Fear of spiders

[Akka]

I HATE spiders. Really. Mix of fear and disgust. The very sight of a spider makes me all incomfortable and itching like if there was one crawling on me *shivers*.
I squash them if I can, but even then can only get their body with a sheet of paper and an utter repulsion.

I have extremely violent reactions if a spider surprise me, and already warned my friends that they should never try ANY spider-related "jokes" on me, or do it at their own risk.

Strangely, though the sight of a moving spider, a still spider, and the contracting legs of a dead spider, makes me horribly shivers all along my spine, I've absolutely no problem with ants or flies, and find it funny to have one of them running across my skin.
Strange.

 

[Sanaz]

Strangely, though the sight of a moving spider, a still spider, and the contracting legs of a dead spider, makes me horribly shivers all along my spine, I've absolutely no problem with ants or flies, and find it funny to have one of them running across my skin.
Strange.

Flies are gross because they eat poo then deposit it on me, and mosquitoes because they eat other animals/people blood, then deposit it on me. Ants are kinda cute. But I don't think any of them compare to spiders in the fear inducing way. I think it's because they look right at you, then walk away daring you to do something. it seems like they have some sort of alien intelligence. The worst mistake I made was getting a "spider vac", thinking that I'd suck them up without needing to touch them. What I didn't think about is that they stay alive for days in the little tube, with the big ones wrapping up the little ones for dinner. That was the single creepiest device I've had in my home. I used it for a week, then couldn't even look at it without getting chills. I've never really thought I was afraid of spiders, but they do give me chills - maybe a different kind of "afraid".

 

[storealex]

I've heard that all humans eat several spiders every year when asleep.

 

[stormbind]

Spiders are scarey because of what they are..

The head and body are locked. They have a zero-turning circle. It's head and weapons alway face the target...

This is how soldiers are trained to use assault rifles. The rifle locks with the head, so it's always facing the target and you shoot the instance the target is sighted...

But spiders are much more efficient at it than veteran soldiers, partly because they have a wider range of vision, and partly because they are lightning fast (esp. when turning). They are the most advanced killing machine on the planet... thank goodness they are only small!

For comparisson, insects have moveable heads... with most insects you see the head, and it's something you can relate to. This makes them less scarey.

 

[Moss]

I don't mind spiders, there are many other bugs I hate much worse and snakes...I hate snakes.

 

[Edmond Dantes]

Spiders are scarey because of what they are..

The head and body are locked. They have a zero-turning circle. It's head and weapons alway face the target...

This is how soldiers are trained to use assault rifles. The rifle locks with the head, so it's always facing the target and you shoot the instance the target is sighted...

But spiders are much more efficient at it than veteran soldiers, partly because they have a wider range of vision, and partly because they are lightning fast (esp. when turning). They are the most advanced killing machine on the planet... thank goodness they are only small!

For comparisson, insects have moveable heads... with most insects you see the head, and it's something you can relate to. This makes them less scarey.

excellent analysis!

I get totally creeped out when I walk into a spider web. I start flaring my arms around trying to get it all off as quick as I possibly can. But on the other hand, up until I was about ten, I loved to throw insects into spider webs and watch them die!

 

[Grisu]

I don't really mind them. I would leave the small ones alone and move the bigger ones outside. But since my girlfriend is terribly afraid of them I have to kill each and every one within a mile of our flat...(even if it's so small that you can barely see it). I don't really understand this fear, espacially since in switzerland there are no poisonous spiders.

 

[Richard Cribb]

I also have to admit my fear of spiders.I am glad I live in a tarantula-free country. Those with this little body and long legs, not sure what they are called in English (corsairs or daddy-long-legs, perhaps?)really freaks me out.
Fortunately my wife doesn't mind them, so she will usually come to my rescue if I spot one of those monsters...

 

[stormbind]

I also have to admit my fear of spiders.I am glad I live in a tarantula-free country. Those with this little body and long legs, not sure what they are called in English (corsairs or daddy-long-legs, perhaps?)really freaks me out.
Fortunately my wife doesn't mind them, so she will usually come to my rescue if I spot one of those monsters...

Depends on the region. In the UK, Daddy Longlegs is an flying water-insect with similar proportions to the spider in question. I think the spider is also known as Harvest Spider, but I'm not actually sure what they are called in the UK.

It's the roaming ones with shorter, fatter legs that bother me the most.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

If it's in my home, I kill it. If it's outside my home, I walk past it.

 

[Knowze Gungk]

I look down upon all who kill other creatures without justification. And ther is no justification to kill even the most deadly spider, unless of course it is an imediate threat (i.e. somewhere about your person. NOT half a metre away)

 

[King Alexander]

A question about what a few posters suggested:
Just how can one pick a little spider to take it outside(so it would live)? I mean, those little and thin spiders seem to me very "sensible"; if I tried to pick it up, I would damage it! The only way I can think of, is to have a piece of paper, and carefully "lift" the spider.

Spiders are scarey because of what they are..

The head and body are locked. They have a zero-turning circle. It's head and weapons alway face the target...

I still don't understand why one should be afraid of spiders.
What's wrong if the head and body are locked and they have a zero turning circle? I mean, every spicie is different.
The head and weapons always face the target? Well, somehow they must survive in nature! The target is bugs and insects/flies; we should deny them their food?

This is how soldiers are trained to use assault rifles. The rifle locks with the head, so it's always facing the target and you shoot the instance the target is sighted...

If understood well, you are against war, not spiders.

EDIT: I remember once when a friend was driving while we're were going out and it was summer. His car was a cabriolet, and we'd just seen a tiny spider near the wheel, before my friend begun driving.
He was so nervous and scared. I tried to pick the spider, and throw it outside the car asap, so my friend would calm down. I didn't succeeded; and the spider sliped somewhere near me(I didn't even care where it was), but I told my friend that I had throw it outside!
While he was driving, I really wanted to tell him: LOOK! THE SPIDER IS CLIMBING ON YOU!!!
Of course, I didn't want us to have an accident, so I didn't tell everything, but I had to force myself hard, not to tell anything.

 

[stormbind]

King Alexander,

I read a research paper that concluded we humans are more understanding of animals that are similar in appearance to ourselves. It is why we want aliens to have two arms and two legs... etc.

I don't remember the details but we like monkeys, and dogs, lizards are a bit quirky, insects are icky, and invertibrates are disgusting... etc.

It's partly how they move, partly how they look. Spiders have almost nothing in common with humans. The lack of moving head (or neck) is one example... so we cannot relate to them in the same way as we relate to, say, a pet cat!

 

[King Alexander]

@stormbind: Ok, I understand what's your point(good explanation).
I was thinking in this way: if it can't harm you(except a few poisonous spiders), why should one afraid it? That goes for other animals as well, but the problem here is not if one spiecie can harm humans(because cats or dogs can become dangerous in a few cases), but how it looks.

 

[slothman]

@stormbind I read something that people like other people that look similar. You usually find married couples to have about the same size and weight and so forth. Maybe that is similar but more a fear rather than love thing.

 

[Mise]

Holy crap this thread scared me half to death. I HATE spiders. I don't wish they were all dead, only that their entire population were on some far off land, like Australia. Actually, not Australia, cos they film Home and Away there. New Zealand.

Anyway, I have no idea why I'm terrified of spiders, or why I run out of the room if something vaguely looks like it might be a spider, or why if someone says "spider", I get goosebumps, and sit for the next hour in a state of cat-like readiness to run out of the room.

I'll still kill the little ones though, but they have to be VERY little, the size of my mouse cursor, or smaller. And even then I'd have to use a large piece of paper.

 

[Akka]

I'm not convinced at all with the argument about why I find spiders disgusting.
A fish also have a locked head, and I don't find fish repulsive in any way.
Plenty of animals look at me and seems intelligent, and they don't look repulsive to me.

What I think is that it's a sort of instinctive disgust. Like many of our ancestors got bitten by a venimous spider, and a selective trait was then to be afraid of them. Because I find no other explanation to the gut-disgust feeling I feel when seeing one.

 

[Mise]

I don't think there is a rational explanation. The fear is quite irrational imo. For me it's just the colour and the shape -- in other words I'm afraid of the way it looks. Similar colours and shapes have similar effects. One time, my own hand caused some anxiety cos it was shaped like a spider. Certain people's hair does the same.

 

[CrazyScientist]

I know it's irrational. I know it's immoral. But if I could kill every single spider on the face of the earth this very instant I would do so without hesitation.
I am aware that this would probably upset some ecological balances, cause booms in insect populations, etc. I don't care. I'll adapt.

 

[thestonesfan]

The only thing that creeps me out are big centipedes. I had one in my shirt once, that I discovered after I put it on. Geeee-aaaa!

And those Jerusalem Crickets, or Potato Bugs, they are sometimes called. Yes, I know about the website. They are unholy abominations.