Have you heard of formicophilia, or insect fetishes?
Here’s a little something about the birds and the bees: What bugs most of us is another person’s thrill.
While many of us can barely endure mosquito season, there are some who get a jolt of sexual energy from their penetrating bites.
Here’s everything you didn’t know you wanted to know about insect fetishes.
What Is Formicophilia?
Formicophilia is the love of insects, a broad term given to cover various kinds of insect fetishes. Some people experience intense sexual arousal or pleasure from insects.
As with most kinks and fetishes, there can be very generalized attractions or very particular kinks. Some who experience an insect fetish have a bee fetish and some have a mosquito fetish. For some, it is specific to the way insects swarm, and for others, it is being bitten.
Formicophilia is actually an insect fetish where people are aroused by the idea or experience of having insects crawl over their bodies or genitalia. Another word frequently used as an umbrella for insect fetishes is entomophilia, and the more specific meaning of this word is getting off to the idea of making love to an insect.
There is little in the way of serious study of insect fetishes, so it is difficult to guess how popular the fetishes are and what the reasons are behind the kinks.
Insects are popular in the cultural imagination, however, as instruments of fear and terror, and wherever there is fear—a primal and intense emotion—there is sometimes sexual arousal.
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Some people simply like the feathery or streaming sensations against their skin. Some may be aroused by the taboo or humiliation. For others, insects are sexual predators—they bite, suck, stalk, and penetrate—and their response is excitement.
How Do Formicophiles Play?
There are different accounts on how people with insect fetishes engage with their object of desire. It can take some creativity, but kinky minds are endlessly creative.
1. Allowing Insects to Crawl on the Skin
Most of us give ants, mosquitos and other crawling critters the brush off the moment we sense them. If you have an insect fetish, you might simply allow them to crawl on your skin and enjoy the sensation, if that’s what floats your boat.
You might situate yourself where you are more likely to meet insect life. You might sunbathe in black fly season or avoid mosquito repellant and stretch out on a lawn chair in a humid summer dusk while the rest of us run for cover!
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2. Putting Insects on Genitals or Other Erogenous Zones
Some formicophiles will purposefully place insects on their bodies, including on their breasts or nipples, penis, pussy, buttocks, and even hair. They will enjoy the sensations of the insects crawling, and some want to be bitten or stung.
Some fetishists will use any insect, but depending on what kind of insect fetish the person has, they may seek out those particular kinds.
Read: 27 Sexual Taboos That Are No One Else’s Business
3. Placing an Open Jar of Insects Against the Skin or Genitals
An insect fetish practice is to gather a jar full. They may be purchased or hatched at home, depending on the situation.
4. Allowing or Encouraging Insects to Bite or Sting Them
If the sting or bite is part of the person’s insect fetish, a person may encourage the insect to sting or bite. In cases of mosquito love, this isn’t difficult—walking near water or in the woods, or opening a window to your bedroom may be all that is needed.
Read: How Many of These 12 Weird Fetishes Do You Know?
5. Placing Insects on a Submissive Partner
Insect fetishes can be used in BDSM or in degradation play, because many of us perceive insects as disgusting or terrifying. So formicophiles can incorporate insect play into their BDSM scenes, using insects as punishment or control or for humiliation.
Read: Sexual Punishments for Your BDSM Submissive
6. Inserting Insects into Vagina or Anus
Obviously it is risky, depending on the kind of insect, but there are multiple reports of insect fetishes where the person inserts insects into their vagina, anus, or mouth and experiences this in a sexual way.
Read: Extreme BDSM: 24 Examples of Hardcore BDSM
More Insect Fetishes and Kinks
1. Bee Fetish (Melissaphilia)
It’s an insect fetish, but the bee thing is really its own thing. The fetish is particular to bees and wasps and has its own name—melissaphilia. Love of bees is quite ancient and mythic, with various cultic religions in the ancient world centering on bees.
Some melissaphiliacs are most interested in the buzzing, stings, or aesthetic appearance of bees, but many are also devotees who are deeply interested in the life, lore and ways of bees as a species.
2. Spider Fetish (Arachnophilia)
The same goes for arachnophilia, the opposite of arachnophobia. This insect fetish is the love of spiders.
UFC Lightweight fighter Jalin “The Tarantula” Turner grew up afraid of spiders, so to face his phobia he started collecting tarantulas. At one time he had 200 of the insects and held one at the weigh-ins before a fight.
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3. Invertebrate Crush Fetish
The crush fetish is its own kink with varying specificities, and one is the invertebrate crush fetish or insect crush fetish. People may fantasize about crushing insects or watching someone else crush insects.
Stepping on insects, squashing them by sitting on them, or squeezing them between the fingers is one way of getting close and personal. Some with an insect fetish have a specific insect crush fetish, and others use this technique as one of many ways to play.
Read: Crush Fetish: All About Crushing Kinks
4. Entomophilia
Entomopholia is where people are sexually excited by the idea of having sex with insects. It can be part of the insect fetish, but entomophlia may be the fetish itself, with other play ideas not really cutting it.
This is one of those impossible fantasy fetishes that can be explored in the imagination or in pop culture, such as animation or cinema or science fiction, because actual sex with an insect is pretty tricky to fulfill.
People with entomophilia may experience their fetish as a fantasy—it may be about life-size, anthropomorphic praying mantis women, for example, like mermaids are mythological. For others, they may insert insects into various orifices or place them on their genitals.
Read: Supernatural Fetishes and Fantasies
Do you have an insect fetish? A specific insect kink? Dare to share!
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