Arachnophobia

The joys of living down under
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escargot said:
Yow. I do like spiders but that's nasty.
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I've had quite the 180° shift from 'phobe to 'phile, but I do confess to having had a bit of a moment when trying on crash helmets in Vietnam. The movements are automatic, meaning that the distance between one's face and the, ah, sudden focus of one's attention is narrower than might usually be considered desirable.
 
I was bitten on my neck by a small spider when I was at school. I'd have been about 10 and I was sitting in an after school detention for some reason I can't remember now (probably my fault) when I felt a scratch on my neck, I slapped it and there was a dead squashed spider on my hand.

I showed it to the kid sitting next to me then we were told off by the teacher for talking in detention. "Swifty's been bitten by a spider Sir!". The teacher told us to stop talking again and that was that but I had a small red lump on my neck after that.

I don't know if I've already mentioned it in this thread but when I was younger one Christmas and at home, my Dad had bought and brought home a real Christmas tree. I remember he'd spotted what I know now was a spider's egg sack at the base of the tree. The tree was a foreign imported one apparently he told me afterwards so he called in a pest exterminator to spray it before chucking it in our back garden. I don't know which country the tree had been imported from so there could have been anything in there waiting to hatch.

After that, I was fascinated with the possibly urban legend of some woman who'd come back from a foreign country with a large boil on her face. She was said to have pierced it then hundreds of baby spiders ran across her face. I don't know to date if that really happened or not but I expect Snopes has that tale in their records.
 
Swifty said:
I was bitten on my neck by a small spider when I was at school. I'd have been about 10 and I was sitting in an after school detention for some reason I can't remember now (probably my fault) when I felt a scratch on my neck, I slapped it and there was a dead squashed spider on my hand.
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Bet you spent ages waiting to turn into Spiderman.
 
Giant funnel-web spider with fangs so big it could bite through a human fingernail arrives at Australian zoo

The biggest male funnel-web spider ever recorded — a deadly behemoth measuring 3.6 inches (9.2 centimeters) from foot to foot — has been handed into a zoo in Australia. The spider is so large, its fangs could pierce and deliver their lethal venom through a human fingernail, zoo keepers said.

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Sydney funnel-web spiders (Atrax robustus) are some of the most venomous spiders in the world. If untreated, a single bite can kill a small child within 15 minutes and an adult within three days.

A member of the public caught and donated the giant arachnid to the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby, New South Wales. The zoo encourages donations to support its spider venom program, which produces life-saving antivenom against Sydney funnel-web spider and other spider bites.

There have been no reported deaths from funnel-web spider bites since the introduction of an antivenom in 1981. The Australian Reptile Park is the only facility in Australia that milks funnel-web spiders for raw venom, and the resulting antivenom saves up to 300 lives per year.

https://www.livescience.com/animals...-a-human-fingernail-arrives-at-australian-zoo

maximus otter
 
Up until my mid to late 20s, I had really crippling arachnophobia, though I was raised NOT to kill them bur get a glass to put over it and slide paper underneath before carefully depositing a 'Fred', as my late Mom would call them, outside. One evening I was relaxing in my flat and noticed a spider scuttling (because that's what they do) across my floor. I panicked and practically tore my room apart to capture it, else I wouldn't sleep. Yes. Anyway. My flatmates, so called 'friends ' heard the commotion and my anxiety amused them greatly. They did catch it for me, then proceeded to chase me around the rest of the building with it cupped in their hands, laughing and taunting me. Being a man in his mid 20s obviously didn't stop me running and crying out in abject terror like a little girl (though I am doing a major disservice to small girls. The mother of my little boy also has two little girls,or WERE little and she told me once that the youngest daughter ,at about 3, was staring through the patio doors into the garden which was literally just a lawn and fence. Being asked what she was staring at, the wee mite asked in a very calm voice, "Mommy...WHO'S that lady in our garden??" I assume I don't have to reveal that there was nobody there!) Anyway after I had been chased about relentlessly, I locked myself in the communal bathroom for over an hour
Eventually they kept saying they'd got rid of it, they were sorry (still laughing, mind) and it was safe to come out. This took SOME convincing but upon threats of bodily harm I did emerge and they hadn't got it. We had a cuppa then went to bed.
The next morning I got up and went to the kitchen to put the kettle on. We had a gas cooker so I picked up the large box of matches to light it, flicked the box open and then simultaneously threw the box in the air while making an unearthly groaning sound akin to some poor sod in an M.R. James story. They had scooped out enough matches to put the horribly big arachnid within ready for me to open the box. They then all opened their doors simultaneously with the biggest grins I've ever seen and then threw the late spider out the window, apologising in-between guffaws of helpless laughter.
Eventually I forced myself to get over this fear and I can even pick them up now to escort them outside. I may have gotten over my phobia but they can still live elsewhere.
 
gojiramonkey said:
Up until my mid to late 20s, I had really crippling arachnophobia, though I was raised NOT to kill them bur get a glass to put over it and slide paper underneath before carefully depositing a 'Fred', as my late Mom would call them, outside. One evening I was relaxing in my flat and noticed a spider scuttling (because that's what they do) across my floor. I panicked and practically tore my room apart to capture it, else I wouldn't sleep. Yes. Anyway. My flatmates, so called 'friends ' heard the commotion and my anxiety amused them greatly. They did catch it for me, then proceeded to chase me around the rest of the building with it cupped in their hands, laughing and taunting me. Being a man in his mid 20s obviously didn't stop me running and crying out in abject terror like a little girl (though I am doing a major disservice to small girls. The mother of my little boy also has two little girls,or WERE little and she told me once that the youngest daughter ,at about 3, was staring through the patio doors into the garden which was literally just a lawn and fence. Being asked what she was staring at, the wee mite asked in a very calm voice, "Mommy...WHO'S that lady in our garden??" I assume I don't have to reveal that there was nobody there!) Anyway after I had been chased about relentlessly, I locked myself in the communal bathroom for over an hour
Eventually they kept saying they'd got rid of it, they were sorry (still laughing, mind) and it was safe to come out. This took SOME convincing but upon threats of bodily harm I did emerge and they hadn't got it. We had a cuppa then went to bed.
The next morning I got up and went to the kitchen to put the kettle on. We had a gas cooker so I picked up the large box of matches to light it, flicked the box open and then simultaneously threw the box in the air while making an unearthly groaning sound akin to some poor sod in an M.R. James story. They had scooped out enough matches to put the horribly big arachnid within ready for me to open the box. They then all opened their doors simultaneously with the biggest grins I've ever seen and then threw the late spider out the window, apologising in-between guffaws of helpless laughter.
Eventually I forced myself to get over this fear and I can even pick them up now to escort them outside. I may have gotten over my phobia but they can still live elsewhere.
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You have my admiration. I was an extreme arachnophobe up until my late teens, when I managed to kind-of bond with a very large house spider that my brother had trapped under a large beer glass (that sounds weirder than it was).

I am still unhappy if there is an 'uncontrolled' spider in my vicinity, but I have learned that you mustn't show anyone else that you're afraid of them because people can be mocking or spiteful, without necessarily intending to be. I would never intentionally kill one (the spider, I mean, not the mocking person) but I literally have to remove a spider before I can relax. I have a humane 'spider relocation kit' on hand at home at all times. It gets plenty of use in the autumn.

I still can't bring myself to catch a spider of any size in my hands, so even small ones get the 'glass and postcard' treatment. I do have a strange desire to one day go to a controlled 'spider experience' type thing at a zoo and have a tarantula sit in the palm of my hands for a few seconds. If it ever happens, there'll be a photo. I daresay I won't be smiling.
 
CharmerKamelion said:
You have my admiration. I was an extreme arachnophobe up until my late teens, when I managed to kind-of bond with a very large house spider that my brother had trapped under a large beer glass (that sounds weirder than it was).

I am still unhappy if there is an 'uncontrolled' spider in my vicinity, but I have learned that you mustn't show anyone else that you're afraid of them because people can be mocking or spiteful, without necessarily intending to be. I would never intentionally kill one (the spider, I mean, not the mocking person) but I literally have to remove a spider before I can relax. I have a humane 'spider relocation kit' on hand at home at all times. It gets plenty of use in the autumn.

I still can't bring myself to catch a spider of any size in my hands, so even small ones get the 'glass and postcard' treatment. I do have a strange desire to one day go to a controlled 'spider experience' type thing at a zoo and have a tarantula sit in the palm of my hands for a few seconds. If it ever happens, there'll be a photo. I daresay I won't be smiling.
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Nope. I ain't going THAT far. I'm just happy that, to some extent, my 'manhood' has been restored. Unnatural large spiders can stay in zoos or on their side of the planet. I don't need to hold one to know that they're there!!
 
Is it a male thing? I've written before about the chap at the garage sale and my husband would have an extreme reaction if he saw one in the car.
The children learned not to say anything if they spotted one creeping about anywhere as he was likely to react whilst driving.
 
Iris said:
Is it a male thing? I've written before about the chap at the garage sale and my husband would have an extreme reaction if he saw one in the car.
The children learned not to say anything if they spotted one creeping about anywhere as he was likely to react whilst driving.
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I don't think it is necessarily a male thing. I know quite a few women who share my level of discomfort around spiders.

I am wary of spiders, especially large ones, but when I worked in an office with 14 female colleagues, I was always the one they came to when there was a spider around. I spent a lot of time crawling around under desks trying to catch the things with my plastic bowl and piece of stiff card. I didn't mind doing it because I would prefer not to have them around... and to be honest spider stalking was a darn sight more interesting and fun than the job I was actually being paid to do! I also preferred relocating them safely out of the window to the possibility of them being stomped on by one of my colleagues.

One of my colleagues was ridiculously terrified of spiders, and one day she passed out when she unexpectedly saw a photo of a tarantula in a book.
 
I've always read that tarantula venom isn't particularly harmful to humans - no worse than the proverbial bee-sting.
The pilot though (it would have to be him wouldn't it?) had a very adverse reaction, not just to being nipped by a spider the size of his hand, but to the venom. Apparently he's now recovering but, unless he was freakishly sensitive to spider venom, this rewrites what we've been told about tarantulas.
 
CharmerKamelion said:
"Spiders On A Plane" anyone? Can't believe it hasn't been done yet.
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Oh it was - last year.
Available on Prime Video if you fancy it.
Sadly, no Samuel L. Jackson in it, so we don't get to see him stamping on a 12" tarantula whilst yelling take that you Mother Hubbard (or something similar).

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They did the right thing though getting it on the ground the blood thing
could have had the co pilot next.
 
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