Why is it women have an irrational fear of spiders?
I don’t like to generalise and much less in a sexist way but I’ve yet to meet a man who is afraid of spiders in the same way women are.
My wife leapt up last night screaming and pointing at the skirting board, literally screaming like in the movies when a murderer is coming at you with a knife. I could not see any spider where she was pointing despit her going ‘there, it’s there, ohh get it get it’ – eventually I spotted it, it wasn’t on or near the floor at all but hanging by a thread about to attack my wife from mid air. It was the thinnest most pathetic spider I have even seen and the wife was so scared she couldn’t even muster the words to tell me where it was. I crushed it in a tissue and resisted the urge to throw it her laughing and instead put it in the bin.
Women…. what gives?

She’s faking it to make you feel worthwhile….

They all do it.

and people say this place can be misogynistic 😉

leapt up last night screaming and pointing at the skirting board, literally screaming like in the movies when a murderer is coming at you with a knife.

That is my usual response too.

One of my mates has an irrational fear of spiders, so does my wife. We have often joked how much of a hell their life would be if they had become a couple – just stood, motionless, screaming at the sight of every little spider.

But I am %£*^ing sick of them – countless times I have had to take the bedroom to bits (moving beds/furniture etc, replacing all bedding) when a spider has been spotted but not caught.

Heh…bitches.

I crushed it in a tissue

Why would you kill a spider?

John, just make a big show of going ‘ahh there it is’ and pretending to crush it in a tissue.. letting Mr Spider come back for revenge when you’re both asleep.

John, just make a big show of going ‘ahh there it is’ and pretending to crush it in a tissue.. letting Mr Spider come back for revenge when you’re both asleep
I wouldn’t dare do that (I have contemplated it) because if my wife ever found me doing that, she’d never relax again as she would continue to think it was ‘out there’.

I really do not like having large spiders around the house, I know they’re harmless, but if I see something move across the carpet or wall out of the corner of my eye, my heart rate rockets? They get caught under a glass with a sheet of card underneath and promptly evicted. My g/f is as bad, actually worse, and my mum, when she was alive; I’ve come home to find a note about a spider, and found an upturned glass with a spider underneath on the carpet in the past.
I’m not too keen on handling garden orb spiders either, one bit me when I was a kid, put me right off, that did!

There might be a wee swear word or two.

[video]http://youtu.be/uFCBxh1AYKg[/video]

Same reason men say ‘I don’t like to generalise and much less in a sexist way’ immediately before generalising and in a sexist way?

I dreamt I was eating a spider once and then I woke up and I *was* eating a spider. I was spitting out legs for what felt like hours.

I don’t mind them and Mrs F is the same as your wife. They only freak me out when they appear on or near you out of nowhere. They should wear little bells on their legs. That would solve the issue

I don’t like to generalise

Uh-huh…

this makes my skin crawl and I don;t normally worry about them

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcLs5VC9giQ[/video]

yeh I know they’re harmless and I probably shouldn’t kill them for the sake of my karma and general being a nice human’ness. . . . but I do.

I’m quite happy to admit that in our house, my wife is the spider wrangler, whilst I stand shrieking on a chair having an attack of the vapours. Yes, I know it’s irrational, and as a psychiatric nurse with thirty years experience I should learn to manage my anxieties, but bugger that for a game of soldiers.

Most of the time its not actually a genuine phobia, its just learned behaviour. You’ll know when you meet someone who is genuinely afraid as they turn a weird colour and do anything humanly possible to get away from the object of their fear.

Weird creepy things, I don’t want them in my house. Spiders on the other hand are more than welcome.

I think you’ll find a lot of men are afraid too but women are mature enough to admit it. My other half doesn’t like birds so the last two pigeons in our garden I’ve had to ‘deal’ with. Our deal is I’ll do the birds and he does the spiders.

What I want to know is, what is the deal with men and the male genitalia. Give them a pen, blank paper and freedom and they’ll all draw a penis. It’s not like they’re magical or rare, they each have one! You don’t see women randomly drawing breasts everywhere!!

*obviously I don’t mean to generalise throughout the entire post. However if you’re a bloke and scared of spiders I think we’re basically saying MTFU* 😉 😀

It’s not just women I know plenty blokes afraid of them.

I have had several spiders over the summer happily living on my kitchen ceiling. The ones who build small webs I’m happy to live along side as they keep themselves to themselves.

The big buggers who scuttle across the lounge carpet are a different matter. They get hunted down and evicted. Cant stand the thought of them roaming around but still would not kill them.

i think its because they dont look cute and fluffy like a kitten

My old (male) flatmate used to hoover them up and then put masking tape over the nozzle to stop them all coming out again…

I think my wife borders on genuine arachnophobia. A tiny, really tiny, really really tiny money spider fell down from the sun visor in the car so she started clawing at the door to exit the car rapidly. At 30mph.

I’ve learnt never to joke and just deal with them for her – seems safest all round.

I like spiders myself and I pick them up with my bare hands to try and stem the stupid with my twin 9yr old daughter’s, it kinda works got chased by about 10 European hornets (Google em) today though whilst working they can **** right off.

I am under the impression that if you put a house spider outside it’s pretty much doomed.
I just think of all the possibly worse things they eat, hopefully earwigs, I hate those ****.

I don’t like to generalise and much less in a sexist way but I’ve yet to meet a man who is afraid of spiders in the same way women are.

I hate spiders.
MrsG isn’t bothered by them at all.

Who’d have thought, sweeping generalisations aren’t always totally true 😯

Shocker.

lol. Well this thread has opened my eyes, I never knew some men were afraid of spiders. Weirdos!
I’ve also learnt never to make sweeping generalisations on internet forum threads because loads of people bored at work will call you out on it 😛

I pick up the larger house spiders with my hands while my wife freaks out. The smaller spiders are more of a problem because they are easier to crush and seem to be much faster than the larger spiders so I use a spider catching thingy we have and then put them outside. I think I could handle a tarantula with no problem like the wildlife guys on telly.

Once at work I heard screaming from the reception area so went out to see if someone was being murdered. It turns out there was a spider crawling along the corridor and the two women receptionists were in a blind panic. It was possibly the largest house spider I have ever seen but I went and picked it up which sent the receptionists into even more of a screaming panic!

I do know of a couple of male friends who don’t like spiders just to add a bit of balance. On the other hand I do have acrophobia…

I keep spidey in the office to stop the mrs being too nosey 😉

I like spiders. In our house they are the only thing that keeps the woodlice under control. Not so fond of the tarantula that crapped on my hand, but there you go.

Ha as a woman i can happily say they don’t bother me – but I was referred to today as ‘being such a bloke’ . . . I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult

…..I never knew some men were afraid of spiders. Weirdos

Weirdo

Makes sense from an evolutionary perspective if women are primary carers of children – an alarming scream to alert the rest of the troop to spider or snakes or other things that could bite or harm children /guess.

I thought fears were learned – so if all mothers are terrified why aren’t all children – therefore all boys and girls?

I’m not bothered by them and neither are most of my children – number 3 is a bit more apprehensive since number 4 got to the point where liked them so much he’d pick them up and bring them over to his brother – he wasn’t that keen

I was quite happy to pick them up with bare hands, until one little ****er bit me 😯
Now I use a glass and a piece of card. Or a man.

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 won’t handle the big ones but no problem picking them up with a tissue or cup