Me too, mate. Trick is to try and remember that bees are actually extremely unlikely to sting you, even if you get close. They'll only sting you if you really provoke them, like if you stepped on one. The odds that a bee will sting you are actually really, really low, six million to one which is twice as unlikely as being struck by lightning.

If a bee is annoyed at you, they're far more likely to 'bump' you first. Which is when they fly into you and literally bump you without stinging. Stinging isn't far behind so you better get outa there at that point.

I'm still scared of bees, but reminding myself of that helps a lot. The biggest turning point was when I got brave and decided to test the theory for myself by getting way closer than I was comfortable to some bees who were around my mailbox one day. They just minded their own business.