Isn’t fear of spiders a learned behaviour but fear of snakes is instinctive? I’m sure I read that somewhere.

Anyhow, no-one in our family is afraid of spiders, daughter loves rescuing them, even ones which don’t really need rescuing.

jekkyl – Member

Why is it women have an irrational fear of spiders?

learned behaviour most likely from their mum.

My wife is terrified of them. Last year she dropped our then baby daughter when she thought there was a spider on her. It broke her arm

😯 I can’t imagine anyone coming out of this situation well. 😐

I think a lot of it is learned behaviour. My partner absolutely HATES worms. Finally clicked when I saw her mother screaming in terror and making a fuss when one of out kids picked up a worm. Luckily she hides it so our kids haven’t picked up on this absurd drama and quite happily pick them.

Likewise spiders, I pick them up with my hands, both our kids happy to do the same. Their friends all flip out other them and in every case it’s because their mothers have a pathetic screaming fit at the sight of a tiny spider. (The dads may be the same at home, I haven’t seen it)

Our son came home very sad after playing at a friend’s house because the mother of the house was encouraging their 5yr old to kill spiders in the garden. Our boy loves watching them.

The really big hairy ones get the glass treatment, I don’t fancy them scuttling up my shirt sleeve…

Mrs PP doesn’t hate spiders but I’ve started leaving them where I find them and not putting them outside.
Those that are killing them (the OP for a start) to pacify others are evil heartless bastards IMO. And tearing a room apart until a spider is caught? Come on! Seriously?
I used to know a bloke who’s wife would get him to do that. She was sectioned under the mental health act at one point, not just for spiders to be fair, but for being generally mental, but that was part of it.

Quite often got the job of rescuing them from friends who are too scared to even look.

Get very disappointed with people who say they care about animals but are quite happy to kill spiders. My neighbour used to poor bleach on them, evil Woman. She said they made her physically sick.

Looked after a friends Tarantula once, I still want one.

I have a pretty irrational fear of them to, although trying to teach myself to be more rational. I’ll pick up/evict smaller ones and cup/paper the bigger ones, or just let them be if they’re not near where I sit/sleep.

I did have a couple of panics recently, one dropped on me whilst driving (I did a great Ned Flanders scream impression but didn’t swerve thankfully), second was noticing a pretty big one above my head whilst in the shower – I knew it wasn’t going to attack me but no chance I could close my eyes to wash my hair after seeing it.

I can’t imagine what it’s like living in a country where you have proper spiders that give nasty bites…

Handy things spiders, keep the flies at bay.

It’s the other way round here. Slowoldwoman deals with the spiders.

It’s because they fear you’ll work out that woman and spiders are one and the same.

You’re the fly and by pandering to the fear… you’re already getting stuck in the web.

A former Eddiebabe hated spiders, it was my job to put them outside.
We were in the Caribbean in a tiny little forest and our guide plucks a tarantula out of the bushes and all she wanted to do was stroke the lovely fluffy thing, but back in the hotel and any normal little spider is back to freaking her out.
There again a centipede the size of a skateboard* had me cacking myself when I nearly cycled over it on the same trip, so who am I to criticise?

* Possibility fear magnified its apparant size.

I can’t imagine what it’s like living in a country where you have proper spiders that give nasty bites…

My BIL lives in Oz and they got a Christmas Tree last year. They put it up, decorated it etc then it suddenly erupted with thousands of tiny spiders – it turned out there was a nest in there and they hatched out LOL! We go out next March and I know I am going to have a month of hell with my wife being paranoid about finding any (even if we don’t come across any, my wife will still be very neurotic about the possibility of finding them).

I’m very uncomfortable with spiders, whilst Mrs taxi will pick them up with here bare hands 😯 I always call her to remove them. It’s work’s for me and boosts her ego out toughing the household tough guy 😳
Bats though !! she had to be removed hysterical from the Bat walkthrough at Prague Zoo 😆

I always pick up spiders in my hands – I am not 100% keen on it but it doesn’t bother me that much – but I do it to show my little girls that there is no reason to be scared of them.

This still makes me laugh.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WiR2VE-gm4[/video]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04mqc4z/spider-house

This is good. Says Fear of spiders is a learned behaviour that can be solved in a day.

There seems to be a bit of a line with me – had one a bit bigger than a 50p living in the corner of the bedroom ceiling, 6′ away from my pillow, but it had a web and caught flies – I let it stay. I came in early one morning a bit bleary eyed after work and thought ‘it’s got a lot of legs, maybe it’s shedding it’s skin’. The next morning, it appeared that wasn’t the case and my (now obviously female) friend, had a boyfriend. When they start mating above my bed, it’s time to go outside.

Big hairy house spiders, that are too big to fit in a pint glass (I left that one to the mrs) can eff right off. That said, I was fine holding various tarantulas at a little wildlife show in the summer.

We have two house cats, so how on earth any spiders are left free to roam our house is beyond me though, useless little shits.

I don’t mind smaller ones, and I’m happy to leave them roaming round getting on with their lives, but I’m not keen on the huge ones that sometimes appear in the bath or in the bedroom. Mr Pea gets rid of them!

I hate them (women) but my Mum will happily pick them up in her hands when we were kids to get rid of them. No learnt behaviour here!

I don’t particularly like them but can exist alongside them and can even cope with them walking on me but i struggle to pick them up with out the glass and paper.

To be fair i swear i can hear them run across the floor

I’m scared of spiders, don’t mind them being around mostly, but wouldn’t be able to hold one. No idea if it’s learnt behaviour or not, but I’m genuinely terrified by them.

When we had a big wolf spider on the bedroom ceiling and I just couldn’t go to sleep with it there. The Mrs put it outside for me!

Strange thing is, I’ve owned a few (and still do own one) tarantulas. Don’t hold them as I think they don’t need or benefit from it (plus there a chance of hurting and/or killing them if dropped), but I’m not scared of them like I am of the big wolf spiders you get in the garage/shed etc.. I think it’s a speed thing, the tarantulas I’ve had where all docile, massive, slow lumps that barely move!

The other day, I got asked to take a spider out instead of just killing it.

So we had a couple of beers at the local. Nice guy – he’s training to be a web designer.

FormerArtist your cats need to man-up, my two love spiders, only reason the cats are allowed in the bedroom is arachnid population control. Otherwise all they get is kibble, no pouches or fancy stuff, keeps them keen to hunt for soft treats

My other half doesn’t like birds

get him a login – he’ll fit right in

if I find them where I don’t want them, ie next to my pillow before I’m about to sleep I pick them up gently and put them outside.

Years ago, my girlfriend, who I’d only known for a few months at the time spotted a pretty large spider sat on the wall above the TV. She started almost hyper ventilating and was gasping at me to get rid of it. I got a pint glass from the kitchen and it wouldn’t fit over it’s legs so I had to go back and get a pint jug glass. Once safely inside I wandered over to my girlfriend who had by now migrated into the other room, and I showed it to her in the glass. She appeared to lose her breath gasping, then her eyes rolled back and she passed out on the sofa. I felt a bit bad after that.

I crushed it in a tissue and resisted the urge to throw it her laughing and instead put it in the bin

You crushed it and laughed. Couldn’t you just put it outside.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrS6akzR3sk[/video]

Some boys are afraid of spiders too

[video]https://youtu.be/KUImBpVaZAQ[/video]

my gf and her housemate (male) are both afraid of spiders. I’m not bothered by their presence but prefer not to handle them.

She was also afraid of dogs and learnt that from her mum. The fear vanished when her mum panicked and put my gf between her and the dog… Good thing really, as I’ve got a massive dog.

OP, maybe you should enlist your missus on I’m Strictly in the Jungle Factor Get me out of here?