![Terrified of frogs? No fear.. Terrified of frogs? No fear..](https://cdn.magzter.com/1583505505/1738115703/articles/68Z9xvdCILPjZ4GV2Ysys/TERRIFIED-OF-FROGS-NO-FEAR.jpg)
For years the 57-year-old ex-Army lorry driver has struggled with his terror of the amphibians, a fear known as ranidaphobia.
He says: "I'm 6ft 3in and scared of frogs, so it's quite embarrassing sometimes."
Gary, from Derby, thinks he developed his phobia as a boy when frogs jumped out of the garden pond his dad was cleaning.
He explains: "It's just the look of them. They look like prehistoric animals. There's nothing as weird as a frog and there's nothing I'm more scared of. I don't mind spiders."
Gary's fear really came to the fore six years ago, when he started a gardening business and they began to play havoc with his work.
"It didn't cross my mind to start off with," he says. "I was asked to mow some lawns and thought, 'I can make a living out of this.
'But when I began picking up leaves in gardens and putting them in the bin, there would be a frog and it would freak me out. On one occasion I was clearing an overgrown garden.
'I didn't know there was a pond there and I stepped in it and there were frogs everywhere. I just went and sat in my van.
This story is from the January 29, 2025 edition of Daily Star.
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This story is from the January 29, 2025 edition of Daily Star.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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