Arachnophobia - Watch the spiders don't get you!

I have read that the number one most common phobia is the phobia of spiders. Many, many people have a fear of spiders but it varies in intensity from person to person. Some just have a mild dislike whilst at the other extreme others will only have to see a photograph of a spider to have an extreme reaction. Some people may have panic attacks or do anything to avoid spiders such as having another person check a room for spiders before they enter it themselves. Accidents have been caused by a person seeing a spider in their car and it has been known for people to try and jump out of a moving car to get away from one. The condition can be so severe that it can lead to Agoraphobia with the person not even wanting to leave their house in case they encounter a spider.

Some of the things that people particularly dislike about spiders are:

1/ Their size
2/ Black colouration
3/ Their big bottoms
4/ The length of their legs
5/ The way they move.

Fortunately, the condition can be helped very effectively with therapies such as Hypnotherapy, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing).

In South America tribes such as the Piaroa Indians actually catch cook and eat large bird eating spiders. There is also a history of spiders being eaten in Europe. The French author Reaumur new a certain young lady who would eat all the spiders she could find. For some unknown reason it seems that spiders are mostly eaten by women. W.S.Bristowe, author of The World of Spiders, reported that he had eaten cooked Tarantulas but was amazed by a lady called Miss Jennifer Walker who insisted that common British spiders were delicious when eaten raw. One particular afternoon they each sampled 5 different species. I don't recommend trying this yourself.

It seems, therefore, that spiders have far more to fear from us than we have from them. My sense of humour being what it is I can imagine a young spider running to his mother shouting, "Mum! Mum! Come quick! There's a Human in the bath. I have this vision of a big spider and a little spider peering over the side of a bath at a tiny Human sat by the plug hole!