If simply seeing the word “spider” has already caused you to break out in a cold sweat, you’re not alone. Arachnophobia, the extreme or irrational fear of these creatures, is one of the oldest and most common phobias in Western culture.
My son Tom is a case in point. He is now in his 30s, but continues to be extremely terrified by them. To him they are “creepy crawlies” and “don’t fit into the usual insect categories.”
Movies like the 1990 film “Arachnophobia” haven’t helped. In that horror film a poisonous Venezuelan spider hitches a ride in a coffin that ends up in Jeff Daniels’ town. There, it begins a deadly infestation that kills hysterical residents.
Even further back, in 1977, Woody Allen’s film comedy “Annie Hall” gave spiders no respect. Annie (Diane Keaton) asks Alvy (Allen) to eradicate a spider in her bathroom:
Annie: “Don’t squish it after it’s dead. Just kill it and flush it down the toilet. Flush it a couple of times!”
Alvy (emerging after unsuccessfully flailing at it in the shower with a tennis racquet): “There’s a spider in your bathroom the size of a Buick!”
My son is right about one thing: Arachnids are different from insects. Insects have six legs and three main body parts; spiders have eight legs and two main body parts. They are also unique in that most have eight eyes and minute hairs on their lips for smelling and hearing. In many instances, their eyesight is not good. They also have spinnerets on the backs of their abdomens to spin a great variety of silky webs.
Spiders live worldwide. The average life span is a year or two, but some tarantulas live for 30. There are about 40,000 known species, ranging in size from a dinner plate (Venezuela’s Goliath Bird Eater spider) to the point of a pencil (New Zealand’s Little Thief spider), with some even living under water.
The United States has about 2,000 species and most are very shy creatures.
The question arises whether native spiders are good to have in the garden. Emphatically, the answer is “yes!” They eat garden pests, specifically “flies and mosquitos that carry diseases, crickets, grasshoppers and other insects that eat plants that people grow for food,” according to the Penn State Extension web site. It has been estimated by a British arachnologist, also according to the extension, that a meadow may contain 2 million spiders and “the insects consumed in a year easily exceeds the weight of the entire population of England.”
Spiders are helpful in other ways, too. The silk they use to spin webs is some of the strongest natural fiber in the world. The Golden Orb web spider’s silk has been used by Uganda’s fishermen as fishing nets. It’s also been studied in space where spiders construct webs in zero gravity; these observations can assist in creating stronger construction materials.
Spiders have also come to the attention of engineers and architects because their webs are “dynamic,” that is, built for movement and designed to absorb energy, important to protect against earthquakes.
Furthermore, the silk of spiders, through the science of biotechnology and genetic engineering, is being replicated to make materials “with advanced properties like lightweight bullet-proof vests, medical sutures, and artificial ligaments.”
And, the venom of arachnids is being studied by microbiologists for its promise in treating a wide variety of conditions and diseases, even cancer and Alzheimer’s.
With all of the great things going for them, some people have a genuine fear response to spiders that may include “shortness of breath, increased heart rate, faintness, sweaty palms, and trembling.”
There are various theories for this response, most unproven. One is that arachnophobia is a byproduct of urban life and a disconnect with nature. The response could have also been caused by a traumatic event. Another theory is that some people who love cleanliness are more than usually repelled by dirt and, by association, creatures like spiders, slugs, cockroaches and maggots. They have a strong dislike for insects in general (called entomophobia).
