Are you scared of spiders?
By surveygeeek
@surveygeeek (189)
United States
July 25, 2009 1:18am CST
I have always loved spiders. I think they're sleek and beautiful and highly evolved. However, almost everyone I know is scared of them. The ones who aren't scared (or claim not to be) still hate them, even if they don't know why. I've tried to see them as scary to see what makes other people feel that way, but I can't help but love them. What do you think about spiders? Do you fear them or admire them?
6 responses
@mariposaman (2959)
• Canada
25 Jul 09
People claim to love God but fear his creations, not because spiders will hunt them down and devour them but because they are not human. Spiders are marvels of engineering, how they know how to spin webs and use poison to kill their prey. There are hunting spiders too that do not spin webs.
Irrational fear of spiders lead to unnecessary killing, and this irrational fear is accepted in society. I just laugh at those kind of people for acting so stupid.
As far as spider bites, they are rarely fatal and are usually obtained by accident. The spider thinks it is threatened and bites in self defence.
@surveygeeek (189)
• United States
25 Jul 09
All of that is true. Speaking of marvels in engineering, did you know that some spiders spin up to 27 different kinds of web? They can control which one comes out just by squeezing different muscles. It's not just thickness, there are actually different chemical make-ups. For example, tarantulas (and only tarantulas) have a certain kind of web that they stick to the bottom of their feet so they can climb up walls. It's not sticky enough to trap a bug, so they couldn't use it to spin a web, but it helps support their weight when vertical.
@smartone2009 (220)
• United States
25 Jul 09
I'm not but my fiancee is very frighten of them. she screams like if someone is trying to ki11 her lol
@surveygeeek (189)
• United States
25 Jul 09
That's so sad! You should try telling her they're mostly not dangerous. If she just avoids them, they probably will never hurt her.
@surveygeeek (189)
• United States
25 Jul 09
Did you know that if you had strands the exact same size of spiderweb and steel, the spiderweb would be stronger? It's only because it's so thin that we can break it. I think that's so cool. Can you imagine if there really was a huge spider? It would be able to catch humans in its web.
@sneakerprince (71)
• United States
25 Jul 09
I like to admire them from afar because I fear them. I can appreciate their beautiful webs and how they eat insects. I was recently introduce to the beauty of spiders from someone and I'm glad that part of the spider was shown to me. Spiders seem to have a really bad reputation and are often seen as "monsters" or "scary" because of they way they have portrayed in movies and stories and such. After being shown a lighter side of spiders as I can appreciate mothers or people who work for a living.
However, I still do fear them. I feel like I haven't been properly educated about spiders in order "trust" them. I cannot identify which spiders are poisonous or not and prefer not take a chance. If I won't bother them, I don't think they will bother me.
@surveygeeek (189)
• United States
25 Jul 09
If you live in the United States, there are only a few spiders that can actually harm you. It sounds like you have someone in your life that appreciates spiders. You should ask them how to tell which ones are poisonous so you don't have to be scared of the rest of them. Most of the poisonous spiders in the US are really easy to identify.
@skyhss (1142)
• United States
30 Jul 09
i'm not really afraid of spiders unless they start chasing me (and yes some do). i get huge wolf spiders in my house that i catch and put outside and we have tarantuala's where i live and i will pick them up and play with them. they don't really act like normal spiders.
