FEAR

[Guest zipperzone]

Fear is a terrible thing........

[Lucky]

Are you afraid of spiders? They seem harmless to me, although there is the Black Widow to fear.

National Geographic says:

This spider's bite is much feared because its venom is reported to be 15 times stronger than a rattlesnake's. In humans, bites produce muscle aches, nausea, and a paralysis of the diaphragm that can make breathing difficult; however, contrary to popular belief, most people who are bitten suffer no serious damage—let alone death. But bites can be fatal—usually to small children, the elderly, or the infirm. Fortunately, fatalities are fairly rare; the spiders are nonaggressive and bite only in self-defense, such as when someone accidentally sits on them or when an internet poster makes fun of them.

[Guest lurkerspeaks]

spiders might not be my favorite creature, but I am more afraid of snakes..The only snake I like is the trouser snake.

[AdamSmith]

spiders might not be my favorite creature, but I am more afraid of snakes..The only snake I like is the trouser snake.

Agreed. I have several times gone to change the artificial flowers on a relative's grave, and found a black widow nesting in them. But never been bitten. However, I have for decades had a recurrent nightmare where I am in the yard, and suddenly find myself having to very carefully step over and around any number of copperhead snakes. Maybe from memory of, at 8 years old, a very big one actually coming into our back yard, and papa dispatching it via beheading with a shovel, and then the jaws continuing to snap mindlessly for several minutes.

Phobias are the weirdest thing.

[Guest zipperzone]

Maybe from memory of, at 8 years old, a very big one actually coming into our back yard, and papa dispatching it via beheading with a shovel, and then the jaws continuing to snap mindlessly for several minutes.

Phobias are the weirdest thing.

Those jaws snapping would really freak me out too.

[TampaYankee]

Maybe from memory of, at 8 years old, a very big one actually coming into our back yard, and papa dispatching it via beheading with a shovel, and then the jaws continuing to snap mindlessly for several minutes.

Phobias are the weirdest thing.

I have no love for snakes.

Before my childhood neighborhood was annexed into the city of Tampa decades ago, our US Mail designation was Rattelsnake FL. I remember both rattlesnakes and coral snakes being found in the neighbors yard next to a vacant lot.

Ten years later, my high school biology glass would go on a field trip outside the building, across the street from the parking lot into a vacant lot where one of the students would catch a rattlesnake for exhibition to the class.

ANY TIME I walked in the woods or vacant lots I had both eyes on the ground scoping out the ground for my next step. Best to remain stationary when you looked elsewhere.

Spiders were an everyday occurence. Black widows only occasionally.