A is for Arachnophobia

So here we go with my pest related experiences & comments starting, in alphabetical order, with the letter A.

A is for Arachnophobia and all things arachnids. I do not have a particular fear of spiders but I am not their biggest fan. Dare I say, I may have killed one or two in the past rather than run the risk of them crawling on me whilst I sleep in my bed at night.  And yet I know, that as a mother, I have to be careful not to pass on my fear of spiders to my little girl. I shall have to resist the urge to reach for the nearest available cushion to ‘scare off’ said pest.

I came across an article, outdated but interesting& relevant nonetheless, talking about this very thing and how the irrational fears some people have of creepy crawlies, like spiders and snakes, is usually passed on from parent to child in their very early years of life.

To be honest, I don’t think my fear of spiders is that severe. I mean, I could watch that classic Arachnophobia film from the 1990s, but I choose not to. I understand how that film could be an Arachnophobe’s nightmare – Hollywood is great at playing on our fears, irrational or not. The Birds by Hitchcock is another classic example of this, making me wary of large groups of birds even now in my 30s!

I would quite like to go to Australia one day, but I do tend to associate that country with having far too many spiders and snakes. Spiders, which can kill you too…..or so I thought until I read the Australian Geographic, which says: No recorded death from spider bites in Australia since 1981?! Well, that is reassuring but I am not jumping on the next flight to Oz.

So what’s your experience of arachnids? My worst one is walking into spider webs near the water butts at the bottom of our garden, then spending the next 10 minutes furiously searching for any sign of them taking refuge on my person! Did not help that I was wearing shorts!