Spider Catcher

[The Snark]

It may be instinctual to some extent, something about their legginess, angularity & skittering triggers a primal response in some people. Twin studies demonstrated similar levels of innate spider fear & it seems reasonable that an innate aversion would exert a positive effect on survival in primitive humans.

Hysteria. Conversion disorder. Somatic symptom disorder. Regardless, plain and simple, arachnophobia is a mental disorder, a mental condition that impairs normal rational functions, be it genetic or learned. IE 'I am the past come back to haunt you, David Lo Pan!'

 

[Nephila Edulis]

I got a redback on my shelf in a container. She's all good. Never tries to bite, always runs away. But even if you were to be bitten I wouldn't think you'd be in a world of danger, not like if you were bitten by a funnel web or wandering spider. I have a friend who was bitten by a redback and he wasnt dead for 4 hours, in a world of pain and sickness, but not dead. We knew it was probably a redback because we found one in his bed the day he woke up with a swollen leg and with abdominal pain and nausea.