OT spiders, snakes

Are you afraid of spiders or snakes? It may be genetic.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin
Loading thread data ...

Not in NY, because very few are actually dangerous. In the southwestern US, or especially in Australia and SE Asia, that would be another story.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Phil Hobbs

When you say "fear", do you mean a rational wariness and scepticism, an irrational panic, or an irrational dislike? People use the words "fear" or "phobia" to mean all three.

Reply to
David Brown

Spiders are quite friendly IME

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Some Sydney spiders aren't the sort you'd want to choose as friends

formatting link

They've killed 13 people, but none since 1981 when the anti-venom became available.

formatting link

They haven't killed anybody since the anti-venom became available, but Australian hospitals use up about 250 doses of anti-venom per year.

Then there's the blue ring octopus

formatting link

for which there is no anti-venom. If you get put into an iron lung fast enough, you will usually survive - the venom gets cleared from the system after a day or so.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney
Reply to
bill.sloman

Snakes! I had this recurring snake dream as a youngster.. ughh It still semi-bothers me just touching a picture of a snake. Goes right to the back of the brain.

My wife and daughter are terrified of spiders... which don't bother me at all... even the black widows I'd sometime see in Tennessee.

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

That's a rational assessment of risk. I was wondering about fear.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

I mean instictive fear, an instant not-considered feeling of danger.

Fear is a feeling that's hard to define.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

Yes, those are the sorts of reactions I meant. Some appear to be genetic and are present in primates that have never seen or been told about the potential threats. They are basically born with memories.

Cows that have never seen a wolf will panic at a very abstract stick-figure drawing of a wolf. Monkeys are born afraid of snakes.

I'm reading a wonderful book about (biological) neural systems and this was one of many interesting points.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

Snakes don't bother my sisters or I - we kept garter snakes as pets one summer. I can't recall them over-reacting with spiders, nor do I. Just move them out of the way or vacuum up. Did get as swollen eye as a kid from a brown spider, but that didn't bother me as I was used to getting poison ivy at that time.

On the other hand my daughter had a bit of a phobia about spiders, however her daughter is more neutral on the subject as her mom tried to keep her concerns from being passed on by her actions.

John :-#)#

Reply to
John Robertson

Phobias are like a buffet, for any phobia some are scared many not. It's a basic survival strategy, in prehistory at least some would be too afraid to take on any given risky situation, and when groupthink proved wrong & kill ed most, the phobic ones survived & repopulated.

Children's phobias can be quite different to their parents, plus they can l earn phobias from the parents.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

At our place in Tennessee, I was walking down a path with a manual weed wacker in my hand. I came around a corner and there was a big black snake sunning itself. Woosh, I wacked the head right off. There was no thought involved, and I felt terrible about it afterwards. (Black snakes are good in that they eat rattle snakes.)

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

Not that I've noticed I don't experience any strong emotions upon seeing a spider or snake.

I'm not at all a fan of airplane travel and try to avoid it whenever I can, an existential dread which probably borders on a true phobia, and I can't stand to be in the same room with someone using an emery board nail file, drives me up the wall.

Reply to
bitrex

My wife wouldn't let me kill spiders, not that I really want to. She insists that we capture them in a glass and escort them outdoors.

Snakes eat rats and spiders eat other bugs.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

a basic survival strategy, in prehistory at least some would be too afraid to take on any given risky situation, and when groupthink proved wrong & ki lled most, the phobic ones survived & repopulated.

At a buffet you get to pick and chose. Heritable phobias are built in - you get the single nucleotide polymorphism at conception, or you don't get it at all.

Being "too afraid" to take on a risky situation is a trifle pathological - "frozen by fright" means that you can't even flee.

learn phobias from the parents.

Children can learn all kinds of stuff from their parents, and even kids can work out when their parents are over-reacting.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney
Reply to
bill.sloman

Spiders and snakes are essential for our environment. Due to my upbringing I was reluctant to let either live. However, I had some country property and my wife encouraged me to read books about them.

It was a revelation and my attitude toward them changed completely. Many of both are not harmful to us and actually perform a service for us.

I am a friend to both but I have learned to identify ones which may be a problem and avoid them.

Reply to
John S

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.