(Picture: Liberty Antonia Sadler for Metro.co.uk)

It’s International Fetish Day so what better time to find out a bit more about a very specific fetish?

Melissophilia is when you’re sexually attraction to bees.

While it is very specific, you may be interested to know that fetishes involving insects, creepy crawlies and even spiders are a thing too.

The pandemic is having a negative impact on women’s sexual health

But right now we’ll look at bees.


Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about melissophilia.

What is it?

Melissophilia is a specific kind of zoophilia (sexual attraction to animals).

It is also known as Melissaphilia.

The word comes from the Ancient Greek for ‘honey bee’ and ‘love’.



Why do people like it?

It’s not necessarily a case of falling in love with Barry B Benson from B Movie.

Apparently some people catch bees with the intention of getting them to sting their genitals.

This is because they believe this will increase swelling and hypersensitivity, increasing the intensity and duration of their orgasms.

According to Dr Brenda Love in Russ Kick’s book Everything You Know About Sex is Wrong: ‘Realizing that the bee sting was almost painless, (a man) developed his own procedure, which consisted of catching two bees in a jar, and shaking it to make the bees dizzy to prevent their flying away.

‘They were then grabbed by both wings so that they were unable to twist around and sting.

‘Each bee was placed each side of the glans and pushed to encourage it to sting.’

She adds: ‘the circumference of the man’s penis increased from 6.5 inches to 9.5 inches.’

What about the bees?

Good question.

It’s not like you can ask how they feel.

And, while most bees would at least survive, honey bees die after stinging someone.

(Picture: Liberty Antonia Sadler)

What do the experts have to say about it?

Dr Mark Griffiths, a chartered psychologist and Professor of Behavioural Addiction at Nottingham Trent University, suspects the fetish is ‘incredibly rare, if it exists at all’, although he concedes people do catch stinging insects for sexual purposes.

He told me: ‘I’ve never come across a true case of melissophilia (ie, sexual arousal specifically from bees), only men that use bees to increase the size of their penis.

‘They are unlikely to be true melissophiliacs.

‘There may be some masochists who get sexual pleasure from things that sting, including nettles and insects, but the focus of the arousal is pain, not the bees, so these would not be melissophilia.’

At what point might having melissophilia become a problem?

Dr Griffiths said: ‘When it comes to non-normative sex, problems are typically defined by context and culture.

‘If sex is consensual with informed consent, no fetish is problematic.

‘If the person themselves thinks it is a problem then it should be treated as such.

‘With insect fetishes, you could argue that the insects are not giving their informed consent and therefore the fetishes are morally wrong (without necessarily being problematic to the person or the insects).’



Plus, you know, you might be allergic to bee stings.

Advertisement Advertisement