Does It Make Any Sense For Me To Fear Little Black House Spiders but not fear my Tarantula?

[Mcskillz]

okay so I had a case of mild arachnophobia when I was growing up but I was also at the same time very curious about spiders. Anyway to combat this arachnophobia I considered educating myself about them and getting a rose hair tarantula.

I don't really have any fear of my Rose Hair having owned her for 3 years now and I doubt that I will ever fear it. Other types of T's...well I haven't taken that step yet LOL

However I thought my arachnophobia was cured, but it wasn't. Whenever I see a black fuzzy looking spider crawling on my bed or wall I start to go into a panick stricken mode while my rose-hair just looks at me bewildered. Also its not just black fuzzy little spiders(sorry I dont know what kind of spider they are, but I just assume they are common house spiders) Also i dont like the beige tan colored spiders I find sometimes and I'm not very fond of black widow spiders, though they live in my garage and not my bedroom(knocks on wood).

So coming off as a bit too sensitive compared to those on here that probably touch all kinds of spiders on a regular basis and dont fear them, I was curious if anybody knew why my Rose Hair Tarantula didn't exactly cure my fear of small spiders that are totally harmless but made it so that I'm not afraid of tarantulas.

 

[belljar77]

The little ones used to give me the willies too. I wonder if it's because you're never expecting them- you expect to see your T when you look at her enclosure, you're never prepared for the little guy to zip across your bedroom ceiling. By the way, I got over my fear by learning about them, they're just as cool as the Ts.

 

[Nikkeh]

I'm the same. I'm scared of hous aracnid that isn't a tarantula, i think it's also because with T's you get to know them and are familiar with them, whereas house spiders and such are pretty much like strangers. Put it this way if you saw a guy you knew well walking behind you late at night on your way home it wouldn't really bother you, but if a stranger was it would be a different matter lol

 

[Josey]

I'm a bit like this, but I have to say since owning my Ts, Im kind of getting better with random house spiders! Spider season has come early here in England due to some nice warm weather and a few bigguns (well, big for our country) have appeared. I was fine with them and have no stopped even transporting them outside preferring instead to let them go on their way. I do get a little freaked sometimes when they appear on you or next to you from nowhere, I like to know where they are! But same goes for the Ts, if any of them where spotted roaming across the sofa, Id panic a little too. Esp the new one, she'd viscous lol! x

 

[jebbewocky]

No, it doesn't, but fear is an emotional response of the parasympathetic nervous system--it ouranks logic by virtue of seniority.

 

[mOtOjUnKiE]

It's crazy you created this thread...because I had a really bad fear of spiders before I held one for the first time..after I did some reading about T's, I became less scared & started appreciating their beauty.

 

[smallara98]

Im SO scared of house spiders. I have had spiders crawl on my face asleep and wake up and jump like 7 feet in the air lol. And when I see a house spider (about 2in), I freak out cause they are super fast. Like they can be from my door, to my window in 7 secs. But I dont care if my versicolor is running across my room (handling) 2x faster than the house spider. Its common. I hate house spiders period

 

[mOtOjUnKiE]

Im SO scared of house spiders. I have had spiders crawl on my face asleep

Okay, yeah...if that happened to me I would probably be traumatized too!!!! hahahaha

 

[Mcskillz]

Well there are reasons why little "true spiders" freak me out.

When I was a little girl, I was 6 years old and had one of those dreams where you are half dreaming and see things? Anyway I slowly opened eyes in darkness while laying in bed, and saw a huge grid that was spider web all over the ceiling and the web grid was so low that if I sat up I'd probably hit it with my head. I saw a giant black spider in the corner of the ceiling. I started to scream and my grandmother turned on the light in my room and the whole imagery disappeared!! she asked what was wrong? and I looked up at the ceiling and nothing was there.

Then one time, when I was 7 years old I was peacefully sleeping and I woke up and right next to my face was a giant wolf spider and I jumped 6 feet out of my bed and started doing the "get it off me" dance!

In college I would be sitting chatting with housemates and a spider from the ceiling would land on my face or head

So these what I assume common occurances or just bad luck on my part, have sort have traumatized me from house spiders.

I don't like the ones that are dark brown or black and scream across the wall or floor in the blink of an eye or come out of nowhere and end up on my bed or pillow. I just dont like it when I dont know where they are and they come out of nowhere and disappear somewhere and make me anxious.

Tarantula's don't scare me though even though they are much bigger and fuzzier. They are much slower and predictable for me to deal with. I know where my tarantula is at all times, if I didn't know where it was, I'd be a little freaked out. I know if Athena ever did accidently escape and crawl on me, I know she wouldn't hurt me unless I did something to scare it.

 

[codykrr]

Dont feel bad i still suffer from mild arachnophobia. while im not scared of tarantulas, they have freaked me out, when one bolts up the arm and such.

but for true spiders, its more of a 'what if' fear. now if i was laying in bed, and felt something crawling on me a lifted the sheets to find a true spider on me. well lets say, id probably pee my self.

a poster above described it perfectly, tarantulas are almost like your "friends" because you welcome them in your home. to were true spiders are like and intruded, and if your in my house and i dont know you thats a bad thing...

yet, i have kept true spiders as well, from trap doors, to nursery web spiders. to wolf spider, brown recluses, widows. i wasnt afraid of them though. maybe because i WANTED them?

i believe its a instinctive/taught fear. instinctive because, well people are scared of the unknown, and taught because, well, we are told as kids usually not to touch spiders, snakes...ect...ect and it just becomes instilled in our head to be scared of them, because they are out to cause us harm.

it is truly weird isnt it?

 

[Kirsten]

Yes, for all the above reasons

 

[TheOnlyBest_]

Ehh. We get tons of wolf spiders and such in the house, and banana spiders on the islands where we go camping, and I'm mildly freaked out.. But when snakes end up under/by your feet when you're on the computer? Or a random roach crawls out of your shoe when you're about to put them on.. (that'll teach me to leave 'em in my car with the windows open, eh?) Ewww. Notcoolmann. =/

 

[JamieC]

I totally see where your coming from. I don't mind removing the teeny tiny house spiders but the bigger ones with long spindly legs freak me out! I won't even touch them, its a job for a pint glass and sheet of paper. Tarantulas I'm fine with however, it's very strange and something I thought only I suffered from. Obviously it's more common than I thought!

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

This matter has interested me for a while and although I am no psychologist and can't provide any answers; in any fear or anxiety based response one has to examine what it is exactly the source of fear or anxiety is (at least with my own experience). For example, are you afraid of getting bitten, afraid of physical contact, afraid of a spider making a nest in your ears or nose?

In the case of a fear of smaller spiders you see in the house as opposed to the large captive tarantulas, it seems to me the basis for fearing the small house spiders is based on predictability versus unpredictability or a sense of control. Spiders in the house are wild and unpredictable- they can "disappear" and "reappear" anywhere. Large tarantulas in a box are predictable and you have the control to make contact when and how you want. In a spider living in your house, the perception is that they have the control to make contact thus invoking the fear and anxiety.

In these situations of fearing small spiders in the house, ask yourself if they were in a container sitting on a shelf (the same as your tarantula), would you have the same fear or anxiety toward it? Or even, if you encountered a tarantula in the wild, would you fear or experience anxiety of the tarantula? Or even if your tarantula somehow escaped and was running loose in the house, would you experience anxiety or fear of it?

- Lonnie

 

[BlackCat]

I used to be afraid of true spiders until not too long ago. I knew for sure that I was over it yesterday when I opened my bag up and a wolf spider popped out and ran around on my leg.

I think it helped that I have caught various true spiders in my house and watched them grow. Might be just a matter of getting used to them, and getting desensitized.

 

[codykrr]

This matter has interested me for a while and although I am no psychologist and can't provide any answers; in any fear or anxiety based response one has to examine what it is exactly the source of fear or anxiety is (at least with my own experience). For example, are you afraid of getting bitten, afraid of physical contact, afraid of a spider making a nest in your ears or nose?

In the case of a fear of smaller spiders you see in the house as opposed to the large captive tarantulas, it seems to me the basis for fearing the small house spiders is based on predictability versus unpredictability or a sense of control. Spiders in the house are wild and unpredictable- they can "disappear" and "reappear" anywhere. Large tarantulas in a box are predictable and you have the control to make contact when and how you want. In a spider living in your house, the perception is that they have the control to make contact thus invoking the fear and anxiety.

In these situations of fearing small spiders in the house, ask yourself if they were in a container sitting on a shelf (the same as your tarantula), would you have the same fear or anxiety toward it? Or even, if you encountered a tarantula in the wild, would you fear or experience anxiety of the tarantula? Or even if your tarantula somehow escaped and was running loose in the house, would you experience anxiety or fear of it?

- Lonnie

My fear is more less not knowing the significance of the spider in question. more or less it strikes the fear of unknown.(if that makes any sence) I say that, because i have hunted and captured tarantula's, scorpions, and true spiders from the wild, but i wasnt scared because i knew what i was dealing with.

like I said in an above post, if i was to have something crawling on me(doesnt even have to be a spider) at night while laying in bed, im going to freak. but if i knew i was going to have something crawling on me, it would be different.

i am not afraid of being bitten or stung(i dont prefer too though) but for me its the what if factor. im sure we have all put a boot on that had something in it, and gotten scared, only to find it was a rock, twig...ect.

not knowing for me is just what causes it. has nothing to do with the spider or whatever being "wild" or "loose" its just the fact i dont know what it is.

now if i caught the spider, and examined it to only find out its say...a P. mira(nursery web spider) i would feel more comfortable with it. but even then their is still a sort of instinctive fear present. Even with tarantula's i have found myself being uncomfortable with them. Not all the time, but occasionally.

just a weird thing to examine, as well as hard to explain.

 

[Stopdroproll]

I have the same thing as thread starter. Kind of weird, but whatever, they don't bother me that much, but they still do bother me.

 

[BCscorp]

No. It doesnt make any sense.

 

[Moltar]

No arachnophobia here. That doesn't mean that if a spider comes barrelling unexpectedly out of the drain I don't jump. Scared and startled are two different things.

I don't think it's weird to still have that fear though. Fear of snakes and spiders is something deep and ancient. Since even before we tamed fire and learned to swing clubs venomous animals have been a danger to us. You started learning a fear of 'bugs' before you could talk or walk. It's going to be a bit difficult to get past for some people.

 

[sja69]

It's those long, thin legs...