Moved to Oz in 2007, severely arachnophobic, did the usual shake shoes, check car visors, never go outside barefoot thing for years but gradually got over it so now I'm pretty blasé. On Christmas Eve DS, wife and baby came over, DS nearly stands on a baby brown snake in the driveway. DH beheaded it with a spade, drama over. BUT, I realised after that if I had seen it I wouldn't have known what it was. Obviously you are not going to go near any snake but the fact that it is one of the world's deadliest snakes and was slithering round my garden has freaked me out a bit.