Along came a spider Editor: Arakun the Twisted Raccoon 
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Quote for the week:
"Her cold wind calls, and so I follow.
No time to rest my weary bones.
I hear her voice, and my heart grows hollow.
Best not walk these woods alone.
Best keep to the roads and out of the shadows.
Best get on home.
Best to leave them ghosts alone."
~From "The Land Unknown" by Landon Blood. |
"Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider
And sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away."
If you are like most people, you probably would have reacted in the same way as Little Miss Muffet. Arachnophobia, or fear of spiders, is one of our most common fears. Extreme arachnophobia affects approximately 6% of people. For these people, even the mention or image of a spider can cause a full panic attack with physical symptoms such as racing heartbeat, sweating, shortness of breath, trembling, nausea, or fainting. In extreme cases, arachnophobia can affect the sufferer's daily life, because they will attempt to avoid all situations where they might encounter a spider.
Even people who don't suffer extreme arachnophobia often report some aversion to spiders. Approximately 30% of people report at least a mild dislike or disgust of spiders. Although I actually like spiders, I admit that I am still startled when one seems to appear out of nowhere.
Although all spiders are venomous, the majority cannot harm humans. However, a few of them, such as the Brazilian wandering spider, brown recluse, Australian funnel weaver, and black widow, have venom that can cause painful physical symptoms and even death.
While deaths from spider bites are rare with modern medical treatment and antivenom, they would have been much more dangerous to our primitive ancestors. Primitive humans who avoided spiders and other crawly things were more likely to survive. Over time, avoidance of spiders became one of our hard wired survival mechanisms. The amygdala, our brain's threat processing center, hyper-reacts to spiderlike shapes and movements.
Fear and disgust of spiders may also result from their "alien" appearance. Unlike humans, spiders don't have facial expressions, and their multiple eyes do not blink. Because they have eight legs, they walk with a jerky gait different from that of four legged or two legged creatures. Because they can move very quickly, they often seem to appear out of nowhere. Disgust for spiders can also arise because of their webs, which are sticky and often associated with unclean or abandoned buildings.
Some people may have been conditioned to fear and avoid spiders because their parents fear them. Movies and other media also portray spiders as monsters. Shelob from Lord of the Rings and Aragog the Acromantula from Harry Potter are the stuff nightmares are made of.
The largest spiders in the world are the Goliath bird eater of the South American rain forest and the giant huntsman of Laos. The Goliath bird eater is the heaviest at 6 ounces and the giant huntsman has the largest leg span of approximately 12 inches.
Spiders cannot grow to monstrous size for several reasons. The exoskeleton, or outer shell, of a larger spider would be so heavy that it would crush the spider or make it impossible for it to move. Spiders take in oxygen by passive diffusion through organs called book lungs. A larger spider would not be able to get enough oxygen this way to survive.
So, lucky for us, giants like Aragog and Shelob will never exist in the real world. Shelob was also anatomically incorrect, because she had a stinger, which real spiders to not have. Real spiders inject venom through venom ducts in their chelicerae or fang tipped jaws.
Some of the creep factor of spiders may be associated with stories of black widows and other female spiders eating the males after mating. Since a female black widow is much larger than the male, has poor vision, and functions more on instinct than intelligence, a male is often likely to become lunch if he doesn't get out of her way immediately after mating. However, this doesn't always happen. Males often escape and mate with several other females.
In spite of their fearsome reputation, spiders are not always considered evil in folklore. Anansi, a trickster in West African legends, is famous for using wit, cunning, and intelligence to outsmart bigger, more powerful opponents. In Navajo mythology, Spider Woman is a deity who taught the Navajo people to weave and serves as a protector to humanity.
Something to try: Write a horror story that includes a spider.
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Horror/Scary: July 15, 2026 Issue [#13845]
