Spiders....you know the creepy crawly critters....

[Gypsy Nirvana]

I have always been amazed at how most of my girlfriends in the past have behaved around spiders...

Arachnophobia they call it....---Fear of Spiders..--

..Do any of you have this fear?....If so can you explain it because I cannot understand how a 120lb woman can be brought to tears and fears by a 1 gramm spider.....brought to ABSOLUTE hysterics.......and making noises that are most primeaval....

...I understand that a very few species of spiders are very dangerous/venomous.....but all it takes is a quick slap with a newspaper and....game over.

 

[oldpink]

personally I love them

personally I love them

they kill fly's etc

 

[xinsanewickedx]

i don't understand it either bro.my girl will freak out and call me to come kill it and she will have shoes on or have them right there next to her

 

[Miss Blunted]

I have arachnaphobia...but it's gotten better over the years. I don't know why I'm afraid of them....If I see a spider, or one is close to me...I sieze up and start to panic.

I've been working on my fear by trapping spiders in my house and releasing them outside (I fear them, but I won't kill them). I've honestly gotten better by getting close to them, observing them and making myself face my fear.

Snakes, frogs, turtles, lizzards....love them, can't get enought of them. Especially snakes...I absolutely love snakes.

 

[thekingofNY]

I dont really have a fear, we'll since i moved into this house. This past winter we had an INSANE yellow sac spider infestation. Its sort of ammusing because my other half isnt scarred at all about them, and she female! Although after killing 1 a day all throughout winter they dont bother me half as much.

I think my only issue is with the poisonous ones, and these damn sac spiders are. However its never deadly, but I guess each person reacts to the venom differently... one person it can cause a misquito like bite, and another person can require hospitalization from it getting HUGE.

Heres one that I almost touched picking up the grow bag to water it. I noticed his ass after i had the plant 4 feet above the ground, I am highly proud I didnt drop that bogglegum x c99.

 

[xinsanewickedx]

if it was me i would let them chill as long as it isn't a black widow

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

I have arachnaphobia...but it's gotten better over the years. I don't know why I'm afraid of them....If I see a spider, or one is close to me...I sieze up and start to panic.

I've been working on my fear by trapping spiders in my house and releasing them outside (I fear them, but I won't kill them). I've honestly gotten better by getting close to them, observing them and making myself face my fear.

Snakes, frogs, turtles, lizzards....love them, can't get enought of them. Especially snakes...I absolutely love snakes.

...I don't like mosquito's and sand flys because they can suck your blood and give you a nasty bite ....or even a sickness (malaria, dengue fever)....but Spiders?

.....like OP says they trap and eat mossies and germ carrying flys....so to me they are a good thing to have around....


...What exactly is this weird aversion that mainly women have towards spiders?......why?

 

[Classyathome]

I have no probs w/ spiders - as long as I know where they are.

Surprise spiders can be a shocker, but I'm cool with them.

I don't kill them, because they do eat tons of pests, and rarely bother people.

 

[Miss Blunted]

I don't know Gypsy....it's beyond me. One thing that I've noticed, is a lot of the men I've had the creepy/crawly conversation with are afraid of snakes....PTB doesn't like them, and I've known a few men who are afraid of them.

Strange...haha, I don't know.

 

[Miss Blunted]

The only bugs I kill are mosquitoes....I hate them. I will not kill spiders.

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

Spiders can be kinda cool....with direct efforts at procreation:

''A violent but evolutionarily effective mating strategy has been spotted in spiders from Israel.

Males of the aptly-named Harpactea sadistica species pierce the abdomen of females, fertilising their eggs directly in the ovaries.

The so-called traumatic insemination gives the first male to inseminate a reproductive advantage by bypassing structures in the females' genitalia.

The findings are reported in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Insects including mites and bedbugs have been spotted using a similar strategy, but this is the first time that it has been seen in spiders.

Typically, spider males deliver their genetic package via sperm that is deposited into a small web and manually inserted using a pair of appendages on their undersides known as pedipalps.

The sperm are then held in a receptacle between the ovipore and ovary known as a spermatheca until an egg is released.

However, the spermatheca is a "last in, first out" structure, so that if any further males inseminate a female, the last mate's sperm is the first in line to fertilise an egg.''

Direct route

Milan Rezic, an entomologist at the Crop Research Institute in Prague, has spotted a spider circumventing this problem by delivering sperm directly to the ovaries via holes that the males bore directly in the females' abdomens.

Naming the species H. sadistica , Dr Rezac noted that the species has specialised sex organs at the ends of its pedipalps, with one part specialised for gripping and another, hypodermic needle-like structure for injecting sperm.

Like many spider mating rituals, H. sadistica 's approach follows an elaborate pattern, with the male tapping the female, subduing her, and wrapping himself around her to properly position the sex organs.

He then alternates between the two, piercing and injecting the sperm on one side, then the other, forming two neat rows of holes in her abdomen.

An analysis of the females of the species has shown that relative to other spiders, their spermathecae are atrophied, or shrunken.

In an apparent case of co-evolution, they seem to be slowly shrinking into nonexistence now that their purpose is being bypassed by the males' more direct approach.

"In insects there is a co-evolutionary development of female physiological responses to the male sperm that gives her at least some control of fertilisation," said William Eberhard, an expert in the mating habits of insects and spiders at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

"Something similar might occur here."

Dr Rezac suggests equally that a means to avoid the injury caused by the males might drive the evolution of secondary genitalia nearer to the ovaries, which have been seen in some spiders and butterflies.

"The evolution of these features has been heretofore difficult to explain," he said.

"Perhaps the secondary genital structures of butterflies and spiders could have originated via traumatic insemination."

 

[BubsNugs]

I am ok with spiders, if one suddenly appears on me i would probally hit the poor fucker but generally its cool.

Its bats that freak me out, I think they rather cool outside but good lord get one flying around inside a house and i am turened into a screaming girlie man

Your cool with spiders gypsy wjat about snakes? or bats? or heights? any phobias??

Peace

 

[Lt. Herb]

A phobia is a phobia, an irrational fear, by definition.

I've survived addictions to crack and other equally harmful and illicit things, and even served the jail/prison time associated with said activities, but I am a 6'3", 245 lb. 12 yr. old little girl when it comes to spiders. Crazy is as crazy does I reckon.

 

[Aerohead]

I like a few spiders in the garden, figure they eat pests. Afraid if I kill one I'll get bad spider karma and they will send an army after me while I sleep.... Maybe I'm just paranoid, must seek another strain ?

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

...no I don't have any phobia's that I can think of......fear is your worst enemy.....

...and if you have to combat something to overcome your fears then you had best do it..


maybe that is why I can't understand how people can get so worked up to the point of a heart attack about some tiny insect.....ok if its a brown recluse spider and you nearly got bitten.....but most spiders are relatively harmless...

 

[MeTa4]

I have no idea why women fear spiders or anything with more then two legs or without fur. I have met both genders that like and dislike spiders. I have been interested in buying a cobalt blue tarantula heh.

 

[Kizzattack]

It's the same as my fear of needles. No matter how illogical, irrational and stupid the fear seems, you're still terrified, and you're not sure why.

 

[Miss Blunted]

It's the same as my fear of needles. No matter how illogical, irrational and stupid the fear seems, you're still terrified, and you're not sure why.

I used to be afraid of needles too...until I lost a pregnancy and had no choice but to be full of needles. I overcame it 100%

 

[movingtocally]

Mine is so bad that I have turned down otherwise awesome living arrangements in south florida out of fear of bugs. I adore florida(fishing, climate, etc)but I can't deal with those bugs.


Don't ask me to justify it. It's pathetic, embarrassing, illogical, and down right retarded. But the thought of bugs and big spiders running around where I sleep on a consistent basis is enough to make the hair stand on the back of my neck, literally.

I can watch gore vids on the net and be relatively unhinged, but I can't watch a spider eating on youtube. It makes me shake.

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

....yes....needles can suck your blood too.....but sometimes they are necessary in a medical sense.....I remember some student nurse trying to get an I.V. into me once....she was way more nervous about it than me.....made my arm look like a pin cushion, so in the end I had to do her job for her and managed to get the needle in my own vein.......it bloody well hurt...but it's a good thing that I managed to do it....because then I could go to la-la land on the anesthetic while they operated....

...I have lived in the tropics for years.....and have had to keep the RAMPANT entomology at some distance .......the regular use of citronella and deet based repellants have always worked....but I must say that I am a bit fascinated by spiders......anyone have any pics?
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