Why are we scared of spiders?

reply to post by Yossarian


I haven't read the rest of the thread yet, but I just have to say that I DESPISE spiders. I have picked up snakes, I have chased bears to take pictures of them (dumb and highly not suggested, lol). I am an adrenaline junky and do not have a healthy sense of fear. I would probably walk straight up to bigfoot and not worry too much about it. But show me a spider and I get all kinds of spastic. I used to think it was the legs, but now I have hermit crabs as pets. Some of them are very big and some are very spider-like. I hold them and let them crawl on me and play with them all the time and it doesn't bother me at all. I actually love my cute little hermie crabs, lol! So, I don't understand. I would honestly rather have a venomous spider bite me, without seeing it happen or knowing the spider was there, than to see a perfectly harmless spider crawling on me and not bite me. I'm that scared of them. I know they're beneficial and I know they have their place in this world. For the most part, I respect them and try not to harm them, but I DO NOT LIKE THEM!!!

[edit on 8/23/2009 by gemineye]

reply to post by Yossarian


same reason people are afraid of rats and snakes. or anything else with fangs. They can hurt you.

To me it is something about all those legs that are graceful and menacing at the same time.

It IS amazing how such a little creature can make people scurry.

Nice of you to release it though instead of killing it. They have a very good purpose in the world.

reply to post by MikeboydUS


For crying out loud Mike you gotta give a warning!

Just thought of something funny that happened once. My son was probably around 6 years old (he's 14 now) and I was sitting at my PC, happily surfing the net, when my son calmly said, "mom you have a spider above your head." I shot up out of my chair, trying to run before I was even all the way on my feet. I ran/tripped all the way across the room where I ran smack into the wall bounced off it and hit the floor. I turned around and looked back to the ceiling over the place I had been sitting and there was NOTHING there. My son said, "Oh, it must have been a fly." He thought I was nuts.

If it was to happen now, he would laugh his arse off at me for the rest of my life and probably beyond.

reply to post by spellbound

Originally posted by spellbound
What we do is kill creatures which are alien to us.
It is disgusting and unforgiveable.
And people wonder why aliens do not contact us? We would kill them before they could even communicate. Actually, they would probably kill us first, and who could blame them? We are a totally horrible race, even though some of us are nice. Too many of us are horrible.

Nonsense. To kill a spider is - (edit to be more precise) not always but often - self-defense.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/77cd11446bd2.jpg[/atsimg]
source: www.pearsonpond.com...

"Jack and Tracy Pearson spent 3 weeks trying to save their 2 month old Cria from a Brown Recluse Spider Bite. The brown recluse spider is found mainly in the central Midwestern states southward to the Gulf of Mexico. After many years of raising hundreds of llamas, this was the first and hopefully the last time they will encounter with this type of injury. Tracy commented that due to the fuzzy little face they did not see any signs of a problem until it was to late, but they tried for 3 weeks to save her anyway. The cria lost half her body weight in 2 weeks (after they discovered the first indication of a problem). As you will see from the pictures above, the spider bite was in the jaw. Her little face ended up with a large hole so she was unable to drink any liquid and eating became a problem. Tracy had to tube her to keep her hydrated, and with the help of loosely held gauze (using vet wrap to hold in place) they mixed a gruel for feed. They orally drenched her mouth with peodolite. With a regiment of antibiotics and constant care they thought they were starting to see some progress but she slipped backwards with the infection spreading throughout her system. After 3 weeks her body shut down."

source: www.pearsonpond.com...

A second case:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d50d73145d92.jpg[/atsimg]
source: www.flickr.com...


[edit on 23-8-2009 by WonderfulWorld]

reply to post by WonderfulWorld


Good god!!! Did you really have to embed that picture? I would've preferred a link with a disclaimer...

I'm afraid of spiders I can't identify and usually kill them if I find 'em in my house. I'm fine with garden spiders and daddy long legs though, in fact they're pretty interesting and fun to watch.

"On candystripe legs the spiderman comes
Softly through the shadow of the evening sun
Stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead
Looking for the victim shivering in bed
Searching out fear in the gathering gloom and Suddenly!
A movement in the corner of the room!
And there is nothing I can do
When I realise with fright
That the spiderman is having me for dinner tonight! "

I have found that 35% hydrogen peroxide left on for 6 seconds and thoroughly rinsed away after being bitten by a brown recluse will completely neutralize the poison.

My SIL was bitten by one while crawling up under my house to fix the dryer vent and his arm started swelling and turning dark right before our eyes. I treated him as mentioned above and within 10 minutes all you could see was the puncture marks. The swelling and darkening were completely gone. He had no after effects from the bite.

Even the most lethal spiders will become mush if you step on it. People get so wrapped up in the fear they get paralyzed, or panic so much they can't hit the damn thing. Spiders are over-rated they're tiny little bugs and yes their bite can be serious and very fatal but they'll also spray spider guts everywhere if you stand on them.

I recently found a whole nest down the side of my bed, and then behind the computer after i saw a HUGE spider climbing up my curtains, i freaked out and got some fly spray and sprayed them all (It kills them alot better than does flys!) and hoovered all the nest and webs up, ahhh so horrible.

My friend knows im scared of spiders and if he sees one and im with him he always picks it up and throws it at me, actually its prob the fastest way to get me naked lol.

Originally posted by Now_Then
I used to have a parrot, he was such a mental bird, he was really smart.... But if he ever spotted a cable out of the corner of his eye he would flip right out, staring at it and making one hell of a noise!!!

It's commen to all parrots - one of the biggest threats they face in the wild is tree dwelling snakes -- anything that liiks vaguely like a snake and they go mad!!

I'm gonna say it's as simple as that but with spiders for people - we are taught from a very young age that spiders are bad - there must be an instinct that we are born with, spiders in most parts of the world can kill... and even if they are not deadly, when your living as the achients did just being ill can be life or death, you cant fight or hunt.

In some parts of the world spiders, in particular tarantulas, are hunted and eaten by people. Most spiders have more to fear from humans than we do of them.

But yes, I also think fear of spiders, snakes etc are natural instincts that are born or bred into us to fear creatures that may be venemous. We know a lot of spiders are harmless, but our instincts take over.

This instinct is part of our evolutionary responses from those who ran away from the poisonous creatures that may have been spiders, snakes etc, and those who didn't and got bitten by the poisonous creatures, and so obviously were less likely to pass on their genes.

That's probably why a lot of people have this involuntary fear, and maybe one day it will save one of our lives as well as our ancestors.


[edit on 23-8-2009 by john124]

I base this on no science but..

I have always thought it was a caveman instinct, spider bad, spider bite, caveman swell up and die.

It's hard to tell which spiders are a threat and which aren't

So I think we developed an intinctive fear of spiders to avoid being poisoned.

Edit: When we were kids, a great friend of mine had a baby brother who was still in diapers.

He used to bring home all sorts of bugs, grasshoppers, ladybugs, you name it, worms, and anyway, one time he came in the door all happy and showed us his most recent catch.

He opened his little palm, and inside was a big fat black widow!

The little dude had no fear, and wasn't afraid of it until we told him to be.

So maybe I was wrong about instincts. Or maybe some are stronger than others when it comes to how much instinct is left in them. Maybe some of us just have more balls than others, hell I still wouldn't pick up a black widow and I am a grown man.

Originally posted by gemineye
I would honestly rather have a venomous spider bite me, without seeing it happen or knowing the spider was there, than to see a perfectly harmless spider crawling on me and not bite me.

I am the opposite, I feel like, I hate them all, but if one has to bite me, then I MUST BE AWARE OF IT so I can get a good look and I will know which type of spider bit me!

I fear being bitten by some rare, horrible or unknown spider and then never getting proper treatment because I didn't know what exactly bit me.

Doesn't that worry you?

[edit on 23-8-2009 by BaronVonGodzilla]

reply to post by fritz

You've got it right - those are exactly the reasons I used to be afraid of spiders. Plus the fact the little gits blow raspberries at you to frighten you even more.

Then one evening I found one on my living room wall and caught it in a shoe box. Poor little thing cowered in a corner and look so frightened it made me feel ashamed of myself.

That was the start of my recovery from bug-phobia (it wasn't just spiders).

I do find some of them very beautiful and even had spider jewellery before I got over the phobia.

A few weeks ago I woke up to find a spider crawling up my duvet just a few inches away from my eye - that got me out of bed sharpish. I had a house full of them because I felt too sorry for them to put them all out.

Anyway, that had to change because the webs were getting out of hand so I started to catch them - it's easy. I just covered them over with a jam jar (open end!) and when they fell in covered the jar with a piece of cardboard and chucked them out of the window. I got rid of dozens (including the ones over my bed) very humanely.

Shortly after that I saw a small moth fluttering around and the thought came to me - spiders do no damage whatsoever in the house and yet they're scary. Something destructive like a moth didn't bother me because I thought it was cute. Completely illogical.

reply to post by WonderfulWorld


That is a brown recluse. They are rare, and limited to certain areas. They are also very shy and will not attack until completely cornered.

Learn your spider identification and you can tell what is toxic and what isn't. Instead of indiscriminate killing.

It is an internal defense mechanism, isn't it?
Same thing with snakes.

I'm not afraid of either anymore. I deal with them often at work.

But it is kinda' like how you can throw a plastic snake at a baby chimp and they will reflexively jump away from it. They are terrified of snakes from birth.

It proves evolution, really, as it is knowledge passed genetically from generation to generation.

reply to post by BaronVonGodzilla


I have heard people talk about genetic printing. Info that is passed along generations. Which would explain why people are terrified by rats and mice, because of the black plague.

reply to post by nixie_nox


Problem with brown recluses is that they will approach you in your sleep. (looking for warmth, I suppose) and when you shift your weight onto them they bite.

I killed one of those critters just the other day in my son's bedroom.

I couldnt stop laughing when i first saw this video. I dont mind little jumping spiders, because i likje to play with them, making them jump from one hand to the other. Any other spider than that, i shoot on site(with insect spray of course!).



I cant get the video to embed....anyway heres the link Spiders On Drugs

[edit on 23/8/09 by TheBarrelMan]

Personally spiders are one of my favorite animals. I think they're graceful and delicate. Plus there's many that don't even make webs and have interesting alternative ways to catch prey. But, I can see how people are afraid of them. Many legs and eyes, but the thing that I think scares most people is that you cant anticipate them or judge what they're going to do easily. I think that fear of wondering if they're going to flip out at you is what keeps people away from them. Now cockroaches on the other hand, I detest them and they freak me out and I must destroy each one I see.

reply to post by gemineye


That is pretty funny.

I have many spider stories,(no wonder I am afraid) I used to work for a state park service. Our office and lunch room was basically a garage bay. We were building an actual office in the other bay, the walls were up but nothing else. You could see into it from our lunch table. We were sitting there in the morning before starting our work when the asst ranger goes: there is something moving around in there. My back was too it, I didn't see anything as it was dark. We forgot all about it and went on talking. About 15 minutes later all of a sudden, every guy's eyes got huge and thye all screamed like girls and jumped up on the picnic table. I looked around and saw the largest spider I ever saw in my life, boldly stomping its way through the doorway. You could of put a saddle on it and rode this thing around. Didn't take me long to jump like an olympian on that table either. So it made its way to the fridge, and I am not kidding, it had to duck and squish its way under the fridge. We were all freaked out for weeks, and started finding dead mice. LOL I am convinced there is a toxic dump site somewhere.


But on a more serious note. My husband got bit by a spider on his knee, and had large red streaks running up his leg within ours. It was the day after his brother suddenly died. We couldn't tell his mother. We had to sneak him to the ER. He ended up having to go back to the er for two days for antibiotic treatments, and then for another two weeks at his doctors to get IV treatments.

Any spider can cause an infection, if they have bacteria on their mouths when they bite you. Much like a cat or dog, they are just carrying something.

reply to post by JayinAR



If you really think you have a brown recluse, you might want to get an exterminator. Their bites are really hard to treat.

And they are tiny. Not much bigger then a pencil eraser. I believe they are the ones with the little violen shape on them but I might be confusing them with something else.