Honestly how bad are spiders

[Leave a Whisper]

As a fellow arachnophobe, I know that spiders are extremely useful creatures and are just as important in the food chain and that most of them can't do serious damage to us humans and that we do far more damage to them directly and indirectly.

Knowing such things does not stop arachnophobes from screaming bloody murder and either trying to kill them ourselves or making someone else do it for us.

 It really is a primordial and instinctive fear and people telling us "C'mon your bigger then it is." Doesn't do much to reassure, especially considering that dear ol Mother Nature has equipped some of her littlest creations with nasty poisons.

Did you know there's a little sea snail that can kill a full grown human in 20 minutes with its deadly, incurable neurotoxin?

There is just no denying that they're creepy. They move creepy with their many legs, they move quick too, they're stealthy ninjas. They have tons of eyes and tons of babies. They paralyze their prey and liquify their insides.

Horror movie makers WISH they'd thought of spiders first.

I'm not saying you have to let her wallow in her fears. Just remember thar any fear can seem ridiculous to someone else, but they have something that may cause them to act irrationally too and that she can take as many steps as she's comfortable with to help at least ease her own fears somewhat.

 I have gotten to the point where I can laugh at some of the ridiculous things I've did or said  and I can handle little bitty ones, as long as they don't surprise me. But when my Spidey senses tingle and I look up to see some multi-legged horror beast crawling on the wall, especially if it's one of the big or poisonous ones, yeah it's going down.

Plus we've got black widows. Screw those things.

[Tak]

Wow. Thank you all for a lot of good suggestions.

If she's truly an arachnaphobe that's ok. I just want her educated either way. In her defense the spider was less than an inch around including legs and it got a good  18" up and the same in distance. At least it was jumping away.

 It helped me as a kid knowing which were poisonous. Scorpions, bats, lizards, and spiders I learned to handle by the time I was 7. I've been bitten, too, by a large, thankfully non-poisonous one. I eat too much sweet stuff so I always get bitten. Spider bites are pretty painful.

[NigheanRuadh]

I generally just leave them alone and tell my children to do the same.  If one is just in the way, I'll scoop it up with a piece of paper and toss it outside.  I think what helps me the most is being able to identify black widows (we had tons of them around our house when I was growing up, and my brother and I used to go on widow hunts and kill them) and brown recluses (I had one on my leg once, but it didn't bite; it fell into the shoe I was about to put on and I dropped it into the sink disposal).  I got chased down the road by a big spider when I was about 11 (I bent over to look at it, because it was so big, and it jumped at me and kept following as I rapidly moved away), but I generally will try to get a good look at the creature before I start freaking out that it might be venomous. 

So I would agree that information/education is a good thing, especially the identification of the dangerous ones.

[ringwraith10]

Hmm, I don't know of a good book for arachnophobes, but I can say that most spiders are so harmeless, I often pick them up in my bare hands and take them outside (though when you find a spider in your house that usually means that its natural habitat is inside so it should stay inside if it wants to stay alive). I've seen spiders that were about 2 inches long in the house, and I left them alone because they're most likely to kill cockroaches (which I AM terrified of). I actually leave most spiders alone -- I used to take them outside when I had a crazy roommate, but now that I live alone again I don't have to worry about that.

Also, I used to live in an area that had a high population of black widows. I was always wary around them, but as long as I didn't touch them they didn't bother me. I was more worried about my dogs accidentally getting into a tangle with them, but that never happened, thankfully.

[ponyqueen]

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[brightberry]

For me, it depends on where the spider is.  If it's outside, I'm fine with getting a close look. Yay spiders!  But if it's indoors, I want to run.  I don't.  I deal with the spider but my heart truly races.   

[Tak]

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Beautiful 

Like I said they aren't allowed in my bed and poisonous ones have got to go. Otherwise I like them. The best part of working at petco was getting to pet the tarantula while cleaning habitats because the others were jumpy. My garage has a healthy population there's a few in the house, but my ocd cleaning doesn't leave much space. The jumper that started this was outside behind the remains of a wood pile.

[Taxel]

I've always been afraid of spiders. Once when I was pretty young, maybe 5-6ish, I reached into my closet to get something during the night. When I turned the light on there was a HUGE daddy long legs on my arm. I completely lost it!

One thing that really helped me was this Girl Scout event. I don't remember what it was about specifically, maybe nature and animals. But they had a booth there with a couple ladies. They had things like plaster casts of wild animal tracks and some information. They also had a big fuzzy tarantula! My troop's helper held the tarantula and I was like hey, why not? It climbed on my arm and I fell in love. They're so fuzzy and adorable!

I still don't like spiders/kill them if they're in my home, and will be afraid/make someone else kill em if they're huge, but its a lot less ridiculous than it was before I met Mr. Tarantula. I even really want to have a tarantula as a pet! The only thing holding me back is how delicate and fragile they are.

Something like that might help her be less afraid of them.

[tikibirds]

I just HAD to look in here, didn't I?
 

[Tak]

Oh, tikibirds! Are you ok? 

[starrypawz]

As I understand most spiders, at least those you commonly get in your house/garden aren't really going to do anything to people and aren't really that dangerous, also of course they're useful for keeping the bugs away.

I used to be rather scared of spiders when I was growing up (Although my brother kept a tarantula and somehow I could tolerate that) but gradually overcame it and now quite like them. I've also handled tarantulas on a few occasions (being incredibly technical they're not spiders)

But I'd say do things like show her how to safely catch spiders and get them outside, maybe look into finding books on spiders that are informative ones and things like that?

[ghouldilocks]

Thanks to ponyqueen's photo skills, I am noping so hard out of this thread lmao that is nightmare fuel for daaaaaaaaays! 

[FantasticFirefly]

At your daughter's age I was terrified of them. I'd scream until my dad smashed them to bits. Now I collect them and let them go outside.

Um, Tak- do we really have brown recluse? I'm well north of your location but we have the same climate. The last article I had read was the thought was we did until experts examined the spiders people thought were recluses.... I forget what kind they really were (hobo spider?)- but they turned out not to be those ones!

Oh- a couple years ago I lost the use of my right hand for about three months. Bit by a spider while I slept and woke up with a mark and arthritic finger. Not long after my hand swelled like a balloon and stayed that way until mid March. Bit in early January. Looking up bites on google I did what was recommended online which is getting tetanus updated! They also gave me steroid cream for my hand, didn't do anything to help though. That alone scared me.... It's amazing how much you miss a hand when you can't use it.

[northstar3184]

I think in my area the only venomous spider is the black widow.

I don't really mind spiders, as long as I don't get a repeat of a couple years ago: I was brushing my teeth in the dark and  felt what I thought was a hair on my tongue. I put my finger in my mouth to get it and felt something crawl on my finger. When I withdrew my finger there was a spider perched on it. It must have been on my toothbrush.

[princessluna11706]

I have severe arachnophobia, so I'm no help here.  If there is one in my house I want it GONE.

I don't really mind spiders, as long as I don't get a repeat of a couple years ago: I was brushing my teeth in the dark and  felt what I thought was a hair on my tongue. I put my finger in my mouth to get it and felt something crawl on my finger. When I withdrew my finger there was a spider perched on it. It must have been on my toothbrush.