Funnily enough, on my way to the dental hygienist last month, there was a dad walking his kids to school on the other side of the road, who suddenly stopped, walked back about 5 metres, picked up a snail off the pavement and deposited it on the nearest greenery. I thought it was just extreme Buddhism. I like snails, but wouldn't go out of my way to pick one up. Plus I agree with he previous poster, what if the snail had done with the greenery and just wanted to go somewhere else? Surely he would be hacked off?
Anthropomorphising insects is currently my way of life - I work for a biotech company that sells waxmoth larvae. I always refer to them as "the boys". My colleague pulled me up yesterday saying "At least half of them are girls!" It's amazing how you start assigning purpose to those random movements...
As for arachnaphobia, I was terrified of spiders as a child, but I cured it pretty much instantly on my final teaching practice, when I decided to take the class out for an impromptu bug hunt. As they started saying "Look, miss!" and shoving spiders right under my nose, I realised that any sign of weakness would be my doom. I didn't flinch, just admired the variegated beasties and suggested that they return them to whatever nook in which they had discovered them. Inner Bugmum was screaming and running around flailing her arms about, but Miss just stood there and took it. I've not been that bothered by them since!