“Creepy! Get that thing away from me!” These lines can be heard in every household having a fearful person, whose biggest fear of life is that little spider in your house. These arthropods have a habitat all over the globe, except on the awesome Antarctica. So if you have a fear of spiders, and you don’t want to like these innocent arachnids, then I have a simple advice for you. Pack your bags and shift to Antarctica. That is a cool place to live on! Or if you want a simpler advice, don’t be afraid of spiders. They may look creepy, but they are much more afraid of you than you are afraid of them.
Often spiders are confused for being a specie of insect, but they belong to the family of arachnids. Where most insects have 6 legs, spiders cover distances with their eight legs.Their is a misconception in mind of a large number of people that spiders are dangerous and venomous arachnids. Although the latter is true, but they are not at all dangerous, well at least 39000 species of the total 40000 species of spiders are not dangerous. The dangerous species constitute a small percentage, still the arachnophobes constitute a large percentage.
The clause to wonder over here is if spiders are harmless, why are humans usually so afraid of them? Researches have been done as is done to find answer to any other questions, and again, some nerds in the scientists came to a conclusion, an inference or it may be called to be a result, according to which, the reason dates back to 4000 B.C., the era that saw the birth of spiders. It has been found that at early stages, spider was known to be a threat to human life, due to which, humans developed an aversion towards them. Well, this is just a theory. In practical day to day life, all we know is if we see a spider, our heartbeat increases, we start perspiring, and develop a feeling to get away from them. In few people, this phobia has developed its roots to such an extent that they get these symptoms just by seeing a photograph of spider.
If you are a keen observer, you might have noticed that spiders have a mind of an engineer. The webs they build have a great stability and obey the basic rules of structural engineering. They are so stable that they can even bear a weight of a few insects that the spiders have captured, and also the weight of a few spiders altogether. These webs are made from the silk released from their body, or in other words, spiders are silk producing arachnids, and all the species of spiders have this thing in common. They can produce silk throughout their life time, but the use of silk is different for different species, which ranges from capturing their prey to mating in these silk webs. Another fun fact about spiders is that all of them don’t weave webs, only a few species perform this process.
Are you still afraid of spiders. Well here are a few facts about them, that are in one way or the other, useful for you. Garden spiders eat up the insects and bugs that harm your plants. As already mentioned that spiders are much more afraid of us than we are of them, so they don’t usually sting. Extremely rare cases have been noticed where a person has suffered from a spider sting. It is also believed according to some of the myths that spiders bring good luck in your family. And as people do eat anything, spiders are also termed as a delicacy in a few countries. “It makes a great dish”, they say. So to pet a spider is like having benefits from all over, all you have to do is finish your fear from these lovely arachnids.
Has your fear of spiders vanished or at least decreased a little? Well, here do i restore your faith in spiders. Ever heard of “Tarantula”? I bet you have heard of it. If not, hear it out now! As dreadful the name seems, these spiders are the largest spiders ever known. They are also the longest living spiders known to humans. Having a big furry coat over them, they are scary. You can’t look them in the eyes, but the spider seems to be a misnomer. They are also human friendly spiders. As it is said that “Appearances might be deceiving”, in a similar manner, this spider has a dreadful appearance, but is soft from the inside.
So, we need to take out that misconception from our mind that spiders are dangerous. They just seem to be so, but they are actually nothing near to what they seem to be. After all, you all know that “Never judge a book by its cover”, similarly, never judge an animal by its appearance. These various qualities of a spider makes it an ideal pet, and attracts humans to love them. After all, you don’t have to spend thousand of bucks for its maintenance. All you need is a glass cabinet, and if you don’t want to trap this arachnid, simply take them out and play with them. They would love to play a game with you. Do not try playing “Who is afraid of whom?” with it. You have good chances to loose. And breaking the myth, Spider sting WON’T make you Spiderman.