In 2011, my husband and I moved into our first home, a small beach shack atop wooden stilts a few blocks off the beach in South Carolina. The house was a dream aside from the overstuffed marsh rats that scurried across the basement floor morning, noon, and night. When their whiskers twitched, they revealed razor-sharp front teeth, and their furless tails dangled behind them like a wedding train. Memories of those rats still send shivers up my spine.
It doesn’t matter how laid back you are when a mouse or rat scampers across the room; you can’t help but scream. But why? Find out if musophobia is written into our DNA or if it is a learned behavior.
What Is Musophobia?
Musophobia is known as an irrational fear of mice and rats. You might fear all rodents or a particular species with which you previously had a scary encounter. A phobia of rodents is common because we know they carry disease, have sharp teeth, and generally like to infest the places we live. But at the same time, it can get out of control.
