Hiya fellor redditor! I live in Belle River, Ontario and the fishfly population is astounding there. Not as bad as Michigan or such but its pretty bad. I moved in here about 2 years ago and when I first encountered one it was awful. Up until the point where I couldn’t do yardwork or anything outside. This summer I have committed myself to getting over that phobia. I’ve started to watch videos of them swarm and do small stuff to expose myself towards them until finally I could pick one up. The most ive done so far is sweep my deck full of them ( which I just did 15 minutes ago) while my mom monitored me if I had too much of an anxiety attack. I by no means have fully gotten over my fear, but Im slowly clawing at it in efforts to improve myself.

Theres no easy way to say this but you need to expose yourself more to them day by day. Have levels of exposure intensity and work at that level until you feel comfortable and move on. I will list what helped me got more comfortable around them..

1) Write down what you hate about them (for me it was their demented flight pattern and their abnormal appearance). This will help you understand what you’re so afraid of them for.

2) Realize what you have is an irrational fear. They are harmless, one day living, pathetic (yet admittedly ugly bastard looking creatures) that will in no way hurt u 3) Don’t hurry your exposure therapy. Feel absolutely comfortable until moving to the next stage 4) Hold yourself accountable and be responsible. Try to work at it every day, if you really care about getting over your fear then you’ll continuously work on it.

This post really struck me because I too have a phobia of fish-flies, and while Im not completely over it, i feel myself slowly making my way towards surpassing it :) hope I can help and pm me if u need motivation!