Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

To not understand why people are scared of spiders.

64 replies

alistron1 · 02/04/2011 22:38

They are smaller than us, they can't kill us (well here in the uk they can't )and they are rather cute IMHO.

I don't have tarantula's or owt. but in my life where ever I go I am chief spider catcher and the histrionics over them bewilder me.

Why are so many people reduced to gibbering wrecks by them?!

Now wasps...that's a different matter

OP posts:

Ceasnake · 02/04/2011 23:01

There's a theory that people are predisposed towards phobias of things that could actually hurt you. So you have many people with phobias of spiders, snakes, lightning, heights and not so many people with phobias of, say, guinea pigs, meringues, slippers etc. It's a survival trait probably; if you're terrified of spiders, you'll avoid them and hence probably not die from a black widow bite, enabling you to pass on your genes and spider phobia to your offspring.

twinkytonk · 02/04/2011 23:04

I have a phobia of frogs, a huge one. Now I know they can't hurt me but I can't help it. It's worse than my spider one.

Original poster

alistron1 · 02/04/2011 23:04

Slippers are a bit menacing though, and I reckon that wearing over large ones could contribute to tripping/falling down the stairs deaths.

OP posts:

Original poster

alistron1 · 02/04/2011 23:05

I do have a thing about snails/slugs. I retch when I see them...but that's perfectly rational of course.

OP posts:

kid · 02/04/2011 23:07

I am terrified of spiders (and needles)
I don't like wasps and will run from them but at least you know when they are there, therefore I wouldn't say I was terrified of them. Spiders creep up on you. In my house, they seem to wait for DH to go to work or bed before they come out just to torment me. There was one here the other night and apparently, it kept walking towards me and then away, towards me and then away again. DH had been watching it but had failed to tell me. DS spotted it (eventually) and was on the case, my hero

I am so pleased DS isn't scared of spiders as I always get him to dispose of them for me. I did buy one of those spider catcher things but I still can't use it as I can't get that close to the spider!

BreconBeBuggered · 02/04/2011 23:36

I kind of get where you're coming from. I'm a spidercatcher too. But I'll dive out the window if a sparrow flies into the house, which is fcking hilarious to anyone with a more rational approach to birdlife.

kid · 02/04/2011 23:56

I'd probably dive out the window if a bigger bird flew into the house, but I think I could handle a sparrow. Infact, we had a baby blackbird fly in our kitchen. DH hid upstairs while I got the bird out lol

worraliberty · 02/04/2011 23:58

But they have such common names..I mean 'Boris' how common is that as a spider?

I vote we call them all Robert...this should normalise them in some way.

d0gFace · 03/04/2011 00:15

Spiders even freak me out abit in computer games, its very odd.

Wasps I dont mind at all.

cjdamoo · 03/04/2011 00:20

I am less afraid of spiders since moving to the land of killer spiders ..... go figure.

GetOrfMoiLand · 03/04/2011 00:26

I have no idea why they scare so many people - I am usually a rational person but spiders scare the hell out of me.

Someone must have thrown one at me when I was a kid. I say that because when there is one in the house and I ask DP to remove it, I dash off sweating in terror and beg him in a hysterical way not to chuck it at me.

Mind you, one of my earliest memories is of one of my uncles shooting one with an air rifle

mind you I spent years years thinking dragonflies breathed fire.

Rational, I say...

EllenJane1 · 03/04/2011 00:58

Ceasnake has it, I must be genetically predisposed to my irrational fear. My mum did a good job of pretending she wasn't scared, so it wasn't nurture. It's nature. They scare me silly. It's the big ones that are the worst. But tarantulas look less like spiders and more like small furry animals so I'm not so scared of them.

L8rAllig8r · 03/04/2011 01:22

It is their unexpectedness, the way they appear from nowhere without a sound, on the wall, the ceiling, anywhere. Ugh. I swear to god one jumped off the wall straight at me once, it was terrifying. I live alone with my DS and have to get family round if one appears, I can't get close enough to one to kill it as I'm too frightened it will run at me. I have conkers in every corner of the house as it is supposed to keep them away (prob an old wives tale but I'll try anything) and I haven't seen one since I put the conkers about.

Not scared of wasps when outdoors, but I do panic a bit when they come into the house. I just shut the door and pray they fly back out again.

KickArseQueen · 03/04/2011 01:45

Um, Hello, I hate to mention this, but I used to be rather fearless in the spider department!

One day I wqould a spider in my mums house and as I always did I scooped it up with my hands ( cupped hands one on top of the other to stop it escaping). I walked to the front door, and asked the person standing next to it to open it ( seemed reasonable :)) They mis-heard me, "you what" said they! At which point the spider started going nuts! running round and round in my hands. I asked them again, they then opened the door, spider was going mental! I went to chuck the spider out the door and it bloody well bit me!

Before anyone asks Yes! this was in the UK,

I think it was this spider [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/insects-spiders/identification-guides-and-keys/spider-bites/cross-spider.html here]]

My hand went blue around the puncture mark and swelled up, it was really painful! I had fluey sympthoms for 2 / 3 days and spent most of those days in bed! Everyone poo poo'd the idea that it could have been from the spider bite, but I now know better!

Do not underestimate those little scutttley buggers! They CAN hurt you!

I am actually a bit shocked tbh! I (obviously) just looked at the pictures of the spider when I googled for the links and I realised I was actually panicking looking at the screen! They say that we have a " race memory" maybe we just remember when spiders were dangerous more so than now!

no1

no2

These days I use a cup to chuck them out the window! Small ones fine! Big ones???? NO WAY!!!!

KickArseQueen · 03/04/2011 01:47

Should read " there was"...

boyscomingoutofmyears · 03/04/2011 01:56

Why are all spiders called Boris? Whenever there is one in here we call it Boris, if there's two the second one is always Doris, his sister.

I'm not at all scared of spiders, but fears are not rational. I know how unlikely it is that a bridge will collapse and I'll hurtle into the river below and drown if I drive over it, that doesn't stop me having to go all the way around rivers so I don't have to cross one.

OP, I hear you with the wasps too, vile creatures they are!

CheerfulYank · 03/04/2011 02:09

Because of the song 'Boris the Spider' of course. :)

We used to have a Julio when I was young. He lived in our kitchen light fixture and ate mosquitoes.

JarethTheGoblinKing · 03/04/2011 02:12

I try not to be scared of spiders. If I know one is there then I can plan, I can get the hoover a glass and I can remove it.

If a little 8-legged crawly bastard with legs so hairy it makes a noise on the wood floors suddenly appears when I open the curtains then I reserve the right to shriek a little bit, grab my pointy shoes and whack it repeatedly.

JarethTheGoblinKing · 03/04/2011 02:13

p.s. make sure you wear pants in bed.

Right.. I'm hiding this thread now, it's making me clench.

boyscomingoutofmyears · 03/04/2011 02:30

at "make sure you wear pants in bed"

I never knew there was a song about Boris the spider , I think it was my Dad who always called them Boris and I just stuck with it.

JarethTheGoblinKing · 03/04/2011 02:37

Seriously!

I woke up to a creepy little bastard on my leg.. little fucker. one swift whack with a hardback and he was a gonner.

The spider was OK though..

LadyWellian · 03/04/2011 02:38

I save my mum from spiders.

My mum saves me from wasps.

It's exactly the same fear - only the number of legs is different.

But at least spiders are useful. Can anyone give a definitive answer as to whether the world would notice if all the wasps disappeared tomorrow?

ragged · 03/04/2011 04:28

I like spiders, they are fascinating and often beautiful, but
Where I grew up a fair number of them are poisonous.
Spider bites (even UK spiders) make me swell up, so best avoided.
DH can handle them in his hands, fine, but I dare not.

ragged · 03/04/2011 04:31

Wasps are brilliant! They eat all the annoying garden pests (like greenfly, cabbage white and other caterpillars that would have your fruit, etc.) Their nests are often only temporary and worth putting up with if you want a good eco-system. We had some wasps overwinter in the ground in back garden, DH and I were poking around in it yesterday and they are gone (or dead, admittedly), flown off to somewhere else now the weather is warmer.

AngelsOnHigh · 03/04/2011 05:47

I'm a little bit scared of cats

Flip

1 2 3