food were full of worms , i think im not the only one that has that problem. Im also not afiad of other kinds of worms like maggots or other wormy looking thing, just worms, earth worms...
everytime it rains , i remember the worms outside , and every time i dont eat anything that is meaty or anything at all, i only drink water,i just want to gget rid of my scoleciphobia. Right now im in grade 8, and i read about half of the stories and i have the same reactions as you...but i had always hated gardening. My mom and dad were born im a farming resident and they dont notic the worms until they accally look at them closely, then when they see me crying , they dont really care cause they 've never been afaid of worms... i just want the phobia away

I, too, have been scared of worms and anything that looks like one since I can remember. I think it all started when I was little and my older sisters would put spaghetti noodles on my glass and say, "look, they are squirming up your glass!" My family says that I need to grow up. I can't eat spaghetti or anything that looks like a worm. My father-in-law even had me help him make homemade spaghetti noodles so that I would see that they aren't worms. Doesn't matter, they still look like them. When I eat meat, it has to be well well done. And sometimes I can't even eat it if I get the thought of a worm in my head. When I am pulling weeds, I scream when I see a worm and move onto a spot far away. I swear my neighbors must think I'm so weird. After weeding, I usually can't eat anything for a few hours, or as long as I am thinking about what I saw in the flower bed.

I love worms, I eat them for breakfast in a small pan with olive oil.

I am so glad to see that I'm not the only one with this fear! Whenever it rains around here I panic HORRIBLE because I know what's waiting for me outside. Reading this article disturbed me because now I'm all squirmy! Caterpillars don't scare me, but everything else does! I once had to be carried to my mom's car during a rainy day while I was crying because I just couldn't be around the.... "things". I hate those things! I really wish that I could get over my scoleciphobia and my helminthphobia!

I am 40 years old and I have a full-out phobia of W. I can't type the word. I am absolutely terrified, panic striken, overcome, etc. just at the thought of one. I don't know the terms earthW, nightcrawler, I don't know which is which because it's not like i would ever examine a picture. I just know there are the disgustingly skinny pointy ones and the fat ones with the rings, and yes they do smell! I am terrified of going outside after rain. I will not even step around one. I would have to wear hiking boots and socks but even then if I saw one I would still be thinking about it for about a week. I have to plug my nose because if I smell one I will have a panic attack.

I realized today what a huge impact this has had on my whole life. I am terrified of "outdoors" which means I won't touch soil, I won't do gardening, I won't go for walks in the woods etc., I won't go camping or cottaging or do many outdoor things at all. Even walking around the block on a non-rain day has become an issue. I didn't realize it was related until I tried to imagine if there was "no such thing" and then suddenly the idea of spending time outdoors was appealing. It is clearly the underlying phobia.

I will not eat fruit or vegetables because when I was little I bit into some corn on the cob at a friend's cottage. There was a little one in it. I freaked out because I was already terrified at the time #this was not a trigger incident#, but my friend's mom pulled it out and tried to get me to finish the corn. She actually got angry with me. Now I am a total carboholic. I am freaked out by any perishable food like fruit or veggies because they are too "organic". I am getting quite chunky lately but the thought of eating more produce just makes me want to vomit.

I am a school teacher. My class was picked by the school board to participate in a garden planting activity on two different days. I was so terrified because I don't touch grass let alone soil with a shovel. On top of this some of my students know I am afraid. Inevitably some of the kids would either think it was funny or else they are just plain evil... but they would actually hold them up and laugh or bring them toward me. I was shaking so hard that I almost had to leave school for the day even though the event was over by 10 am. I did not even step on the grass, I stayed on the sidewalk, and I artfully avoided having to touch the gardening tools or participate in any way myself.

I was too embarrassed to tell my boss of my phobia. Now I wish I had just printed this site out.

I know when I was little I had a bathing suit on and a little kid chased me with one. I actually pooped my bathing suit and ran home so hysterical that I had to be given gravol as a type of sedative to get me to stop screaming.

I DO NOT want to go to therapy because won't they try to make me like them / see them/ heaven forbid touch them???? This is not a goal of mine.

Like others, yes I insist on cremation but even with that I have provisions that the urn can't be buried or scattered. I have to stay indoors on someone's mantle for all eternity. I could stay with a stranger for all I care, when my descendents all die.

I can't even look at a drawing of one. I basically live indoors, fear the outdoors (simply because of W) and I can't eat produce because even apples get them inside, right?

I can tell you in all honesty, if I was offered a million dollars to touch one, even for a second, wearing steel gloves, I couldn't do it. I would have a heart attack and never get to spend the money anyway.

I am going to go vomit now.
Yes I also think this has to do with some kind of past life trauma. It is that deep.

T

Who was insane enough to actually putting a picture of a caterpillar on a website about a fear of worms? The people that went to this website would obviously have a fear, so now I can't read it.....I'm so glad to see that there are actually people that hate caterpillars as much as I do. I'm not scared of them as much as grossed out. I hate their piny little watching eyes, and the way they squirm when piked. I hate the way they scrunch around. They're mainly just sacks of goop in a little green sack. If you piked one with a needle, I bet all it's insides would squirt out! O_O EW!!!! I'm fine with the fuzzy ones, because I can't see their eyes, and little leg lumps... My neighborhood kids know I hate caterpillars, and when I babysit, they just LOVE finding caterpillars and trying to make me touch them, so I can get over my fear of them.....I HATE CATERPILLARS. -.-

even writing this are reading what everyone else says is making me go mental, ima 15 and none of my friends understand my phobia, its so hard to walk home when its raining, i once saw one in a puddle and i just screamed and ran the rest of the way home, all i could think of is that its still 'there' i can never ever even go near wet grass.
My friends really dont get that its actually like a disease or something, and one time one time, we were playing football on the school feild and one of my friends threw something at me, i ooks what it was on my shirt and it was one of them. I ripped off my shirt and ran inside to the changing rooms in my bra. it was horribly tramatizing and humiliating and i still cant stand to talk about it, even writing this is an acheivment.

after reading through all the other posts, i couldnt even eat my dinner because my chips reminded me horribly of, you know.

i put one in my mouth but i spit i out and ran away crying.

My siblings made it all that easier my making the sausages crawl about the table.

iam so glad that its not just me

OMG.. im sooo glad i read this. All my life people have been telling me im weird for doing things you all have written.. i actually just got pulled over [i was walking] because i was avoiding the sidewalks sooo badly. and i can not explain to you how bad i was feeling. it was pouring outside but i would rather get soaked in water than get near "them". it was soo cold outside and i was sweating like a pig. NO ONE respects my fear of worms. i told the cop "are you scared of any spiders?" he said "no but i dont like bugs but i cant stand snakes" and in my head i was thinking.. well, what if i make you walk around snakes? i dont know.. it's really sad but people make fun of me and the fact that im scared of worms. just because not everyone has it doesnt mean it does not exist. and i am not trying to be cute about screaming because i saw a worm.. coz most of the time i was screaming by myself.

HELP ME!!!

I'm afraid of worms, I'm afraid that they could live inside my body...so i wanted to see if i got them using some laboratory test, but they said i don't have worms (just some type of worms)...now my BIG PROBLEM is:

HOW CAN I GET RID OF THEM ALL (all types of worm) WITHOUT FEELING OR SEEING THEM GETTING OUT OF MY ASS...

HELPPPPPPPP MEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!PLEASE

I AM DEATHLY AFRAID OF ANY WORM OR WORMLIKE CREATURE!!!! i am so glad i'm not the only one. just this morning there were maggots in the trash can and my mom sent me to take the trash out. Noticing the maggots i went into an awful frenzy of crying, screaming and vomiting. I can't face my kitchen anymore nor will i ever go towards another trash can. Thank god the picture of that catepillar looks like something off of disney or i probably would've puked all over my keyboard.

oh yea there was also this one time when there was a snake in my kitchen ad i cried and screamed horrificly because i thought it was a worm. when i realized it was a snake i was perfectly fine.

I am so happy to have found other people like me. I was once told by someone that they knew of another person that was scared of worms as well. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, I do too. I'm not scared of bugs or spiders or snakes. But as soon as I smell rain coming my heart starts beating faster.
I wish I knew what I have such an irrational fear, as long as I can remember I have always had it, and having an older brother, never made it easy for me to deal with as a kid. Once when I was 12 or 13 he once put one of them on my arm. I was paralyzed with fear looking at it on me, I wanted to move or scream, but I couldn't. After what felt like an eternity I shook it off and ran into the bathroom crying and hysterical. I locked myself in there for 2 hours before my parents could get me out.
Even as an adult now, if it's raining, it probably takes me 5 times as long to get to the car, because I have to watch out the the little buggers (they're sneaky you know). My hearts starts beating faster and I freeze if there's one near me. I plot out my path, without trying to stay in one spot too long in case they start coming closer to me. But I always feel so proud when I've made it in or out of the house without panicking too much.
I have even taught my kids that if you are outside when it's raining ALWAYS wipe and triple wipe your shoes off outside before you come into the house. I know it's terrible to project my fear on my kids, but if there was a trace of a, gasp, worm on their shoes in the house, I would lose it. Thank goodness I had girls at least.

Im not afraid of earthworms (yet)... but I am afraid of about every other type of worm. Caterpillars can freak me out, but Im not afraid of them (when they are in their very early stage and look like a meal worm... diff. story).

That pic freaked me out though, haha. Just searching it has me nervous. I am generally just afraid of maggots and meal worms though (and worms related to the meal worm)... I wont research it or I might know more about them, as I love to research and learn more... but they make me... ugh... never been afraid of anything in my life... but these little guys disgust me.

I am the only person that I've knwn who has this fear. Personally, I am afraid of earthworms, meal worms, maggots, grubs (they have beaks for Christ's sake!), caterpillars, miliepedes or anything in it's larval stage. I'm not as afraid of slugs and leeches but they still creep me out. I'm scratching at myself in between typing. Just about ten minutes ago, I go into the kitchen to fix myself some food and there were three little wormy like moth babies crawling on the kitchen table. I've been scratching at myself ever since. I refuse to go back in there but I'm hungry! Sometimes these things crawl on the ceiling! I've found them in my cereal package and was forced to throw it away. I find them crawling in/on packages in the cabinets and no one wants to clean up in there! I can't wait until the cold weather is here so these damn things can die off or whatever it is that they do.

Please,remove the pic of that disguting creature at the top of the page! I had to cover the picture up with a sheet of paper just to read the writing on the left of it. I can't even look at these nasty things in pictures! Now I'm afraid to do a colon cleanse or detox because what someone wrote above! Now I'm afraid that I'll find wormies in my poo! So does that mean they're in my bowels?
My whole family thinks I'm ridiculous.

I am the only person that I've knwn who has this fear. Personally, I am afraid of earthworms, meal worms, maggots, grubs (they have beaks for Christ's sake!), caterpillars, miliepedes or anything in it's larval stage. I'm not as afraid of slugs and leeches but they still creep me out. I'm scratching at myself in between typing. Just about ten minutes ago, I go into the kitchen to fix myself some food and there were three little wormy like moth babies crawling on the kitchen table. I've been scratching at myself ever since. I refuse to go back in there but I'm hungry! Sometimes these things crawl on the ceiling! I've found them in my cereal package and was forced to throw it away. I find them crawling in/on packages in the cabinets and no one wants to clean up in there! I can't wait until the cold weather is here so these damn things can die off or whatever it is that they do.

Please,remove the pic of that disguting creature at the top of the page! I had to cover the picture up with a sheet of paper just to read the writing on the left of it. I can't even look at these nasty things in pictures! Now I'm afraid to do a colon cleanse or detox because what someone wrote above! Now I'm afraid that I'll find wormies in my poo! So does that mean they're in my bowels?
My whole family thinks I'm ridiculous.

I am horribly afraid of worms, leeches, parasites, maggots, slugs...basically anything that resembles a worm. I can't eat gummy worms because they terrify me, I can't even look at pictures of worms. I work at Petco and the reptiles are fed mealworms, whenever I have to walk by the reptile section I walk as far away from them as possible and refuse to look in their enclosures because I can't stand the thought of seeing a worm. I hate when it rains, even that smell of earthworms after it rains is enough to make my stomach turn, I have to concentrate on not looking at the ground when I walk outside after it rains.

HALLELUJA !!! I have just had the worst night ever, and tried to explain to my collegues what I go through every day of my life, but they all either just stared at me, laughed hysterically or ignored me, mumbling to themselves - yip, she's "not lekka". Well, I am so glad to see that there are others like me, cos it's the worst... I am scared of ALL worms, slugs, caterpillars, maggots, earthworms etc etc etc. And now i'm getting centipedes in my bathroom. I have always had a man around, or someone to take them outside if they dare put their squiggly little "paws" inside, but since Jan this year, I have been on my own and having trouble dealing with them. Since it has started raining as everyone says, there are centipedes on my bathroom and I can't figure out where they are coming from. The other day there was one of them on my shower wall, and I had to go to work without showering cos I couldn't go into the bathroom. When I got home, I asked the neighbour to please come and remove it. Although I cant touch or look at them, I stand a mile away, try not to look at it directly, and spray doom in the general direction. YIP, then they start squirming and wriggling and i go bananas, I have to run away and try and compose myself, and then have to force myself to go back - see where it has fallen, and spray more doom - cos shame, I don't want the poor thing to suffer. And, the problem is they don't die quickly from doom, and I can smack them or look at them, so I have no other option. It's not like I could coax it out with a cookie or something. Anyway, so last night, just before I went to bed, I as per normal went to the toilet, half asleep already, lifted the toilet lid, turned and ALMOST sat, but something luckily told me to look, and there it was, right smack bang in the middle of the toilet seat - was a centipede, standing half-way up and wriggling. Needless to say, I screamed, ran into the passage and then nearly hurled. Spent the next 20 minutes trying to figure out how I was going to go to sleep without going to the toilet, after only about 6 mugs of coffee. Thought about "going" in something else, but don't think I had a container big enough to hold that much. TMI I know... So I wondered if the neighbours were still awake, but felt too bad to wake them, so mustered up ALL my courage, moved closer, sprayed the worm toward the direction of the bowl and immediately flushed the toilet. After another 20 minutes of checking and looking at the chocolate brown toilet cover and mat, STOOD over the toilet bowl and relieved myself, only physically. SLEEP ??? Yeah right !!! Spent the whole night feeling my legs tickle in the bed, checking the ceiling in my bedroom and sleeping miles away from the wall in case one climbed up there... I'm exhausted !!! and need help.

I also think i suffer from Scoleciphobia. I thought i was the only person !

Ive hated worms aslong as i can remember. I hate the slimyness, i think i also hate the fact that they dont even have any eyes or mouth or anything like that, to me they look like some sort of aliens. Also im afraid of Maggotts, they just freak me out, there all multicoloured it just scares me to death. I can bring myself to look at them but i can never touch them, if i ever do have the incovinience of touching them i have to be endlessly washing the part were i has touched. Thinking about that makes me loose my apetite. I also cant eat spaggetti because and other foods shaped like worms. I also hate slugs and snails and all that mlarky. I also hate the way when you chop them in half they start to regenerate into two new worms. THERE SO FREAKKY EWWWWWWWWWWWWW

worms are the scareyesy thing iv ever seen, th worst is when it rains and there everywher and you panic, and then the next day the cooked to the side walk.. i use to get my sisters to carry me to school when it rained, worms in my closet.. THERE EVERYWHERE!

OMW, all my friends think i am MAD... telling me that there are much worse thing to worry about than a stupid ol worm.... they just don't get it!!!!!!! my skin crawls when i hear the W word.... when i opened this page and saw that stupid picture, my whole body went cold!!!!!!

wow, i thought i was the only one! haha

I am scared of everything that looks like worms or even relates to worms! people think I am crazy because of this and tease me about it.

I've never met anyone else who has issues with worms like I do. I feel so much better finding out there are so many others!

Wow I didn't know there were this many people out there.... I try to be tough since I live with a bunch of guys except for my mom and all my brothers think it's so funny that I hate worms this much. Tonight I had to clean out the potato bin AGAIN because mom always buys too many potatos and then they go bad and well you know what happens from there.... so I take it upon myself to cean these things up because
1. I don't want those nasty things in my house!
2. I need to practice seeing them and handling stuff with worms on it (I held the potatoes with a paper towel)
I went around and sprayed everything with peroxide and now I'm scared because I've been walking around barefoot...
I don't cry over anything ever but the sight of worms will turn me into a neat freak in five minutes I'll have everything sterilized and start wearing shoes inside the house.
I almost took a lighter to my hands tonight to get the nastiness off after cleaning up that mess.

I'm so glad I found this site. I had no idea there were so many people with this same phobia. I'm a 30 year-old guy and I find worms, slugs, snails, maggots, etc to be utterly revolting. I know they are mostly harmless, but they are just so disgusting. I can't even look at them for more than a few seconds without becoming nauseated. Oddly, snakes don't bother me at all, nor do insects or spiders. The phobia has definitely affected my life. I hate being outdoors on rainy days, I won't garden or even touch dirt since I'm afraid of finding one, and I don't like swimming in lakes and rivers where they might be hiding. Fishing with bait is out of the question. If I think it is going to rain, I sprinkle salt all over my porch, walkway, and driveway. I know it's bad for the plants, but I'd rather have an ugly yard full of dead plants than slugs and snails anywhere near my house. One time after it rained I dropped my cell phone in some bushes, and I had to make my roommate find it for me since I was too scared of encountering slimy things to look for it myself. I guess I'm lucky to live in a dry climate where there aren't that many of them. I don't know what I would do if I ever found a worm or slug in something I was eating or inside my house. One time a date ordered escargot in a restaurant and I just about lost it. I don't care how hot you are--there is just no way I'm going to kiss you after I've seen you put a snail in your mouth! I'm afraid to tell other people about my phobia since they might taunt me about it or bring the icky creatures near me. If someone offered me a million dollars to touch one just for a second, I don't think I could do it either. If I accidentally touched one, I would probably become hysterical. I've had this phobia all my life. When I was in 3rd grade, I even refused to share my crayons with another boy in my class because I had seen him touch an earthworm once, and I couldn't stand the thought of touching my crayons after he put his wormy hands on them. Another time, when I was about the same age, I was hiking in a national forest with my father. He found a banana slug and picked it up and tried to get me to pet it. I was so grossed out, I ran out of that forest back to our car in the parking lot and refused to go back. Afterwards, I wouldn't let my father hold my hand, and I didn't want to touch anything that he did. Fortunately, my brothers have the same phobia/revulsion to worms and wormlike creatures that I do, so they never terrorized me with the things. Like others, I have no desire to overcome this phobia. Why would I want to? The people without this phobia are the weird ones.

omg!
i have the same problems. when i see worms i just about start to cry. it's horrible. but i try not to draw so much attention to it because people will end up chasing me with a worm just to bother me. even seing pictures of worms creeps me out. but i enjoy looking at them but it's hard to. which is weird. when i go fishing i have to ask others to put the worm on and they get mad at me. saying i'm being dramatic. it's rediculous.

I really hate worms. One time we went fishing my cousin threw a worm at my head. I, I, I was really scared. I hate seeing it because my anxiety goes high. :(

I too have this phobia - have for the last 36 years!! Scoleciphobia I did not know that there was a real term for it either! thanks for sharing! I saw the movie "squirm" when I was about six years old and have been terrified ever since!! ewwwww...just the thought of them makes me quiver!!! urh!!!

OMG, just like the rest of you, I thought I was alone. My husband is totally insensitive of my condition, and talks about trying all kinds of ungodly things to try to "snap me out of it"
I try to block it out of my mind, but have had a bad breakdown lately over parasitic worms. Right in the middle of a steak, my brother-in-law decided to mention tapeworm! Of all things! I have eaten no beef or pork lately, and after what I saw on the internet today, I may have to give up meat all together! I don't care how much you cook it, I don't want to eat them dead or alive!

I have a revulsion toward every kind of worm. I once found maggotts in the trash can, and almost poisoned my whole family because I dumped bleach on the little bastards, and when they didn't die fast enough, I added drano! The fumes were awful!

I also cannot eat gummy worms, and want to be cremated. Hopefully more information will be posted about a cure, because this is literally the only thing I am afraid of. Thank you all so much for sharing!

I'm 19 and have been terrified of worms my whole life. Now that I'm at a university and have to walk to class everyday, it's gotten so much worse. It rains all the time here and every time I wake up and look out the window to see it raining I want to cry. I will take the longest route to class if it means I can avoid going near grass or anywhere they are. I only just started researching this phobia because I have never met anyone else who had it, people think its funny when I tell them I am scared of worms, because they can't really hurt me. I only search with the pictures turned off so I didn't see that caterpillar but I can't stand them either anything that even resembles a worm I will freak out even if there is a worm-like twig on the ground. I am fine with snakes though I actually really like them. I have nightmares about worms and whenever I see one even out of the corner of my eye I panic I start breathing really hard and I have to spit and gag I've almost puked a few times, sometimes I cry too. I seriously I'm tired of this I'm looking into getting some counseling but I don't want to face them I just want them to go away.

Hello, I saw this blog a couple months ago but I was too afraid to even comment on my phobia. It feels so good to know other people are afraid of worms too. I think I am basically afraid of earthworms. I hate to walk on them. I look down the entire time I'm walking even if it is dry outside. I've seen worms on the sidewalk when it's dry too. That should tell you how afraid I am. I think my fear comes from my mother. I never noticed worms until I was young and my mother would scream when she saw the worms and cross the street. That's when I became afraid of them at the age of 3 or 4 years old. I never did that to my son because your fears roll over to your children. Now I get pissed off because my mother doesn't care about them anymore and says I'm over the top and I need to stop. Wow you scare the hell outta me then change your fears. I have gotten better because my brother used to have to carry me in the rain on his back. I really want to get over this fear and I don't know how. I am afraid to buy another house with a lot of grass and I use plenty of fertilizer on my grass because it kills them, but keeps the grass looking good. I will keep us all in prayer. I am so tired of tipping!

I'm part of the group. I am so afraid of worms... It really freaks me out. I'm 30 years old but I can run so fast whenever I see one of them along my way... If only can worm express their reaction whenever I see them.. They will freak out as well or they will laugh until they die. My ex knows about it and it is his happiest moments everytime he scares me. He has an aquarium and he use worms to feed his fish. My mom, who loves me so much... when I scream it means I saw a worm and she will throw that away from me... My father's reaction - like 'duh' it's just a worm... :-)

It feels SO good to know that I'm not crazy. I have a serious phobia of worms, maggots, slugs, caterpillars, millipides etc and I have nightmares about them all time and cry in my sleep. Nobody I know has this fear and think I'm weird for being intensely scared of them. I know they can't bite but just seeing them crawl makes me scream!!! I recently took deworming medicine because i thought I felt one in my throat but now I'm so scared of seeing them come out alive!!! It's like I'm living my worst nightmare

Worm,shmirm, don't be scared, get some raid!

so i found this website today and now i am extreemly excited that i am not crazy, when it rains i walk looking at the ground, making sure not to get close to one, let alone step on one, thats all i focus on when it rains. my class in college knows about this fear and we were moving 2x6's after it had rained all week. the hugest worm i have ever seen in mhy life, i immediatly backed up, they;thinking my fear was a giant joke, picked one up and threw it at me, i screamed and started crying, dropped everything and just left. I HATE WORMS.!!

so, i'm posting again, so good to know all you guys are joining here! i feel so much better! but i want to tell you about a few expieriences i've had since i last posted...

My housemate and i stay in a house next to her parents, so we usually have supper with them... this particular day i came home early, supper being done already, so i went ahead a dished for myself... i LOVE my salads, but i DO NOT touch lettuce when i make it... anyway, so i went ahead while watching tv, and ate my supper... to my surprise, my LAST bite i was about to put my fork on a piece of cucumber or something,,, and what lured there? diridish... a worm!!!!! i threw my plate down, and didn't eat for the next day and a half... i was SO disgusted... i made my house mate take all my food and throw it out! she had a good laugh, while i was in absolute HISTERICS!!

Another encounter i had was about 2 weeks ago.. we went to a friends place in a small country town, we stayed over there seeing that we had a bit 'too much' anyway, so the next my friend went outside to the car to put our bags in, when she came back with a smerk on her face, warining me that i should find an alternative route to the car... i looked out the door, and it was a FEAR FACTOR OF SNAILS AND SLUGS!!! i went COLD and got heart pulpetations.... i went to the other side of the house, had a cigarette just to calm my nerves, and when i eventually calmed down "well i tried" i attemted the 1 meter block of fear.... i held my one friends hand on the one side, gripping her so tight, while she of course couldn't stop laughing... i had tears in my eyes... i promise you, there was about 30 snails and slugs in that 1 and a 1/2 meter walkway... that whole 20 seconds of dodging and screaming felt like 5 hours of complete torture....

a question that ALOT of people asked here, "How do you stop it"... one answer... 'YOU DON'T"

it just doesn't go away... ;(

oh and we also made jello shots one night, with insect wine gums in it... without noticing, my friend passed me one with a worm in it... i shreeeked, jumped off my chair and stood in the corner until she realised what she was doing LOL

oh, one last thing, my friends LOVE to send me RANDOM pics of worms now and then... they think it's a big joke.. little do they know that i actually feel like i'm having a heart attack when i get close to seeing or hearing of one... keep posting guys, i love to read your stories!!

oh yah, and we went on a quad bike trip about 2 months ago,,, it was a mountain trail, which took a whole day, (8 hours to be exact) anyway, on the way up, driving through the bushes, i shreeked every time my hand hit a bush as i drove past...

so we eventually got to the top op the mountain where we had a picnic and the most AMAZING view, it truely was an expierence. anyway, so our tour guide took us on a trail that leads to a waterfall... from the picnic area, we started walking, we climbed over a big rock, and when we got on the oter side, the plants/bushes was almost as high as me (i'm about 1.57m) so for some reason we stopped for a second (think we were waiting for someone) as i turned around, something caught my eye RIGHT infront of me, i looked down to find a catapillar sitting on the bush, i screamed, took a leap to the left, and when i looked at the bush properly there was a BUNCH of catapillars sitting on the bush/tree type thing!!!!!!!! i do not lie when i say there was about 50 on this one bush!!!!!!!!!! my friend was stading a few feet away from me, when i screamed she just knew, and started laughing, so she took a look, and she actually thought it was 'n huge spider from where she was standing.. when she looked closer even she was freaked out, and she has no problem with worms... so i told them to go ahead as i was NOT prepared to go... i stayed behind with my friends mom, (she is quite spiritual) so she made me meditate a big, and we did some yoga on top of the mountain just to calm my soul while we waited for the others...

So when they came back, the tour guide had some water, and he felt somthing on his leg. he looked, saw a GREEEEENNN worm (looked alot like the one in the pic above) put it on the table (i was like 2 feet away) and said 'oh look, i brought you a present' OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i tell you, i swore words that day that i didn't know existed...!!!!

fantastic post!! would any of your readers be interested in, a professional, quality, DIVERS TORCH ?

Guys, the picture is a picture of a caterpillar, not a worm.

I too am extremely afraid of worms, I almost cry every time I see one. I'm fifteen years old, and I've been afraid of worms for almost five years. My entire life before that consisted of fishing with worms, playing in rain puddles with worms, catching worms, etc. I don't understand how I grew to be so afraid...?
Also, how do you pronounce Scoleciphobia?

Thankyou

It is So Helpful to know that there where other people with a worm phobia. When I was smaller like 5 magots where in my trashcan and my Mom told my dad to clean it out. I unknowingly had a magot on my arm and it started to crawl on me. I felt it tingling and I just kept bothering my mom about it. My brother just told me there was nothing there as a joke. I looked at my arm and there "it" was. I screamed and slapped my arms and ran until i couldnt. Everytime I see a worm this fear runs through me. My heart thumps against my chance and I just cant help but scream A tingle runs all over me like a worm is crawling on me. When I got into prepatory school in New York the students had to tell about there worst fears. Mine of course was about worms. I told about how every time I just see the word I get the "feelings". My doctor explained that before I was normal about the worms because I had never saw them as a threat and i never really thought they where bad or harmful until i saw them eat a dead animal that i loved. My friends used to make fun of (my fear) but i just couldnt help it.

Oh it is me again!!

Okay well also I forgot to say that when this started my dog had puppies and a pit bull bit one of the pups flies layed eggs in his wounds and maggots crawled out. I was sickened i threw up for days I wouldnt go t o school and I just stayed in the livingroom for ever. I know it is hard dealing with a phobia because i have 5 phobias Scoleciphobia, Helminthphobia, Clouphobia, Lygophobia, and Claustrophobia!!! I guess I am just a scared person but im extremely scared of bieng in the dark by myself because you never know whats out there.

IT DOESNT HELP THAT THEY CAME OUT WITH THAT MOVIE SLITHER

I am so happy to read everyone's comments on this website. I have been deathly afraid of worms for years. Everyone makes fun of me. The only traumatizing experience I've had with them is I remember in gym class, in middle school, being outside running around the track and a boy from my class throwing worms at people (including me) and them sticking to ours legs. I can't pinpoint if that's when it started exactly but I'm completely freaked out. It seems the older I get the, worse I am. When I was in college I would have to walk through the quad on my campus, and after rain the sidewalks would be infested with worms. On some days I refused to go to class becaue I wouldn't walk over them. There have been many instances when I've literally jumped on peoples backs after seeing them on the sidewalk as we are wlaking. I am a teacher now, and I have to take the kids out for recess when the weather is nice and monitor them outside before school in the morning. Our field always has so many worms. I try so hard to remain composed in front of the kids but sometimes it's so hard I'm fighting back tears. Has anyone every tried any treatment/therapy for this? Possibly hypnosis? Any tips would be helpful. Please email me-FallyWags@aol.com.

Also, I agree that the picture of the worm (caterpillar) has to go. I'm afraid of those too!

Always had a terrible phobia of w's. They are so slimy...sneaky...the nasty burgandyish color... ooooh. Too many commented on their beyond grossness that I don't want to elaborate further. I'm sure neighbors wonder why I dance, tip toe and shriek my way to my car. Yes... it rained last night. I loooove outdoors but won't go out after it rains unless I HAVE TO - like picking up my daughter from school. There are many more of us than we think. And there are zillions of w's in hell. Read the New Testament in the Bible. In Mark it says: Now maggots are your sheet, and worms your blanket. It also says: Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. That is hell! It's full of worms, they never die and is one form used to torment! Also PLEASE go to site: http://www.spiritlessons.com Then find (Revelations of Hell to 7 Columbian Youths# (Read 2nd Testimony, Lupe,) #3rd Testimony, Sandra,) Also read the 4th and all the way down to the 6th. This is NOT a fairy tale! Although, we ARE justified in our fears of those dreaded w's, we should long to spend eternity with JESUS because we love Him...not just because we are terrified of w's. Turn away from your sins, acknowledge Him as your LORD and SAVIOR. Do not be ashamed of Him and He will acknowledge you in heaven! GOD Bless! D

WTF!!!! I have a fear of caterpillars and some "genius" thought it would be smart to include a picture??? A phobia is a strong irrational fear of something an that something for me is CATERPILLARS!!! Even looking at a picture sends chills up my spine REMOVED da PICURE!!!

hi, I'm so relieved to find this page. I to suffer from a terrible fear of worms (even their name sounds bad) but luckily I have older brothers who are very understanding. So nice to know I'm not alone even though most people think it's strange when I tell them I'm afraid of worms. ugh, worms are so disgusting.

You have no idea how much better I feel knowing that I am no longer the only one! I am 36 years old and have been paralyzed with fear of them for as long as I can remember. I cannot walk near grass if it has rained and scream if I see one. I went to a college that had a quadrangle and they were everywhere when it rained. I had to have people walk ahead of me and holding on to me just to get to class. It was awful! I have been mocked for years, but I know that it is a HUGE issue! Thank you for bringing this to light!

My fear for earth w.s is Unreal ! !
I cant look or think about them - i feel like i want to lock my self in a big air tight room so none of them will get in !
My friends find it hilarious , but going to my school with loads of fields in rainy weather is one of the hardest things i have to do - I just grab on to mt friend holding on for dear life and looking up , i dont know why i hate them - i can barely explain it , There shiny , slimy , long , tubey , Limbless , emotionless bodies are enough to make me feel physically sick . They are my ultimate fear and if anyone tried to come near me with one i would cmpletely freak out - i get panick attacks from just thinking about them ( Shudder )
Im just 14 and i think that my fear is too much for me to handle - I HATE THEM WITH A PASSION !

after reading quite an impressive number of posts, i must say that i am having a hard time writing this. i'm finding it quite hard to even breathe as i am mustering up the courage to even think about the things i would like to say or what i have read. as happy as i am to find that most of you know how this strange, disabling, terrifying phobia can effect us, i am equally scared by some of your experiences because they mirror the exact torment i currently suffer from. i managed to read several posts to my amazement, but with a sickening paralysis that kept my eyes drawn to each person's story. i had to hear you say these things, but became even more paranoid and scared. weird. it just keeps getting worse.
i think there are more than enough examples for our minds to cringe over, so easy on the descriptive passages people. letting it out is a good thing, but keep in mind, certain things havent crossed our minds as of yet, so be careful of paralyzing details. ---theres certain things i need to block from my mind in order not to obsess about..things i don't see...you know. but when i do see them, i never recover. there isn't one problem with the word (id rather not say) that any of you wrote about that i cannot relate to. especially outside. My reaction when i walk out in the rain, for example, is to scan the ground if i have to walk (which i avoid)in order not to come near them. i take slow, cautious steps, zig zagging down the street, often tiptoeing without looking up. in the instances where i happen to be close to one or several, i stiffen up, won't walk unless i can find a clearing of several feet and weirdly enough, cant keep from looking at them while in a frightened trance. i won't let it out of my sight. i cry and yell and get violent if anyone attempts to move me away, if i'm not ready to break my gaze, and seek safe ground at just the right moment and just the right careful way. i won't kill one. i can't. i don't let anyone around me step on one, and if they do, i panic and freak out, thinking that they might fling upwords if caught on the bottom of a shoe. i try not to harm any living thing if avoidable. even them. i understand they are here for whatever reason, but i just would rather not see them or ever touch them in any way. same with snails and pretty much anything that resembles a worm, big or small, except snakes (to a point)-until i let my imagination run wild. i don't like the long, skinny, garden ones cause its too close of a resemblance. i read about a problem with the tales of mice and such..and i also, love mice, until i start thinking about the tail. and also the fish. i love fish and beings, they are beautiful, but i can't touch them. the texture puts me in the same sort of panic. but i don't mind looking at them. i wont eat fish either. heres something weird, i love mermaids. always been fascinated with them like some like unicorns or fairies to others. i always wanted to be one as a child would fantasize it, yet not be able to touch a normal fish..why would i like fins? weird.
my friend jokingly told me she thinks this whole thing is something that happened in a past life as a fish, being caught by the bait and died..lol she says i long for the part of my that wants to swim, but love being a human, but scared hence the fear of the THINGS even though i look at them with a weird gaze..
i doubt it deedra..but thanks for trying. weird how we decompose and become "earth" which is what They are or eat or whatever..who cares) and why we see them and panic. perhaps somehow we have a eerie connection..and our soul (however life and death truely is, knows..born from tiny microscopic things that resemble that and end with those..nevermind..i'm trying to convince myself. lol..you all know what i am saying. everything about em, leads to panic. i'm glad to know you guys are out there..wish we could all get together and cry on rainy days and have a phobia support group. it would be scary but interesting and oddly comforting to gather in numbers this large and have a community panic. we wouldn't feel so alone. those pre butterflies. wont touch them..but they didn't freak me out as much as they do now thanks to that rather disturbing image at the top. thanks for reminding me to look closer at leaves to top it all off..damn it. one thing at a time..now that. smooth..

Oh wow
for years I have been laughed at cause i scream like a little girl and walk on my tippy toes in the rain and even in the middle of the street if i have to just to avoid those freaky things. The picture is kinda freaky..

It's been very interesting to read all of these comments. I've been afraid of worms since I was a child but have never met anyone else with this fear. Then all of a sudden you come across this blog and see your own feelings mirrored in the stories of so many people! Like a previous poster mentioned, though, a lot of your stories really include vivid descriptions that are quite frightening and hard to read. I felt really uneasy in general and uncomfortable about touching things after reading all of these posts. So much for exposure therapy, I guess...

My biggest fear is earthworms specifically. I don't mind slugs, caterpillars, maggots etc. too much but earthworms really give me the chills. Fortunately, though, I tend to forget about my phobia for long stretches of time and I can even go outside in rainy weather sometimes without even thinking about it. The smallest reminder, like seeing a worm on the ground or reading this blog, will bring back the old fear and revulsion, though. The more you think about it, the more the fear intensifies, basically. Again, that doesn't seem to be very supportive of the claims of exposure therapy.

I can't really say how my phobia originated. There is no single event or trauma that I can pinpoint or that sticks out in memory. I do remember that I as a child once cut a worm in half with a pair of scissors. I was both fascinated and revolted by the result: that the separate ends go on living independent of each other. Another memory is when I went fishing with my grandfather and my uncle (my grandfather's son) supplied us with worms that we would use as bait. We were standing by this heap of earth on my uncle's yard and he would just pull out worm after worm from that pile and put them in glass jars. He was a bit uncomfortable about doing this, however, and maybe that affected me to some degreee. He would pull them out and drop them in the jar as quickly as possible so he wouldn't have to touch them for too long. My grandfather just told him to not be silly and yet he wouldn't move a finger to help him, he just stood there watching and smoking his pipe. I don't remember the actual fishing trip, though, if I was too scared to put the hook through the worms or how it all turned out. I just don't remember.

Like others have mentioned, I also get nightmares about worms occasionally and this is probably one of the worst parts of this phobia for me. The dreams typically involve me trying to zig-zag my way through myriads of chunky worms of all kinds lying on the floor or falling from above until I'm so overwhelmed by panic and revulsion that I wake up in a cold sweat. I then often have to throw off my blanket and avoid touching things until I'm somewhat calm again. It really is the worst! I wish these nightmares would go away at the very least.

It's interesting to note a lot of other things we seem to have in common. Like associating the smell of rain and wet grass with the worms, that's something I do a lot too. It really is the worst smell, I can't stand it! And yet I actually like rain and the freshness it brings, it's just so unfortunate that it also has to bring the worms! Another thing is associating wormlike objects in general with worms and expanding your fear in this way, that's something I do too. Rat tails were mentioned, I hate those too. Even spaghetti can evoke the fear sometimes!

It's comforting to know that you are not alone in this even if I wish I could rid each and every one of you of your phobia. Some of the stories really touched me, like the woman who said she wouldn't eat anything but carbs anymore because of the fear. That's really horrible! It just goes to show how debilitating and disabling a phobia can become, even if it's probably no more than a laughing matter to most people. By the way, why do you think this phobia is so much more common among females than males? I'm in the small minority of males affected by this myself.

One click later I found this, today I will sleep in peace, thank you for writing this. For

I feel so super glad that I am not alone in this,having this weird phobia of mine. If there's a single worm in one room , there's no way I would ever go into that room. There was one afternoon I was waiting for the time to pass and I came across this big Biology book ... it was thick and big, with a hard -cover..I was flipping through.. and through... and through... enjoying looking at the animals with fur and all, until finally there was this page in the middle of the book, there was a whole page of millipedes picture.. it was so clear that it looked so real. I got so shocked and I threw away the book so far from me.It just flew from my hands. The girl sat next to me jumped too, and I had to make a silly face, smiled, and pretended that nothing happened.