Fear of Spiders

[Miji]

google image search for bites will desensitize you!

The first one is from a brown recluse...

[Sagacious Sundi]

I have always had a fear of insects, spiders (not so much other arachnids), centipedes, and millipedes. Of those, butterflies, crane flies/dragonflies/other stuff like these guys, certain spiders (fuzzy ones), roaches, bees, fucking caterpillars, 'pedes, and, possibly most of all, grasshoppers, manti, and crickets terrify me beyond belief. Which is kind of weird since I loved bugs as a kid, but those were usually gastropods (not fucking sea snails/slugs, though). Certain worms also terrify me (particularly non-roundworms such as tapeworms). I also avoid dead sea sponges (and a lot of radially symmetrical sea animals) like the people on the Maury Show afraid of pickles and peaches (I can understand why they find those scary though).

To this day, I still have the fear of accidentally touching a caterpillar, having a butterfly/moth chase me, a dragonfly just zoom up into my face while I am running, mistaking a sea sponge for artificial sponges (and thus grabbing it by mistake), having caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets, and manti crawl on me while I sleep, having a spider land on my head, have a bee get on me and not get off (this happened to my brother...), among many other things.

Perhaps one of the big things that have made me fear bugs is this one time, my brother and I found this demonic, furry caterpillar thing that had some evil needle. We thought we killed it when we squished it with this metal thing, but the damn thing was still alive... So disgusting, it was.

I am much less afraid now, but a pansy compared to how I used to poke bugs. Facing your fears certainly does help, but in extreme cases, one should gradually try to face it, but certainly should never be expected to touch whatever they're afraid of (let alone go near it) instantaneously.

I guess the phobia started when I was little, my mum used to scream like crazy when a spider was around, that always used to scare me, but not so much until I went abroad one time. It was uhh, Vianna or somewhere close. Went to a friends house for dinner one time and I got bored so I started playing in the back garden with a football, I kicked it through these two tress I used as a makeshift goal post and when I retrieved the ball beyond the trees all I heard was *screeeerch* and it felt like hair all over my body, sticky and stringy. It only occured to me I'd walked through a fucking giant spider web when I looked up and saw some huge spider hanging over my head. I completely lost it and literally hosed myself down and didn't go outside again that vacation lol

there's always a reason people hate something...

I hope I'll be able to fall asleep tonight.

[Cheerios]

http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/2927/spidersss1.jpg

[Saga]

The thing that terrifies me most with bugs is the act of killing one, mostly because I hate the feeling or the sensation from crushing a bug, ESPECIALLY something like a cockroach. I'm fucking scared of ladybugs, too, and even squishing them with a tissue makes me squirm, the shell crunching and shit...t23h4g0ghiob ugh it's so gross I hate it.

[Xiona]

dont you on average swallow about 7 spiders per year in your sleep?

[Lordwafik]

dont you on average swallow about 7 spiders per year in your sleep?

I think that average is super retarded because it's extremely geographically dependant. Also if you swallowed 7 per year, we'd hear more cases of "So and so died in their sleep" as the spider isn't going to not bite on it's way down your esophagus.

I don't think I've seen a spider up here in Monroe Louisiana in comparison to how many I've seen in a week in Australia.

[Kaylia]

dont you on average swallow about 7 spiders per year in your sleep?

It's life time I think, not "per year", but I kinda have hard time to believe it either way.
I've woke up once with a spider on my pillow, so it's not impossible I guess to swallow one, but I cant see that happening too often.

[Devek]

Maybe there are really really tiny spiders?

Or those baby spiders that fly around?

[Demetrius*]

i really dislike spiders ;/ but i can't bring myself to actually kill one. I get some wolf spiders in my room every so often(google it), but if i see one i just grab some tupperware trap it and throw it outside. though its fucking scary to do so sometimes cause they're really fast. i have a hard time sleeping until i catch it. thinking if it like crawls onto my pillow during the night and ewwlkjasdljfalsfkaljlj

[Nicejob]

I used to be scared shitless by spiders until one day I actually read about them and what they do. I'm very comfortable around the smaller house spiders, as they keep the other creepy ass insects out.

Even though I'm past my phobia pretty much, I will never stop being afraid of fucking wolf spiders. Good god.


My advice would be to familiarize yourself with them. Read books/articles about them and see what they do and how harmless most are. It's what helped me.

[Kaylia]

I never cared much about spider, but there was that big one with a huge white sack I poked. The spider kinda exploded and died 1 sec after, giving birth to many little babies spider. That really freaked me out.

[HAcoreRD]

Watch Starship Troopers. I fear Brain Bugs

[Ivaden]

I fucking hate spiders and I got too many chills just reading this topic (and cringed at clock-spider, thanks whoever posted that, asshole). I'd rather fear spiders the rest of my life than de-sensitize myself to them by surrounding myself with them too.

I think the first time I realized that I really feared spiders was when my mom caught a black widow in a canning jar, and I would've been... 11 or so. It had just waltzed into our garage while we were cleaning it out, and all I know is it was black so it immediately meant it was a black widow to me. I freaked the fuck out, jumped onto shit, etc. and my mom just calmly scooped it up into a jar and shut it. While it was walking though she had asked me "You're gonna call 911 if it bites me right?" and when I replied "Not if it's in my way I won't" is when I realized I am incredibly afraid of spiders.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck that.

[Tyr]

http://science.howstuffworks.com/spider.htm
How Spiders Work (from howstuffworks.com)

Going to read this next time I'm at work on my downtime. Really, really not looking forward to it though.

[Ivaden]

Man, totally wasn't expecting that huge ass spider on the front page... atleast so close to the top.

[Tyr]

Man, totally wasn't expecting that huge ass spider on the front page... atleast so close to the top.

I haven't even opened the page yet, so sorry I didn't give a warning. That's why I need to wait until Saturday...need time to prepare.

[Kiro]

That's a cool looking spider.

[Dustybrown]

I never cared much about spider, but there was that big one with a huge white sack I poked. The spider kinda exploded and died 1 sec after, giving birth to many little babies spider. That really freaked me out.

If anyone wants me, I'll be rocking quietly in the corner.

That is giving me the most awful mental image right now. If that ever happened to me (unlikely, as I don't think I ever want to be within touching range of a spider) I would just freak out. I can't imagine much worse than having one spider explode into lots of tiny ones.

I don't like killing things, but god, if there's a spider in my house it's them or me.

And fuck clock spider. If that thing was ever in my house, I would burn the fucking house down and then move across the world. I mean for one, how in the hell would you be able to live in a house knowing that there was a spider that size there and two, how in god's name would you get it out of your house?

And I don't even want to know what a wolf spider is.... (waiting for some asshole to post a large up-close picture of a wolf spider which is probably the size of my hand.)

[Chips]

dont you on average swallow about 7 spiders per year in your sleep?

It's life time I think, not "per year", but I kinda have hard time to believe it either way.
I've woke up once with a spider on my pillow, so it's not impossible I guess to swallow one, but I cant see that happening too often.

It's not 7 spiders a year, but just bugs in general. Most, if not all insects are attracted to warm and damp places, and they can sense the heat coming from your mouth when you sleep (assuming you sleep with your mouth open, which I think almost everyone does).

[MF Perm]

dont you on average swallow about 7 spiders per year in your sleep?

lol I was just gonna post that.