Why are people afraid of animals smaller than themselves?

I use to care for a little boy who had been stung by a wasp and was deathly afraid of them. I tried to encourage him that if he left the wasp alone, the wasp would leave him alone, but the sting was enough to convince him otherwise. I think people are conditioned, either by experiences or by overly cautious adults in their lives, to be afraid. I'm thankful my parents taught me to respect, but not fear.

I don't but I am scared of them too :) One of the reason is that people watch a lot of horor films (e.g. they watched some spiders horor and of course they will be afraid of them) The second reason is the same but instead of films people heard that spider bite can be fatal for them. Just like some people run from bees - they know if it bites him/her, it's gona' hurt! I hope you understood and remember - we are all diferent ;) Hope I helped !! :D

Bug are just yucky.....that's why people freak out when they see one....and also some of the smaller animals are yucky too like rats and mice....I don't like them and freak out when I see one....