Arachnophobia (Afraid of Spiders) No Pics outside of Spoilers

Personal. Have a ton of them this year. Scared me pretty good at first because I had no idea what they were. I Googled "spider with a shell" haha.

Edit: my literal thought was "Oh fuck off nature, spiders have armor now?"

 

I send them to my buddy as well, and sometimes he responds, other times he drops his phone and can't touch it again. He has to have his wife or kids pic it up, hide the pic, and then he cusses at me.

 

sorry I had no idea what ‘spoiler’ was.. and I also had no idea that there were grown men in this world that are the level of soft that require a safety from a spider pic. So I’ve leaned two things from this thread.

 

But really, if you're scared of them, just take the time to learn about them.

They're more scared of you than you should be of them.

 

Lots of phobias out there. I knew a gal that has a phobia of whales. Had never been to the ocean, never seen one, but it is immediate panic inducing terror when she sees them. Look up the definition of a phobia and you may understand it better.

 

I would say that is 99.9% true. Care to guess what that 0.1% is that is the exception to the rule?

 

Do you have more pics of them? Anything that shows scale? I know they are an orb weaver like the Cat Faces that I posted, but IDK if they are similar in size.

 

Spoiler: Big boy in Georgia

This got sucked up in a shop vac then torched. I’m not messing around with one this big.

 

Not at the moment but I'll see if I can go find one and take some pics with something for scale. Hopefully it'll stop raining later.

Edit and tagging you for awareness @50Buck, apparently the rain doesn't bother them one bit. I guess the shell is more parka than armor haha. Here's pics with scale:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Underside of the white one:

Spoiler

 

Phobia? No. Healthy respect and instant smash of certain spiders...yes.

Spoiler: Click Me

 

Yeah, I'm not a fan of roaming spiders. I have a 4 leg policy in my home. Cross my threshold with more than 4 legs and your life is forfeit. Outdoors I try to let them be, but in my house they better be cute if they don't wanna get swatted.

Is that what I think it is?! Yeah, he'd be dead. That and the Black Widow are the only dangerous ones we get in Wyoming, but so far as I know I've never encountered either here. Saw lots of Widows when I lived in Phoenix, though. They creep me out super bad.

 

It's not what you think it is.
Looks more like a sac spider

 

Yep, thats when i lived in west texas. I had a shed infested with them when I moved in. Also had black widows, scorpions, rattlesnakes and big fucking centipedes. All in my front yard.


Thankfully we also had these chill little dudes.

Spoiler: Adorable

 

If its not a brown recluse I would be so happy.

 

Looks close enough to me I wouldn't take any chances. I'm not an expert, but it looks so damn close.

 

Hmmm. Maybe. They looked close enough to me, and their general behavior seemed to match what I've heard. The whole violin on the head thing they had, but apparently that isn't reliable.

 

Did some googling, and apparently sac spiders aren't lethal but still bad enough I'd treat it the same as a brown recluse.

 

Yea cellar spiders share that pattern as well. Recluse are typically more stances like huntsman spiders

 

There aren't as *many* lethal spiders in the US as many think.

Especially Black Widows; some just find out the hard way when they have an allergic reaction as death from a widow's bite isn't as fatal as many make it out to be.

 

Oh, absolutely. Widows can kill a person, but it's super rare. My dislike for them is not because they can hurt you, but because they are one the ones that creep me out the most due to the body shape and movement. The legs that go way up above the body tend to be what trigger the creepy response in my brain. That, and then getting large (inch or better) puts them squarely in the "NOPE!" category. They are hard, too. Like, they crunch when you step on them. Not squish, CRUNCH!