Are you afraid of spiders?

@antikorper said:

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

@antikorper said:

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

I thought only women are afraid of insects...no offense.

I thought only women think that spiders are insects.

Damn, you a sexist bro.

Ja sam pitbul - terier. Also, there's arachnophobia that can affect anyone, regardless of gender.

I know brother, i was just fucking around.

I wouldn't say I'm scared of them, I don't like them though. If I see one I will kill it.

I used to be. Then I realized that I'm fully capable of killing them. Now I'm not.

Also, this probably should have been a poll.

@MethodMan008: Most of the time, spiders don't bother me much.... they take care of pesky insects around the house. I am scared of those brown recluse spider bites and camel spiders, however.

No, I'm not. However the spiders around here aren't very big and don't seem to mess with people. I'd be more wary of bigger or more threatening ones. Not afraid, but they'd have to die, and I'd be careful bringing them death.

As a manly man Australian I say no. That is depsite having one of the deadliest spiders in the world, one with fangs so tough that can pierce right through your finger nail, plus that can jump up at you to about a metre. I love spiders. I catch them all the time and release them and the odd time I put them in a container and feed them crickets - it is an awesome site in a very alienesque way.

This is typical of what I find in my home (and this is one of them in my home) and capture by hand and release - they are up to the size of my hand:

I would prefer to not see them, but they don't bother me much if they're around. Big ass ones are another story.

@MethodMan008 said:

@RPGee said:

@MethodMan008 said:

@RPGee said:

Nope. I'm weary of them if they're big, obviously, but you just have to remember that most can't cause very much harm, and even if they could they usually just mind their own business. Slept very peacefully in a room with a redback spider right above my head once, like the superhuman I am.

:O Nerves of steel.

Nerves of Australium.

Ah, that would explain it. From looking at pictures and videos Australia looks so beautiful, but I don't think I could ever visit because I would probably be terrified of dying to all the wildlife there..

You have no idea sir, i have spent sleepless nights searching for Huntsmans's with a full can of spray and a vacuum cleaner that have hid under my bed or are waiting for me to have my back turned and jump off the ceiling above me and attack me. I once had a 15cm huntsman elude me for 18 hours as he hid be hide tv cabinets, couches anything he could use for cover. I the cornered him, unloaded a can of the deadly stuff, then sucked him up in the vacuum, HOWEVER.. an hour later when i was at my desk i cought him with the corner of my eye, SPRINTING towards me aiming for my bare feet under the desk. I lept out of the way just in time, then i said fuck it, i tenderized the fucker with my shoe untill he was just a greasy spot on the floor. Welcome to Australia.

not unless they're big and dangerous

Small ones don't bother me too much but big ones do. Not like it matters much since I'm usually the one that has to kill the damn things.

Small ones? No.

Big ones?

@Contrarian said:

YES.

I've never seen one of those big hairy spiders I think they don't even exist over here so no they are harmless and help eating other more dangerous/annoying bugs like those damn mosquitoes.

@Contrarian: Holy crap dude what's the name of that species? are they that big or what.

Brown recluses are pretty bad actually. I think it really depends on the look of it, sometimes I don't mind, and other times my heart stops beating (not literally), but I get shocked so bad and I do one deep inhale then get the fuck out. I'm not really scared of a lot, but like Indiana Jones (or that's how I like to think of it to make myself not seem like a woose), I hate spiders as he does snakes.

Spiders, why did it have to be spiders? It doesn't even matter if it's dead or not, one time I had to go under my house, and crawling under there, I have no idea what's under it, so the small crawl space, on top where my back would be, there are dead spiders curled up in a ball in spider webs, and when I went in there last, I could hardly breath. There are just so many spiders that I can't tell if they'd harm me or not.

Ironically, I rarely like to see someone kill them. I mean, if it's outside, I won't want it dead, but if it's something I've never seen before, like a few nights ago, a little brown hairy looking one, I'll want it dead. Even then, just after, I thought "Man, that spider was probably more scared of me than I was of it, and we killed it. I feel bad now." Also, just seeing a spider can make me feel like I have it on my body or hair.

It's one of the worst things to look up on Google, really. It's a good idea to study them actually, which I have done in the past. It's nasty. Fuck, I just looked at some spiders on Google, gosh damn! Spiders are also some of the worst things to imagine, like what if I were to pour something to drink, or leave my room, and come back and not knowing it, I pick the cup up and put the thing close to my face, look down with my eyes and a spider's in it. Or sitting on the toilet, and a spider's under the lid.

I guess I would say I have slight arachnophobia and I don't like deep water. Once, I've been in a lake on a small boat and it was deep, but there were huge trees sticking out of it, that's creepy as hell to me. I'm still very interested in seeing stuff that has to do with deep water though, like viewing images or video of the Titanic, although I don't think I could personally do what James Cameron did recently by going down to the Mariana trench, or go down and see the Titanic.

I'm not a fan of spiders, but at least they are stuck on the ground and walls. Wasps however have the freedom of the open skies. If you get to close to them they will fuck you up and chase you for quite a while.

Fuck wasps.

Spiders make me a little bit anxious but the smaller they are, the easier they are to ignore. Wasps are where my real phobia lies.

It's worth noting that when I say 'phobia' I'm not one of those sorts who is at all bothered by wasps or spiders in video games. That makes no sense to me.

Yes, and that's why I enjoy killing the bastards.

Nope, but i am afraid of these little fuckers:

@MethodMan008 said:

I am.

I just two brown recluses by my sofa and I wanna call in an air strike on my apartment..

Don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight.

Apparently, most spiders aren't even harmful to humans, but I'm scared of all spiders because they're gross. >.<

..What about you giantbomb community member? What do you think about spiders?

How did you know they were Brown Recluses?

I hate them because they're dicks, but I'm only truly scared of them if they're large or mega-VENOMOUS (THERE, YOU DICK! (you're not actually a dick)) By them being dicks, I mean they actively attack me. There was a large one on my ceiling a couple weeks ago and I went to look at it (with plans to murder it) and all of a sudden it did a ninja back-flip thing and spider-man'd down from the ceiling in front of my face with it's fangs sticking out and legs all in attack mode at me. Also several have climbed down into my drink from the ceiling and as recently as two days ago one climbed down and landed on my leg. They just won't leave me alone.

Spiders might as well be minions from Hell. Burn them all, I say.

I hate bugs and I hate killing them. There's something really just, wrong about crushing something to death. I usually cheese out and just nab it in some tissue and flush it down the toilet rather than squish. . .

@xobballox said:

I hate them because they're dicks, but I'm only truly scared of them if they're large or mega-poisonous. By them being dicks, I mean they actively attack me. There was a large one on my ceiling a couple weeks ago and I went to look at it (with plans to murder it) and all of a sudden it did a ninja back-flip thing and spider-man'd down from the ceiling in front of my face with it's fangs sticks out and legs all in attack mode at me. Also several have climbed down into my drink from the ceiling and as recently as two days ago one climbed down and landed on my leg. They just won't leave me alone.

Well then you are lucky because there are no such things as poisonous spiders just venomous.

@RPGee said:

@MethodMan008 said:

@RPGee said:

Nope. I'm weary of them if they're big, obviously, but you just have to remember that most can't cause very much harm, and even if they could they usually just mind their own business. Slept very peacefully in a room with a redback spider right above my head once, like the superhuman I am.

:O Nerves of steel.

Nerves of Australium.

You're not from Wagga Wagga, are you;) That there was a spider problem.

@MethodMan008 said:

I am.

I just two brown recluses by my sofa and I wanna call in an air strike on my apartment..

Don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight.

Apparently, most spiders aren't even harmful to humans, but I'm scared of all spiders because they're gross. >.<

..What about you giantbomb community member? What do you think about spiders?

How did you know they were Brown Recluses?

@SethPhotopoulos said:

@xobballox said:

I hate them because they're dicks, but I'm only truly scared of them if they're large or mega-poisonous. By them being dicks, I mean they actively attack me. There was a large one on my ceiling a couple weeks ago and I went to look at it (with plans to murder it) and all of a sudden it did a ninja back-flip thing and spider-man'd down from the ceiling in front of my face with it's fangs sticks out and legs all in attack mode at me. Also several have climbed down into my drink from the ceiling and as recently as two days ago one climbed down and landed on my leg. They just won't leave me alone.

Well then you are lucky because there are no such things as poisonous spiders just venomous.

I edited for you.

@xobballox said:

@SethPhotopoulos said:

@xobballox said:

I hate them because they're dicks, but I'm only truly scared of them if they're large or mega-poisonous. By them being dicks, I mean they actively attack me. There was a large one on my ceiling a couple weeks ago and I went to look at it (with plans to murder it) and all of a sudden it did a ninja back-flip thing and spider-man'd down from the ceiling in front of my face with it's fangs sticks out and legs all in attack mode at me. Also several have climbed down into my drink from the ceiling and as recently as two days ago one climbed down and landed on my leg. They just won't leave me alone.

Well then you are lucky because there are no such things as poisonous spiders just venomous.

I edited for you.

I'm gonna go cry in my corner now.

Where I live, we don't really get any of those gigantic, freakish looking spiders. We get some pretty big wolf spiders from time to time, but for the most part spiders don't bother me anymore. I used to be terrified of them, but there came a point where I realized I was, like, 1000 times bigger than most of them and it's not like they travel in packs. If I stumble across one in my way I'll usually catch it and release it outside. They kill mosquitoes. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Yeah, spiders are the bane of my existence. When I lived with my parents our rooms were in the basement and huge spiders often crawled inside. One morning I woke up hearing the rest of the family go "Whoa, that's a huge spider" and "That can't be a Swedish spider, can it?". It was right outside my door. I never even saw it myself, but ever since that day I've been terrified of my parents' basement. :(

i hate spiders more than anything in this world.

Why did I click on this right before bed?

Nope, if I see one I let it live assuming it will kill other things I don't want around. As already mentioned, I also don't live in a place where spiders are dangerous, so that helps.

No, but I fucking hate them. If I see one in my house, it has to die! Anywhere else though, I don't care.

I cant stand them, ive often been up at 3am playing a game and had wake up my poor girlfriend to come kill a spider for me because i cant sleep knowing there is one in the house. Most times my Cats will eat them but every now and then one so big comes in that even they wont go near it...

Depending on where you live, spiders are either a complete non-issue or something that merely need to be careful about. Recluses, true to their name, you will almost never see out in the open. Their bites will fuck you up, sure, but the chance of getting bitten is pretty nil especially if you take necessary precautions in areas you might find them (storage areas, old shoes, blankets).

I'm not really afraid of spiders, though I used to be. I live near the woods and I see them all the damn time so I can't really afford to develop a complex about them. I had one living in my room under the wall that would pop out every time I came in to the room to see what I was doing. After awhile we became friends and I left dead stinkbugs by his den for him to eat. I was sad when he died :(

@kagato said:

I cant stand them, ive often been up at 3am playing a game and had wake up my poor girlfriend to come kill a spider for me because i cant sleep knowing there is one in the house. Most times my Cats will eat them but every now and then one so big comes in that even they wont go near it...

For real? Damn I need to get a cat..

I thought only women are afraid of insects...no offense.

No I'm afraid of spiders at all. My cousins were terrified of spiders , they got me to kill or throw them out them all the time, but they leaned more on the kill than throwing the out the window for some reason maybe the hate. Having said that, I don't like bigesh spiders really close to my bed, I don't like the Idea of the bigesh spiders crawling on me while I sleep.Other than that I think they're quite fascinating and cool .Btw When I say bigesh spiders I mean over an Inch long .

@jonano: Personally, I find the idea of a spider crawling into my mouth as I sleep quite unpleasant . There's an urban legend that contends most people swallow two spiders a year while sleeping.

How can I be afraid of what a typical human ingests 50 of every night in thier sleep?

When I was younger I had a problem with the tiny one even. Now I am fine with them. I have never seen a huge one thankfully, that would probably be another story. Spider are interesting creatures, just through a lens.

@MethodMan008: I personally hate spiders. I have good news for you. I am not knocking your spider identification skills, but brown recluse spiders are very often misidentified. The woodlouse spider is often identified incorrectly as a brown recluse and they are completely harmless. Brown recluses have a tendency to not be hunt in packs so it is sounding like you are good. Still, spiders are spiders and you should probably spray for them anyway. I appreciate the fact that they kill other annoying insects, but eff the arachnids.

@SethPhotopoulos said:

Fuck. I don't know if it's the same thing, but one of my moms friends went to Iraq (or maybe Afghanistan, I don't know) and one soldier woke up and a huge spider had eaten the heel of his foot off while he was asleep. Turrible.

And yes I'm afraid of spiders, I can't even look at most of the pictures in this thread. Last weekend I saw a quarter sized spider on my ceiling so I slept downstairs on the couch :(

@GenocidalKitten: Camel spider aka wind scorpion. That picture is two of them...doing the mattress mambo.

i dont mind spiders so much, hell i dont even mind them in the house. they kill the more annoying bugs so thats A-OK with me. just dont crawl within 2 feet of me and they're fine. i just dont like the sensation of things crawling on me so i kill them if they get too close lol

Yep, a phobia passed down from my mother.

Fun fact: Average human eats about 8 spiders in their sleep during their lifetime. Sweet dreams duders!

Okay, that's just a myth, don't worry about it. If you can...