Check out this 10 year old arachnophobic...

WhyUBiteBite

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
104
So...gotta say I'm proud as hell and felt like sharing. Started small a month ago and worked our way up. Today he's obsessed when before he wouldn't be in the same room with a caged one. 20170610_123849.jpg
 

keks

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 7, 2017
Messages
517
I'm proud of this young guy, to be arachnophobic sucks :shifty:.

Nice, I been reading about tarantulas and looking at pictures to overcome arachnophobia myself.
This was my way too. But it needed lot of years more than the brave young man above here ^^.
My first t is my Grammostola porteri. She is the one and only t I handled ever, then I bought her so that she never must sit on hands again. That's ~ nine years ago.
Brachypelma vagans is a fine t too :) .
 

Stugy

Arachnolord
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Apr 21, 2016
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649
My way to get rid of my bug fears were to buy them and learn to take care of them. More of an aggressive way to do it but it definitely worked for me with my roaches and true spiders (especially the widows). Scorpions were just a natural love for me lol. Oh yeah and congratulations to the dude in the pic! I could and would never be able to hold a tarantula xD Not my thing lol!
 

Jmanbeing93

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jun 10, 2017
Messages
142
I'm proud of this young guy, to be arachnophobic sucks :shifty:.



This was my way too. But it needed lot of years more than the brave young man above here ^^.
My first t is my Grammostola porteri. She is the one and only t I handled ever, then I bought her so that she never must sit on hands again. That's ~ nine years ago.
Brachypelma vagans is a fine t too :) .
I am tired of being arachnophobic, it's really tiring and a drain on my body. Hopefully I can do what you did and overcome my fear once and for all.

Scorpions are more my thing,I wanted to try and keep hadogenes troglodytes before moving on to the tarantula when I am ready but I might be ready sooner than I thought in regards to tarantulas.
 

keks

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 7, 2017
Messages
517
I am tired of being arachnophobic, it's really tiring and a drain on my body. Hopefully I can do what you did and overcome my fear once and for all.
I think it is not a really overcoming, it is a desensitization. You have always to work on it, but never so hard as before. But some spiders still makes me freaking out, especially widow spiders with their body shape :anxious:.

Scorpions are more my thing,I wanted to try and keep hadogenes troglodytes before moving on to the tarantula when I am ready but I might be ready sooner than I thought in regards to tarantulas.
Spiders were the only animal that made me panic.
Now it's the human being all alone :rolleyes:.
 

Jmanbeing93

Arachnosquire
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Jun 10, 2017
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142
I think it is not a really overcoming, it is a desensitization. You have always to work on it, but never so hard as before. But some spiders still makes me freaking out, especially widow spiders with their body shape :anxious:.



Spiders were the only animal that made me panic.
Now it's the human being all alone :rolleyes:.
Interesting, before I couldn't even look at tarantulas without going into a panic attack. I couldn't be in the same room as them, I would go around it just to simply avoid them. Now, I can look at pictures of them, although I do feel uneasy at times. I don't think I am quite ready to hold one, although tarantulas in general aren't really meant to be held.

I never realized how fascinating they really are, feels like I missed out a lot by being afraid. Any tips on desensitizing myself to tarantulas?
 

keks

Arachnobaron
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517
Interesting, before I couldn't even look at tarantulas without going into a panic attack. I couldn't be in the same room as them, I would go around it just to simply avoid them. Now, I can look at pictures of them, although I do feel uneasy at times. I don't think I am quite ready to hold one, although tarantulas in general aren't really meant to be held.

I never realized how fascinating they really are, feels like I missed out a lot by being afraid. Any tips on desensitizing myself to tarantulas?
I was just as you are/were. A spider/t pic in a magazine? OMG!! Not touching it anymore! It could come out of the picture and then I'm dead. Killed by spider, fear of spider ... no idea.
My way was the same like yours: I forced myself to look at pictures first, until I felt good. Then to touch pictures. Step by step. But for me it was a very long way, I was already 35-40 years old, when I "got" it: My "very first pet spider" was a small Araneus, maybe a male? It was so tiny and lived for 2 years above my PC in a wonderful web. One day it was gone, and I missed it ^^. That surely doesn't mean, that you need the same, long time to handle your fear.

Yes, they are amazing. My G. porteri rebuild her enclosure for about 2 weeks. It was fascinating to watch her digging, and carrying the slag from one side of the enclosure to the other side, where she built a hill. Like a landscaper with an architectures plan. Every load on it's right place, even it needs longer time to find it, always tapping with the lags on the ground, the mouth full with slag, without hurry.
A relaxing experience ^^.
Now I shelter spiders wherever I can. I put them out, if necessary, I give them a home, whenever I can. I have some Pholcidae in my flat, some really big, fat Araneus on my balcony. I try to ignore them, because look at them is not my favorite feeling. And I have some small Araneus indoor, no idea what species. But they limit the fruitflies.
This little spider visited me weeks ago, only 5 or 6 mm BL. No idea what it could be.

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Go your way. And be patient. I had some relapse(es?) too :) . It's part of the process.
What a novel :wideyed:.
 

Ungoliant

Malleus Aranearum
Staff member
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This little spider visited me weeks ago, only 5 or 6 mm BL. No idea what it could be.
I don't know what the options are in Austria, but perhaps a wall spider (Oecobiidae)? They don't get very big and are often associated with manmade structures.
 

mconnachan

Arachnoprince
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Aug 5, 2012
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1,240
So...gotta say I'm proud as hell and felt like sharing. Started small a month ago and worked our way up. Today he's obsessed when before he wouldn't be in the same room with a caged one.
I'm really proud of the wee man too. Just have to say though, I hope this isn't a regular thing, handling tarantulas is a slippery slope, I'm not meaning to spoil the fun but if it were me or any other member it would be frowned upon, I really think this is a great way for your son to get over his fear of spiders, but please, please stop handling for your sons sake and the spiders, you know how bipolar they can be, must say though "well done pal, well done".
 

keks

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 7, 2017
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517
I don't know what the options are in Austria, but perhaps a wall spider (Oecobiidae)? They don't get very big and are often associated with manmade structures.
Shame on me! But I don't know much about native spiders :bag: . I searched for Oecobiidae now, but couldn't find my one.
 

ShyDragoness

Arachnobaron
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Jun 7, 2017
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369
Buy one (nothing scary, just a B. albopilosum or something.) Watch it every day. Within a week or two, the fear will be overcome by fascination.
It honestly helps, when my juvie albopilosum arrived I was really jumpy around him and kinda intimidated but now I could sit next to the tank all day feeding it crickets till it ended up in the body shaming thread! (and I've had it less than a week ahaha)
 

cold blood

Moderator
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This is just my opinion, but i think the best t education teaches that these are not "handling" type pets. To me teaching a youngster to handle is sending him the totally wrong message. Its like teaching a first time driver how to do really good doughnuts or burnouts.

None-the-less, good to see him overcome his fear.
 

JoshDM020

Arachnobaron
Joined
Mar 24, 2017
Messages
356
This is just my opinion, but i think the best t education teaches that these are not "handling" type pets. To me teaching a youngster to handle is sending him the totally wrong message. Its like teaching a first time driver how to do really good doughnuts or burnouts.

None-the-less, good to see him overcome his fear.
Agreed. Its good to not be afraid, but now he also needs to be taught, without reigniting the fear, that they are potentially dangerous creatures and very few species will even almost let you think about handling most of the time.
 

Tim Benzedrine

Prankster Possum
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Yeah, I'm kinda hoping this will not turn into the same old handling debate, as he is at least handling the spider as responsibly as possible in regard to the tarantula's well-being. (And here comes the "But...")

But, a lot of progress could be lost if something negative should happen during handling. If the spider SHOULD happen to bite or do something unexpected -and the unexpected can be expected when it comes to wild animals -, the phobia is liable to return two-fold and the progress might be impossible to regain. Just making an observation, not a judgment, as it is a good thing to conquer phobias and i don't want to diminish that aspect.
 

keks

Arachnobaron
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May 7, 2017
Messages
517
I still have highest respect of tarantulas, I never would handle one again, except of health cause. They are still unpredictable, wild animals.
But otherwise, I am not sure, if I'd have tarantulas now, without this experience, because they would still frighten me too much. I think it is difficult to describe what that means to people who don't know this fear. Could of course go in the wrong direction too, as @Tim Benzedrine says. As the t was sitting on my hand, I had heartracing, attacks of sweating, panic that it would bite me, but no panic of the t itself as spider, and that was the sticking point to control the phobia. Can anybody understand what I mean? :confused:

But usually I subscribe that handling without heavy reasons is not a good idea, either for the tarantula, nor for the keeper!
 

WhyUBiteBite

Arachnosquire
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Feb 14, 2017
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104
Very true, in this case handling was under controlled circumstances on a one time basis per spider to work his way up and past the fear. :)
 
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