Teaching People to appreciate Tarantulas

[Kichimark]

I have all types of different animal species in my classroom (I teach biology in HS). There are 8 snakes in my class including indigos as well as amphibians, a reef tank along with various geckos. Before this whole lockdown went into place, I had my AF B. hamorii in the class as well (brought her home). I still keep everything else at the school though and go there every other day to make sure they are ok.

I have had a few students over the years who have a phobia of the snakes and the T but they never had an issue as long as they were in their cages. A number of those ended up liking the snakes and even wanted to get one themselves. When it came to the T, they always thought she was interesting after a while and would aways ask if she moves haha (she always seemed to move around past 4 when all the kids were gone).

I would say those with arachnophobia got used to Eve (her name). I never took her out and would just explain the husbandry and history of the species. Once they knew a little about her and T's in general, they did not seem to be as afraid as they were in the beginning. I remember one student in particular who would never look in the direction where Eve was but later in the semester would go up to the cage she was in to look at her. Still have not had a student wanting a T but the fear was much reduced regardless.

In other words, I think just exposure works along with sharing details of what they really are works for many just as others have mentioned.

 

[Arachnoenthusiast]

My wife was scared of most bugs when we first met. I never really made a conscious effort to sway her. I think that over time just her seeing my passion for them. And me having a calm demeanor around them slowly helped her be at ease with them. Now I'm happy to say she collects all kinds of bugs she finds dead in flower gardens, and gets very close to live ones to do macro photography. I'm very proud

 

[spideyspinneret78]

If you want, I suggest you observe them in their natural living quarters for a bit. They are really quite fun and interesting spiders. They hardly move from the spot they setup. The ladies will have their boyfriend(s) over and do not eat them. They will create their egg sac and watch it like a hawk. Babies hatch and it looks like someone sprinkled pepper on the ceiling lol. The babies stick around with mom for a bit then one day only a few remain. The rest have setup shop somewhere else and you probably wont see them very much. The ones I have are really good at taking out ants in my house!

Oddly enough, I'm still somewhat afraid of them too. I've been slowly trying to get over my fear of these guys for a long time now. I can tolerate them in my house, as long as they aren't actually crawling on me or close to my bed. I find them interesting to observe, and rationally know that they're completely harmless to humans. But unfortunately the more primitive fight or flight portion of my brain doesn't. Once I tried getting over my fear by handling one but it was way too much. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't have a phobia, but it's like a white-hot, intense and visceral reaction that is difficult to overcome. I've come a long way from where I started with spiders, but for some reason these still creep me out. It's something I'm still working on getting over.

 

[Gurantula]

Oddly enough, I'm still somewhat afraid of them too. I've been slowly trying to get over my fear of these guys for a long time now. I can tolerate them in my house, as long as they aren't actually crawling on me or close to my bed. I find them interesting to observe, and rationally know that they're completely harmless to humans. But unfortunately the more primitive fight or flight portion of my brain doesn't. Once I tried getting over my fear by handling one but it was way too much. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't have a phobia, but it's like a white-hot, intense and visceral reaction that is difficult to overcome. I've come a long way from where I started with spiders, but for some reason these still creep me out. It's something I'm still working on getting over.

The fight or flight response is so crazy huh. A few weeks ago I was digging in my garden with shorts on. I felt a big bug crawling up my leg and lo and behold it was a Dysdera crocata (woodlouse spider). I was fine then, but the darn guy was too afraid to climb off my skin. I got him/her onto my hand and tried like 5 times to get the guy to go to anything other than my hand. No go. I had this thought run through my head that I was probably upsetting the spider. I felt the fangs graze over my skin (these spiders have huge chelicerae!) and I had that intense visceral reaction and shook my hand so quickly it sent the poor guy flying. I felt so bad and I normally never do that with spiders, but it was a reaction I couldnt overcome. I realized immediately after that the spider was probably just lowering its body to avoid what I was trying to put it on.

With cellar spiders, it wasnt until I saw how absolutely fragile the legs are that I became okay with skinny long legs like that.

 

[MintyWood826]

For some people, I think a cute or random name could help. I let someone name my scorpion Coconut when they were really scared about me getting one and while it's a small thing, I think it helped (as well as the things already talked about in the thread) to get to the point where they wouldn't care so much if I got more.

Oddly enough, I'm still somewhat afraid of them too. I've been slowly trying to get over my fear of these guys for a long time now. I can tolerate them in my house, as long as they aren't actually crawling on me or close to my bed. I find them interesting to observe, and rationally know that they're completely harmless to humans. But unfortunately the more primitive fight or flight portion of my brain doesn't. Once I tried getting over my fear by handling one but it was way too much. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't have a phobia, but it's like a white-hot, intense and visceral reaction that is difficult to overcome. I've come a long way from where I started with spiders, but for some reason these still creep me out. It's something I'm still working on getting over.

I tried doing that because their legs bother me too but handling ended badly with the spider running under some furniture. What is it about those skinny legs? It makes no sense to me but they creep me out anyway.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

For some people, I think a cute or random name could help. I let someone name my scorpion Coconut when they were really scared about me getting one and while it's a small thing, I think it helped (as well as the things already talked about in the thread) to get to the point where they wouldn't care so much if I got more.


I tried doing that because their legs bother me too but handling ended badly with the spider running under some furniture. What is it about those skinny legs? It makes no sense to me but they creep me out anyway.

I don't know....they look alien almost I guess. Like some sort of alien cave creature or something. For whatever reason, it bothers me.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I absolutely disagree with the "opening" mentality.

We need to teach to others that T's (and spiders in general, no, more, wait... the whole Arachnid galaxy) are Terminators on eight legs, that those poisonous are still your local 'Bubba in the Sheriff's prison' ready to "bite" hard you in the ... otherwise, mark my words, our precious eight legged friends will become, sooner or later, a mere object of mainstream.

Also, I do not want that T's vendors may become rich, exploiting that. YT and social stuff already damaged the arachnid keeping.
The sign said: "Long haired (and tattoo) freakin people, need not apply"

It's with - and where - "things" remains "in the little" that the passion, the genuinity, remains and lives on. Like when people traded C64 games in their basement.

Nuff said

 

[Danzog]

"Long haired (and tattoo) freakin people, need not apply"

So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Just thought I would share a recent experience - I was invited to the elementary school I went to as a kid to do a presentation on Ts for the 6th graders. Admittedly I was nervous only because 12-13yo kids can be a tough crowd sometimes so I wasn't sure if they'd even care about what I was saying. I prepared a small PowerPoint with some videos thrown in, brought all of the exuviae I have, and my two smallest Ts. I presented to two classes and they all LOVED it. I had so many great questions from the students and they were genuinely curious and very interested. I didn't even show them my live spiders until the very end and they were rapt regardless. I even had some asking me where they could get a spider, to which I told them that they should sit on it for a little while and not impulse buy one but later if they REALLY did, I told their teacher to let them get in touch with me. It all really drove home to me that "arachnophobia" as we know it, the general "ewww i hate spiders" not the actual textbook irrational FEAR of them, is a learned behaviour. Children are naturally curious and I've noticed that most kids I talk to about spiders want to know about them and show no inclination to fear or hate them. Once they get to be teens though that changes.

My conclusion? Arachnid classes in the curriculum.

 

[MintyWood826]

Just thought I would share a recent experience - I was invited to the elementary school I went to as a kid to do a presentation on Ts for the 6th graders. Admittedly I was nervous only because 12-13yo kids can be a tough crowd sometimes so I wasn't sure if they'd even care about what I was saying. I prepared a small PowerPoint with some videos thrown in, brought all of the exuviae I have, and my two smallest Ts. I presented to two classes and they all LOVED it. I had so many great questions from the students and they were genuinely curious and very interested. I didn't even show them my live spiders until the very end and they were rapt regardless. I even had some asking me where they could get a spider, to which I told them that they should sit on it for a little while and not impulse buy one but later if they REALLY did, I told their teacher to let them get in touch with me. It all really drove home to me that "arachnophobia" as we know it, the general "ewww i hate spiders" not the actual textbook irrational FEAR of them, is a learned behaviour. Children are naturally curious and I've noticed that most kids I talk to about spiders want to know about them and show no inclination to fear or hate them. Once they get to be teens though that changes.

My conclusion? Arachnid classes in the curriculum.

Come to think of it, a teacher who talked about how he saw tarantulas when he lived in another country is the one who planted the serious desire to get a tarantula someday in me, albeit unintentionally.