Arachnophobia.

I have a spider catcher that has a silicone brush like thing that grabs them up but let's them go when you release it. I am scared or spiders but since losing my husband I've had to at least try to get them out. Sometimes if I'm lucky the cat gets them first.

They don't bother me but Beloved is scared stiff.

I just catch them and give them a flying through the back door.

When I was aged 8-10, I lived in Singapore and we often went up to Malaya to a hotel surrounded by jungle, for long weekends. I have cine film of me tickling a huge tarantula sized spider out of it's hole using a long piece of grassy weed.
But - for all the rest of my life as far as I can remember, I have been absolutely terrified of all spiders. I get goosepimples on my arms, my heart races slightly and I feel very hot and panicky if I see one.
I can only think that my parents must have told me not to touch the jungle spiders as they could hurt (kill) me and my childish brain held onto that and related it to all spiders.
I'm fine with bees and wasps, ants, even mice and I know spiders kill bugs and are harmless .... but logic just doesn't help - not like a hubby with a tissue (or if he's not around, a powerful vacuum cleaner with a very long nozzle!)

The critters that I really can’t stand are earwigs 😵‍💫😫

@shinamae, oh me too! I saw a film when I was a kid where a specific kind of earwig was deliberately put into the ear of a person someone wanted dead. The earwig couldn't escape and ate its way through the poor person's brain to escape out of the ear on the opposite side. I slept with my hands over my ears for years after that!

Ilovedragonflies

@shinamae, oh me too! I saw a film when I was a kid where a specific kind of earwig was deliberately put into the ear of a person someone wanted dead. The earwig couldn't escape and ate its way through the poor person's brain to escape out of the ear on the opposite side. I slept with my hands over my ears for years after that!

Gulp 😩 but then I suppose there must be a reason they are called EARwigs..
I do make sure my hair is pulled over both my ears before I go to sleep..

We live in UK, not Australia where every other creature seems to be venomous! Every year we are fortunate to spend our summers in France. The near by forest in the mornings has some amazing spiders webs, some are huge and go from one tree to another, they are beautiful, We are not bothered by spiders, they are clever creatures and weave intricate webs.

I am absolutely terrified of spiders.
I literally have vomited with fear a couple of times, and once at a tomato stalk that my "hilarious" mum and sister threw onto a book I wad reading.

Please don’t kill spiders, as other posters have said, they are fascinating creatures . My mother prevented me from being afraid of them by picking them up and pretending to eat them, making yum, yum noises, which made me laugh.
My d.i.l. used to scream at the sight of them but I was determined that she would not pass on this phobia to my granddaughter. I put a dead spider in a box and every time she visited encouraged her to go a little closer to it. Now, she is able to look at it through a magnifying glass with her daughter.
We’ve now started on Crane flies. I have a box containing dead bees, wasps, spiders, daddy long legs and a stag beetle, all for my grand daughter to examine and develop an interest in biology.

They hold no fascination for me, I'm afraid.
I've no wish to look at them, or their webs, or have them in my home. 😨

My God! Suki70 pretending to eat a spider! Just yuk🤮

It is a phobia -the definition of which is an “irrational” fear.

MissAdventure Hah! (not) ..the old tomato stalk stunt🙄

Oh I just can't bear them at all.
There was once 1 on ceiling of stairs.
I was upstairs and couldn't come down.
DH was outside mowing the lawn and couldn't hear me shouting from bedroom window.
Was stuck upstairs for ages as wouldn't pass underneath it.
It's really not funny at all for those who have a spider phobia.

I love tomatoes, they are probably one of my favourite things, but sometimes, even when it was ME who took the stalk off, I can't bring myself to pick it up in case it's a spider.

Ilovedragonflies

@shinamae, oh me too! I saw a film when I was a kid where a specific kind of earwig was deliberately put into the ear of a person someone wanted dead. The earwig couldn't escape and ate its way through the poor person's brain to escape out of the ear on the opposite side. I slept with my hands over my ears for years after that!

I thought this was an episode of The Twilight Zone, but it seems not, although it’s the same writer and for some weird reason the programme was titled The Caterpillar.

However, it terrified me so much that I have never watched a horror film or series since - and I loathe earwigs to this day.

I used to be rather scared of spiders even though they mind their own business but now I'm not since I had a special birthday visit from a young man who had a large spider along with other creatures. The guy was so nice and showed me how to handle it so I allowed the spider onto my hands and hardly felt it moving about. It was slightly furry and the experience of handling it was just great. I can recommend this sort of experience
[I think I've said something like this before!]

They don't mind their business, though.
They get into your bed, your bath, everywhere.

This time of year is a nightmare for me, checking and double checking everywhere for them.

I do know there is a large one in my living room, somewhere, and I'm in it as well, so that's pretty good for me.

I quite like spiders, especially the smaller ones. However, I wasn’t too happy when a very large one dropped onto my head when I was asleep! I woke OH and the dog with my screaming! 😳🕷️🕸️

I’m not really scared of them, but a big one can be a shock if it appears suddenly. David Attenborough said (to Princess Charlotte, who likes spiders) that he thought one reason why people were scared was that they have so many legs that they can run unpredictably in any direction, and we don’t know which way they’ll go.

David wouldntbe so brave if it was a rat he was talking about.
He can't stand them.