If you've ever steered clear of a spider, refused to manhandle a mushroom or opted out of an ocean dip because of sharks, you're not alone.
These aversive reactions to the natural world - known as biophobias - are surprisingly widespread and they're shaping more than just our fears.
One-in-five Australians have a biophobia and they are having an enormous impact on human health, wildlife survival and environmental sustainability.
And while some fears serve a protective purpose, many biophobias are irrational.
"We experience anxiety, fear, disgust when we don't need to," says Professor Melissa Norberg, a psychologist at Macquarie University, co-author of the article Beyond mental well-being: A One Health perspective on biophobias.
"So yes, sometimes it's good to be anxious when there's a funnel web ... but do we need to be wearing gloves in our houses to protect us from spiders? No."
Prof Norberg says disgust in particular plays a major role in food-related biophobias.
"Disgust is often about disease," she explains.
"So the dangerous aspect is, 'I might eat something that could make me very ill or could kill me or there could be a contamination somewhere ... that might get me sick'."
That fear is heightened by a growing disconnect from nature, reinforced by urbanisation.
"I would not know how to survive if there was a zombie apocalypse without grocery stores," Prof Norberg admits.
"I think that is a tragedy of becoming more urbanised ... now we've become so reliant on it that we don't know how to take care of ourselves as we would just 100 years ago."
Fear of mushrooms, for instance, can be traced both to lack of education and cultural taboos.
"People have promoted ideas like, you know, mushrooms can kill you," Prof Norberg says.
"So we might not even eat mushrooms that are in the store."
The recent mushroom poisoning trial of Erin Patterson, which gripped Australia for months, reignited some of those fears. The deaths of three people after eating a meal laced with death cap mushrooms stunned the nation and the case became a media obsession.
It is rare events like this that can run the risk of distorting public perception and reinforcing phobic responses.
According to Prof Norberg's recent research, biophobias are more common than people realise. As many as 22 per cent of individuals irrationally fear insects, spiders and other natural elements.
Yet these fears rarely align with actual risks: bees and wasps kill far more Australians each year than sharks, snakes or spiders.
Worse, unchecked biophobias have broader consequences.
"We waste a lot of food in Australia," she says.
"'Best Before' (dates) are not for the public … but many people interpret it … and throw things away."
Her research argues that biophobias are not only under-recognised in mental health settings but can harm ecosystems too - prompting people to kill harmless animals or avoid the outdoors altogether.
She believes a "One Health" approach, which connects human, animal and environmental wellbeing, is needed to address these impacts.
"We need people in schools who do know how to forage, who do know how to rub two sticks together and make a fire," she says.
"Having kids do that repeatedly ... that would be immensely helpful."
