myrmecophobia

Myrmecophobia () is the inexplicable fear or hatred for ants. It is a type of specific phobia. This fear can manifest itself in several ways, such as a fear of ants contaminating a person's food supply, or fear of a home invasion by large numbers of ants. It is common for those who suffer from myrmecophobia to also have a wider fear of insects in general, as well as spiders (see Arachnophobia); such a condition is known as entomophobia. The term myrmecophobia comes from the Greek μύρμηξ, myrmex, meaning "ant" and , phóbos, "fear".

Myrmecophobia can cause people to experience anxiety, intrusive thoughts, sleeping problems, and avoidance. Other symptoms include sweating, increased heart rate, shortness of breaths, tumbling, panic, nausea, dry mouth, dizziness, headaches, and numbness. Myrmecophobia may be the result of earlier traumatic experiences that can be directly (or indirectly) linked to the object or situational fear, but this is not always the case; phobic responses can also be inherited as learned behaviours from the social context in which one was brought up.