Tarantulas and fear

Scientists have been studying tarantulas in respect to fears that humans may have:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101108/sc_ ... as_spiders

Interesting study, especially regarding the phobias, etc.

Anyone here afraid of tarantulas??

I don't know if I qualify as being afraid of them, but I certainly don't want to get anywhere near them if at all possible.

I wouldn't say I'm afraid of them, as far as having an actual phobia, but I would also prefer to avoid any spider that size. Some seem very docile from what I've seen on TV, but I bet they could be mean if angered.

I hate them. Every single last one of'em. All arachnids must die long and horrible deaths.

I hate every and all spiders, and I think they should die a more painful and horrible death than H-Man was describing.

I used to be terribly afraid of spiders. Then my neighbor's six years old daughter told me that her kindergarten teacher told her that all spiders were called "Bob". Giving spiders a generic, sympathetic name helped kids disregard their fear of it.

And you know what? It worked with me. Now, whenever I see "Bob", instead of twitching and moving away, I either leave it be or place it in close proximity to my cat. Apparently, according to my cat, Bob tastes great. And trust me, where I live, Bob can be awfully large. (Though in my region of the world, they are all harmless)

Hm, that's an interesting way of dispelling a fear. Maybe I'll give that a try too.

I don't mind spiders, but I'm definitely not the kind of person to go up and try grab one just because I'm comfortable with it sitting in the same area as me. I must admit though I do quite like tarantulas, I also find the little money spiders we have in Australia quite cute.

In Australia, you have those evil, EVIL hyper-venomous trapdoor spiders (or are they funnel-web spiders?) that scare me just thinking about them.

I don't care about spiders. I'm never annoyed in the presence of one, regardless of its size. Sometimes I get myself carefully moving spiders to safer places.
And tarantulas, though big, usually are not dangerous and I like big and harmless spiders. Even the most dangerous spiders, which are present here in Brazil, hardly can cause serious damage to humans (only 2% of children bitten by them need specific medication).

H-Man wrote:

In Australia, you have those evil, EVIL hyper-venomous trapdoor spiders (or are they funnel-web spiders?) that scare me just thinking about them.

We have both spiders, although I’ve seen the trapdoor more than the funnel web. I can guarantee you we would have a trapdoor spider in our backyard somewhere. Pretty common, spider really although the ones I’ve seen have been quite small not big and round like some of them are supposed to get.