Why are people scared of spiders?

[PMC]

Well, our Australasian and American cousins obviously have more reason to fear spiders than we pampered Europeans.  Has anyone seen the the pictures from Iraq of the Camel Spiders?  They look suspiciously fake, like someone has pasted the head of an ant onto the body of a spider using photoshop.

Anyway, I'm petrified of spiders but if I find one in my house I won't kill it.  Instead I pick the thing up in a piece of tissue and send it on it's merry way via the window.  

I can't abide killing something over an irrational fear so out it goes.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

T_Bone wrote:
8 legs = EVIL!

2 legs also == EVIL! (considering the amount of deaths inflicted)

[blobrana]

Hum,

Perhaps it's quite a recent phenomenon?
Perhaps before we discovered America or more importantly Australia, spiders were perhaps regarded the same as any other kind of `insect`....
Perhaps, with stories brought back from those lands  somehow tainted our view of these creatures...
 
And considering that the common housefly and mosquito has killed more people than everything else, i think we should give the spiders a break...


[anyone know the story of The Bruce & spider?]

[whabang]

erhaps before we discovered America or more importantly Australia, spiders were perhaps regarded the same as any other kind of `insect`....
Perhaps, with stories brought back from those lands somehow tainted our view of these creatures...

That might be the case. I dislike hornets far more than any arachnid.

[Karlos]

I've never had an instinctive fear of spiders or snakes. I even had a pet snake when I was younger (ableit totally harmless).

I actually quite like the idea of the odd house spider in my place. Primarily because of all things I cannot stand flies!

[graffias79]

That's because flies are just foul!  Them and Mosquitos are my very least favorite insects.  Then maybe centipedes, Those are good for raising all the hair on my body on end in the morning if I happen to spot one in the bathtub!

 :nervous:

now I have that creepy skin crawly feeling!

[blobrana]

Hum,
I think this calls for an obligatory picture from  Starship Troopers

[whabang]

"Someone called the exterminator?" :-D

[blobrana]

Hum,
thats a bit like `add the lines`...

"Honey, you forgot to put the plug in the bath"

or
"He now regretted putting that slug bait into his garden"

[that_punk_guy]

Karlos wrote:
I actually quite like the idea of the odd house spider in my place. Primarily because of all things I cannot stand flies!

Thinking about it rationally, I'd much rather have spiders than flies. (Nothing's worse than a good slug in your house though.)

Perhaps it's the behavioural patterns of spiders. If you have a housefly, you know the bugger's there because it buzzes and flies around. How often have you picked up a jumper and had a spider crawl out of it, or worse found a spider in your hair? They are creepy and also rather jumpy which probably makes us more tense. (When is it going to move?)

With that, the unappealing look of the things and those childhood cautionary tales, I think humans (with some exceptions as evidenced in this thread) simply develop a natural aversion to them.

[FluffyMcDeath]

KennyR wrote:

And there is the matter of cats, the number one numero uno killer of Mankind's ancestors.

Cats aren't generally venemous. The danger posed by a cat is mostly size dependant. This is not the case with spiders.

[FluffyMcDeath]

that_punk_guy wrote:

Thinking about it rationally, I'd much rather have spiders than flies.

Instincts aren't strictly rational. They tend to be heavily stereotypical, but on average they make sense.

[FluffyMcDeath]

-D- wrote:
I'm not so sure fear of spiders stems from anything other than their strange appearance,
coupled with the warnings/stories from adults we hear as children.

I think loss of fear of spiders is probably conditioned. As we learn to distinguish between which spiders are OK and which are not. However, if we are surprised by a spider or any crawly thing such as when we suddenly find one unexpectedly on our faces then we have an instinctive response that is quite strong, rather than a more rational and considered response.

Plus something else I just realized is that most very young (like under 5) children will pick up, play
with and sometimes even eat spiders..

There is plasticity in behaviour, but there are also developmental stages as well. I read somewhere of a study of the fear of heights in which babies were placed near a high edge where the drop itself was covered with strong glass so that you could walk across. The babies would not crawl over this edge, but they would occassionally turn around and back over it.

[T_Bone]

PMC wrote:
Well, our Australasian and American cousins obviously have more reason to fear spiders than we pampered Europeans.  Has anyone seen the the pictures from Iraq of the Camel Spiders?  They look suspiciously fake, like someone has pasted the head of an ant onto the body of a spider using photoshop.

Camel spiders are real, although technically they're scorpions I believe.

[PMC]

T_Bone wrote:


Camel spiders are real, although technically they're scorpions I believe.

Pics?

My Dad was in the RAF in Iraq (in the mid 50's) and remembers pulling a fried camel spider from a valve radio set.  The one's I've seen pics of have exaggerated ant heads with big mandibles that look so photoshopped it's unreal.

[KennyR]

There isn't much difference between scorpions and spiders. They're both arachnids.