Whats so gross about bugs and arachnids?

They look so alien. And the way they move…? EURGH!

Besides, they are quite nutritious.

Spiders are quite frightening hideous. Imagine one person-sized or even dog -sized.

The legs and exoskeleton. Less “gross” more “paralyzingly terrifying”

can i have cookie?

Aren’t there several poisonous spiders? And what about ticks and Lyme disease, Rocky Mt. Spotted fever, babiosis, mosquitoes and malaria, black flies and bites that last several weeks, elephantiasis, dengue fever…just to mention a few that come to mind.

And if you are allergic to the venom of stinging insects, it may well be deadly.

When I was a kid, a roach crawled inside my mother’s ear, she said she could feel it, and was shaking her head wildly about like a mad woman trying to get it out. We got her to a hospital where a doctor removed it, put it in a plastic bag and offered it to her as a ‘gift’.

Since then, I’ve been afraid of bugs, spiders, etc, crawling inside my ears or mouth at night. I usually kill them upon sight.

@smile1 ah, it seems you and I are of the same mind. Welcome to Fluther. I have recently overcome a lifetime of arachnaphobia. I think spiders are fascinating creatures. I especially love the Salticids. I recently was playing with one at work and took several very nice macro photos of it, one of which has become the desktop wallpaper both at home and at work on the computer.

I also raise Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, which are nothing like the icky ones you find in poorly maintained restuarants.

It takes a special person to realize that all animals have worth, all animals are worthy of study and understanding, not just the cute fuzzy ones.

@evelyns_pet_zebra id love to see that spider picture if you have it online somewhere.

i need a new one, my giant beetle macro is gettin old :P

I’ve always wondered why people find spiders and bugs scary. For me, I’m afraid of spiders because of the way they look. They look scary. I can’t explain why that is, though, they just do. It’s the 8 legs and the quick way they move and the size they can be sometimes. It’s just gross and terrifying. :)

I know I’m not afraid of them because of the fear of them being dangerous; I know most of them aren’t dangerous. Snakes are more dangerous than spiders and I’m not afraid of snakes. Sure, I don’t want one in my room, but they don’t scare me at all the way spiders do.

I don’t like anything that won’t look me in the eye! (spiders are the worst.)

@gailcalled there are four highly venomous spiders in the US, but none of them are poisonous. poisonous applies to something you would ingest, venomous applies to something that bites or stings you. There is the Brown Recluse, the Hobo Spider, the Widow Spiders and the Tarantula. There is also a spider known as a Yellow Sac Spider, which links to can be found on the Hobo Spider page. That’s five that can cause a painful bite out of 30,000 species of spiders found in North America. Most spiders, even if they did bite you, have such weak venom that it would cause you no harm.

Most spiders are not aggressive, and they all do more good than harm. Spiders eat mosquitoes and ticks, which are far more dangerous than the eight legged creatures people squish for no better reason than irrational fear. To kill spiders out of fear is wrong. Leave them alone and they will leave you alone. Most spiders won’t bite you, and you can’t tell a spider bite just by looking at it. Go here to learn that much of what people believe about spiders is false.

@Judi, these little fellas will look you in the eye.

broken link :(

@evelyns_pet_zebra: Your link to Widow Spiders is hard on the eyes due to the color scheme, but here’s the first sentence. Interesting info, however.

“The widow spiders, genus Latrodectus, are among the most recognized spiders on earth; they are the largest of the cobweb weavers, family Theridiidae, and all species are poisonous.” Emphasis done by me.

@gailcalled, yeah, I know, but technically, they would only be poisonous if you came to harm by eating them. I don’t think eating a handful of Black Widows is going to cause you much gastric distress; it might gross you out, but I’m sure that stomach acid would neutralize any venom in the spiders you devoured. can you imagine eighty spider legs sliding down your throat?

Many people use poisonous and venomous interchangeably, when that is erroneous. Funny how you can say a bug is poisonous, but people correct you if you say that mothballs, if ingested, are venomous.

Well-said and good point. I saw a wonderful movie once about a young white girl who had a black, male nanny. It took place on a plantation in one of the sub-saharan African countries. The nanny showed the little girl how to make and then eat an ant sandwich.

I actually don’t mind bugs. June bugs, bugs of the ear wig variety, granddaddy long legs; they’re fine in my books. And, my 3rd grade boys at the school where I teach think that’s pretty cool.

Now, it’s just those God awful house centipedes that send me screaming out of the house like a crazy woman. Nu-ah. No thanks.

@jmah, kill those little buggers, as they have a nasty bite, and their saliva is full of nasty bacteria. Most bites mistaken for spider bites are usually centipede bites, or even just bacterial infections.

Oh, boy, now I hate them even more. Ick.

And, I don’t think that his Mama could love a face like that.

Just Google “centipede”. I can’t link it for you. They are too terrifying for me to even look at. They are horrible, disgusting, fast, nasty, heinous creatures, and they all need to die.

Actually, we just had a conversation about bugs last night. I’ve decided that that is reason number 3 why I love Antarctica (where I am now). There hasn’t been a bug here in 80 million years. Well, maybe in some of the “freshies” that we get from New Zealand, but they don’t last long.

The smaller a creature is, the creepier it is.

Hate hate hate centipedes!!! Not overly fond of other bugs, but can deal with them as long as their creepy faces are not enlarged. I do not want to see detail.

hahah. okkk.. :)
it seems like the main reason is cause they just look scary, and some are poisonous
how many times does the average person even come in contact with one that is dangerous???

@evelyns_pet_zebra definitely. takes a special person to realize that all animals have their own unique “cuteness” as others would say it. :)

@gailcalled, “Poisonous” and “venomous” are two different things. Offhand, I can’t think of any spider that is poisonous (harmful to eat, breathe or touch). Mushrooms are sometimes poisonous, but spiders are not; they are venomous (their toxins are proteins and work by being injected, not by being eaten).

Second, we have a set of false assumptions about spider venoms. Almost all spiders are venomous; only two small families lack venom glands. The purpose of spider venom is to subdue the spider’s prey, almost always insects. In brief, it’s an insecticide. Spider venom does not exist to harm creatures, like humans, which are too large for spiders to eat, and in nearly all cases has little if any effect on humans.

A minority of spider species have venom that can cause localized pain in humans, like the venom of bees or wasps. (Bees and wasps are far more dangerous than spiders, however; wasps cause many deaths annually). Of around 50,000 spider species known, only about 25 (½0 of 1%) have venom capable of causing illness in humans, to a greater or lesser extent. In any given locality you can expect to find from zero to (at most) three such species. These species are called “medically significant” spiders.

I think it has mainly to do with the fact that it is an irrational fear. There is really no good reason to be afraid of a bug, but that doesn’t matter to some of us. I am also afraid of giant flags. What’s the deal with that?

@Supacase just in case

@evelyns_pet_zebra ; now how am I supposed to get to sleep tonight!!

Some facts about brown recluse spiders, taken from this site.

In its native range, the brown recluse is a very common house spider. A colleague in Missouri found 5 in a child’s bedroom one night, a person in Arkansas found 6 living under his box spring in his bedroom, during a cleanup at the Univ. of Arkansas, 52 were found in a science lab that was being used everyday, a colleague found 9 living under one piece of plywood in Oklahoma, a grad student and I collected 40 of them in a Missouri barn in 75 minutes, and would have collected more, but we ran out of vials to house them. One amazing story is an 8th grade teacher in Oklahoma checking up on his students avidly collecting material by some loose bricks around a flagpole on an insect collecting trip. In about 7 minutes, 8 students collected 60 brown recluses, picking them all up with their fingers and not one kid suffered a bite. An even more amazing story is that of a woman in Lenexa, Kansas who collected 2,055 brown recluse spiders in 6 months in 1850s-built home. This family of 4 has been living there 8 years now and still not one evident bite. (see Vetter and Barger 2002, Journal of Medical Entomology 39: 948–951).

@Judi I suppose now would be a bad time to tell you that the average home has between 10 and 30 species of spiders living in it at any given time?

@evelyns_pet_zebra ; I hate you ~

@evelyns_pet_zebra My daughter was just bit by a centipede Friday evening. You should have seen the tears in her eyes. I thought they were safe. I never knew they were such nasty buggers. I felt so bad for her. I told her to pick it up.

We had many people here in central Illinois a few years ago that were bit by brown recluse spiders. I believe that there were a few deaths because of this. The media made sure that the public knew what the spiders looked like.

They like to crawl inside your ear while you sleep and live in your brain.
Sometimes they crawl in your mouth at night because spiders love warm and moist places. They say the average person swallows 10 spiders in their lifetime.

The scarecity came from the amount of the insect.If you kill one of them afterthat there is another one and more and more.They are pushing by feedness up.

i reckon they arnt of this world…they came here in hollowed out marshmallows from space

Interesting looking creature. She’s/he’s actually kinda cute.

I’ve not come to appreciate the sensation of some Arthropods as they crawl on my skin. but I do have a particular fondness for some cooked properly and served with fresh drawn butter (lobster, crab, etc.). See ya….Gary aka wtf

I think they are really scary! I am one of those people who would freak out if they saw a bug or a spider or something.I am terrified with ants! I think the can go anywhere and I freak out when I see one! I always think spiders would bite me.I hate them.But the good part about them is when they catch flies and other bugs too! Once a spider spun its web on my shoulder and it was a freaking scary spider! I always scream or freak out when I see one.
I’m such a girl :P

@irocktheworld: Did you mention that you freak out?

@gailcalled Haha nice one gail.=/

the fear of bugs that we have is passed down from our ancestors, because it’s better to be scared/grossed out when you see a harmless bug than going to go play with a poisonous one.

@irocktheworld Oh, you don’t want to know what happened to me one night. I woke up in the middle of the night with this strange noise in my ear. It was kind of like having water in your ear after swimming, but it wouldn’t stop. I finally got up and found a Q-tip, which I used to dig around in my ear. When I took the Q-tip out of my ear, there was a squashed ant stuck to it. I was too sleepy to be really disturbed, but the next day I made my husband move all of the bedroom furniture so I could vacuum extra-thoroughly.

As for bugs in general, they don’t bother me at all and never have. I actually find them really interesting. Spiders do creep me out, but unless I’m surprised by one, I can handle it. And only if they don’t crawl on me, which just the idea of makes me feel sick to my stomach.

My son, who will be six soon, is an avid insect collector. His obsession started when he wasn’t even three. His past Halloween costumes include an earwig, an Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly, and a devil mantis. He spends hours every day (other than winter) out looking for bugs. Since he’s so young, I’ve become his assistant. This year he started an official collection, pinning insects of different species into a collection box. I help him out a lot, since it is delicate and difficult work. My job is to catch things he can’t reach, pin the smaller bugs, and spread the butterflies so they dry properly. It’s amazing what he finds, and even more amazing what he knows.

My son has been stung by bees and wasps many times. He once had a rove beetle bite him hard enough to draw blood. A praying mantis bit him once, and he’s so used to mosquito bites that he hardly notices them anymore. I’ve removed two ticks from his body just this summer. Nothing phases him. Right now we are raising monarch caterpillars and tobacco hornworm caterpillars. We also have a praying mantis—all of them living on my kitchen counter. In my freezer, I have three different butterflies, several dragonflies, various beetles, and one spider, all waiting to be added to the collection that my son proudly displays in his bedroom. I know it grosses some people out, but most people find my son’s collection interesting. Even my husband, who does not share our enthusiasm for six-legged creatures, will collect and bring home interesting insects he finds while working.

My point to all of this is, sometimes the more you start to learn about something, the more interesting and the less scary it becomes. I spend so much time reading insect books to my son, who doesn’t like any other kind of book, that I’ve come to really appreciate how incredibly well-adapted insects are for the things they do.

@evelyns_pet_zebra lurve for describing the difference between poisonous and venomous!

@jonsblond, even spider experts cannot be sure what a brown recluse looks like by sight alone. As for deaths by their bite, it would have to be a very young child, or an elderly person in poor health, as 80% of Brown Recluse bites do not even require medical attention. Yellow sac spiders, on the other hand, are much more aggressive, and have a much stronger venom that the Brown Recluse. Yet, you rarely hear of people screaming about Yellow Sac Spiders. Please go here and read the entire site, the truth is out there, but the local media doesn’t have a clue.

When it comes to finding the truth and sharing it with the public, the media are idiots, and like the medical community 90% of them can’t tell a spider bite from a irritated mosquito bite. The majority of ‘supposed’ spider bites are usually bacterial infections and not bites at all.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic both of those are urban legends, and completely false. Spiders DO NOT crawl in people’s mouths, nor do they drink the moisture from your eyes. This is more scare tactics by the truly ininformed masses. Please read the link in my previous post; the truth is indeed out there, you just have to look for it.

@MissAusten that boy of yours is awesome. I’d love to see his collection someday. If he ever feels the urge for Madagascar Roaches, I can send ya a breeding pair!

@evelyns_pet_zebra, His collection, or rather, half of it. He’s started another collection box that is also almost full. I’m not sure if we’re ready for roaches right now, what with all of the other live projects we have. I’ll certainly PM you when we’re ready for a new insect experience! Thanks!

@MissAusten thanks for the pic, your boy is handsome, and looks quite proud of his collection.

Look, he’s crawling up my wall
Black and hairy, very small
Now he’s up above my head
Hanging by a little thread

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Now he’s dropped on to the floor
Heading for the bedroom door
Maybe he’s as scared as me
Where’s he gone now, I can’t see

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Creepy, crawly
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly

The Who – Boris the Spider

@evelyns_pet_zebra Thanks for the info!:)

@rebbel HAHAHAHAA

@MissAusten OMFG! Im soo freaked out to read the rest after when the bug went in your ear! I hate ants and that’s what Im scared could happen!! :( What would ants do if they went inside your ear? Im soo freaked out.:O Awww! I feel so bad for your boy.:( Poor boy.:(

@irocktheworld Really, it was no big deal! I just went back to bed. Your eardrum prevents anything from really getting “into” your ear. And my son must not mind too much, because most of the time he doesn’t even cry. Within five minutes, he’s back to catching bugs. I’m trying to get him to stop picking up bugs if he doesn’t know what they are, but he can’t seem to resist. He’s not allergic, and there aren’t any truly dangerous insects here that we need to worry about.

One time, we were at the park and he found this neat little black and gray beetle. We didn’t have a jar with us (this was before he started his collection), so he carried it around in his hand for about half an hour. For a four year old to carry a bug that long without hurting it was pretty impressive. I made him let it go before we left the park, and when we got home we looked online to find out what it was. Turned out, he’d been carrying around a margined blister beetle which, if he’d squashed it in his fist, would have given him painful blisters. Most of the time, bugs that can bite him don’t, and if they do, he actually apologizes to the bug. He’s like the insect version of the Crocodile Hunter—he even talks to them. So, don’t feel bad for my boy! He would much rather suffer the occasional bite or sting than give up his passion for insects.

I love how @MissAusten says “You don’t want to know” and then tells in detail. <3 Lurve!

@MacBean Just because she didn’t want to know doesn’t mean I didn’t want to tell!

Im sorry I just think ants are wierd and creepy.They can crawl anywhere.:O
Ohh good,haha :P
Cool! :) Good thing he didn’t squash it! Omg,when I clicked on the beetle pic,I almost jumped out of my chair! Lol! Beetles are freaky to me and once I was at the beach and there were these beetles attacking me and sticking to my legs and ugh,it was bad.It’s official,I hate bugs.