It seems that many of the tough, rugged, outdoorsy types on here are terrified of spiders, or at least have a serious aversion to them.
Now, before I start, let me say that genuine arachnophobia is a serious thing, like any other phobia, and should not be mocked, dismissed, or taken lightly. It can be treated, but really only by someone experienced in dealing with phobias. That's not me. I may engage in a little gentle teasing from time to time, but I get no enjoyment from upsetting or frightening anyone who is genuinely afraid of spiders. That would be the same as shutting a claustrophobic person in a broom cupboard. Not funny.
On the other hand, I think there are a lot of people for whom the aversion to spiders is more of a learned response (such as from parents or siblings) or rooted in unfamiliarity, and this aversion is relatively simple to deal with. For those interested in trying to overcome their fear of nervousness, follow the following steps. However, if you feel your aversion is a full-blown phobia, then I can only advise that you seek more professional advice.
At about this time of year, the garden spiders come out. They are big, easy to handle, and slow. Best of all they are very common. Go into your garden, or local park, or local hedgerow/waste ground patch, and look for one of these.
Colours vary from all shades of brown, to orange, or grey, and pink ones are not unknown, but the white cross pattern on the body is consistent regardless. Body size is up to about thumbnail size, maybe a bit more. The web is large and circular.
You can catch them in one of two ways:
1. Towards dusk they emerge from their hiding places and sit out in the middle of their webs. You can catch them in a jam jar just by putting it over them, and putting the lid on.
2. Hold an open umbrella upside down below the web and shake the vegetation (or bash it quickly with a thin stick). When disturbed the spider will drop to the ground, landing on your umbrella (or you can use a sheet or something on the ground). They tend to play dead so they stay still curled up in a ball for a while. Even if they start running, they are not very quick, so it is easy to get a jam jar over them.
If need be, get a friend to do all this for you. Having a more confident friend with you throughout these steps is a great help.
The end product should be a spider in a jam jar.
Now, don't worry about the spider. It can sit in a sealed jar for at least 24 hours without ill effects, probably longer if you don't leave it in direct sunlight.
The rest of the process is simple exposure. You know it can't hurt you as it is in a jar.
Put the jar in the room with you. If you can't even manage that, you probably have a genuine phobia and should stop following my advice here and ask a professional.
Gradually bring the jar closer, only moving it closer to yourself when you are comfortable with it.
When it is next to you, leave it there a while until it become familiar. Keep looking at it. If you do all this whilst furiously ignoring it you won't get any benefit.
When you are ready, pick the jar up.
Have a good look at your spider. Look at its markings, the patterns of hairs, the way it makes silk, the way it behaves. Notice that by this time it has probably given up trying to get out and has taken shelter under the lid of the jar.
Then you have to get it out.
You will need a bucket, box, or steep-sided tray. Something with no lid, but steep sides so the spider can't just run out. Plastic or glass is best as spiders find it harder to climb those. They will climb wood with great ease. Keep a lid handy in case you need to cover it up for a while.
Now, when you try to get the spider out of the jar, there is a catch. The spider has probably laid silk lines all through the jar, so will be able to climb out instantly. It may well swing on a line, so it is best to open the jar directly above the container you want the spider to go into. Try to do this step yourself. If you miss, remember you can just catch it in the jar again.
Once you have your spider in its new home, you can look at it again, only this time there is nothing between you and it. Have a soft brush handy so that if the spider does look like climbing out you can brush it back down into the bottom of the container.
Next step is to touch it. Start with a hind leg. The spider will run away, possibly suddenly, which can be startling. The important bit to get out of this is that you didnt get hurt. Repeat several times until you are confident doing it. Then try touching other legs, or perhaps gently on the body (spiders are soft-bodied and squash easily, so be careful).
If you can manage this, then you are ready to hold your spider. Before we do this, a word about spider bites.
In the UK there are perhaps 2 dozen species of spiders capable of biting through human skin, sufficient for it to hurt. None are in any way considered dangerous to humans unless you happen to be allergic to their venom, which is exceptionally unusual. More to the point, virtually all UK species are extremely reluctant to bite, and will only do so as a last resort when trapped and being squeezed. A spider just stood on a hand or arm will not bite.
The species that I advise doing this with is notoriously placid and reluctant to bite, but even the big fast leggy house spider wont bite when handled unless you squash them.
So, scoop up your spider with your jam jar or a small plastic bowl, and when you are ready, tip it onto your hand. Make sure you are ready for this step before you do it. Dont rush to this point. You should not be handling the spider unless you want to.
Make sure you have your hand over the large container, because the spider may well run straight off your hand and leap into space. If it does, just retrieve it and try again.
It is a good idea to roll your sleeves up before handling the spider. Spiders grip cloth well, and you may find it heading rapidly up your arm towards your shoulder, which you may not be ready for. And you dont want it going up inside your sleeve. A friend is useful here for taking the spider off you if it heads up your arm towards you.
With the spider on your hand, as it crawls, you should be able to let it crawl from hand to hand. You may drop it (accidentally or deliberately) as often as you like, but you will soon see that a walking spider just tickles. Nothing more. You may notice that it lays a silk line across your skin as it goes, as a safety line in case it falls. By this point your spider should be pretty tired, so should be slow and easy to handle.
At some point you will realise that you are handling a spider, with no ill effects. I wont say you are cured, but you should certainly be less afraid. You can repeat this process with other sorts of spiders, which may initially be more difficult to handle (perhaps because they are faster), but the process and the results should be the same.
I should say that I have done this many, many times, typically with children, and it works. There is a gradual transition from fear to fascination that I love watching. I did this with a HUGE house spider a few years ago at a Childrens BBC event, and it worked. That was about the biggest, fastest, scariest spider you can find in the UK, and children went from terrified to holding it within a few minutes.
So, give it a go. Try it, you might find you like it. And if you dont , you can stop the process at any time. I dont expect to turn people into spider-lovers like me, but I do think we should be trying to show our children what interesting and harmless animals UK spiders are.
Now, before I start, let me say that genuine arachnophobia is a serious thing, like any other phobia, and should not be mocked, dismissed, or taken lightly. It can be treated, but really only by someone experienced in dealing with phobias. That's not me. I may engage in a little gentle teasing from time to time, but I get no enjoyment from upsetting or frightening anyone who is genuinely afraid of spiders. That would be the same as shutting a claustrophobic person in a broom cupboard. Not funny.
On the other hand, I think there are a lot of people for whom the aversion to spiders is more of a learned response (such as from parents or siblings) or rooted in unfamiliarity, and this aversion is relatively simple to deal with. For those interested in trying to overcome their fear of nervousness, follow the following steps. However, if you feel your aversion is a full-blown phobia, then I can only advise that you seek more professional advice.
At about this time of year, the garden spiders come out. They are big, easy to handle, and slow. Best of all they are very common. Go into your garden, or local park, or local hedgerow/waste ground patch, and look for one of these.
Colours vary from all shades of brown, to orange, or grey, and pink ones are not unknown, but the white cross pattern on the body is consistent regardless. Body size is up to about thumbnail size, maybe a bit more. The web is large and circular.
You can catch them in one of two ways:
1. Towards dusk they emerge from their hiding places and sit out in the middle of their webs. You can catch them in a jam jar just by putting it over them, and putting the lid on.
2. Hold an open umbrella upside down below the web and shake the vegetation (or bash it quickly with a thin stick). When disturbed the spider will drop to the ground, landing on your umbrella (or you can use a sheet or something on the ground). They tend to play dead so they stay still curled up in a ball for a while. Even if they start running, they are not very quick, so it is easy to get a jam jar over them.
If need be, get a friend to do all this for you. Having a more confident friend with you throughout these steps is a great help.
The end product should be a spider in a jam jar.
Now, don't worry about the spider. It can sit in a sealed jar for at least 24 hours without ill effects, probably longer if you don't leave it in direct sunlight.
The rest of the process is simple exposure. You know it can't hurt you as it is in a jar.
Put the jar in the room with you. If you can't even manage that, you probably have a genuine phobia and should stop following my advice here and ask a professional.
Gradually bring the jar closer, only moving it closer to yourself when you are comfortable with it.
When it is next to you, leave it there a while until it become familiar. Keep looking at it. If you do all this whilst furiously ignoring it you won't get any benefit.
When you are ready, pick the jar up.
Have a good look at your spider. Look at its markings, the patterns of hairs, the way it makes silk, the way it behaves. Notice that by this time it has probably given up trying to get out and has taken shelter under the lid of the jar.
Then you have to get it out.
You will need a bucket, box, or steep-sided tray. Something with no lid, but steep sides so the spider can't just run out. Plastic or glass is best as spiders find it harder to climb those. They will climb wood with great ease. Keep a lid handy in case you need to cover it up for a while.
Now, when you try to get the spider out of the jar, there is a catch. The spider has probably laid silk lines all through the jar, so will be able to climb out instantly. It may well swing on a line, so it is best to open the jar directly above the container you want the spider to go into. Try to do this step yourself. If you miss, remember you can just catch it in the jar again.
Once you have your spider in its new home, you can look at it again, only this time there is nothing between you and it. Have a soft brush handy so that if the spider does look like climbing out you can brush it back down into the bottom of the container.
Next step is to touch it. Start with a hind leg. The spider will run away, possibly suddenly, which can be startling. The important bit to get out of this is that you didnt get hurt. Repeat several times until you are confident doing it. Then try touching other legs, or perhaps gently on the body (spiders are soft-bodied and squash easily, so be careful).
If you can manage this, then you are ready to hold your spider. Before we do this, a word about spider bites.
In the UK there are perhaps 2 dozen species of spiders capable of biting through human skin, sufficient for it to hurt. None are in any way considered dangerous to humans unless you happen to be allergic to their venom, which is exceptionally unusual. More to the point, virtually all UK species are extremely reluctant to bite, and will only do so as a last resort when trapped and being squeezed. A spider just stood on a hand or arm will not bite.
The species that I advise doing this with is notoriously placid and reluctant to bite, but even the big fast leggy house spider wont bite when handled unless you squash them.
So, scoop up your spider with your jam jar or a small plastic bowl, and when you are ready, tip it onto your hand. Make sure you are ready for this step before you do it. Dont rush to this point. You should not be handling the spider unless you want to.
Make sure you have your hand over the large container, because the spider may well run straight off your hand and leap into space. If it does, just retrieve it and try again.
It is a good idea to roll your sleeves up before handling the spider. Spiders grip cloth well, and you may find it heading rapidly up your arm towards your shoulder, which you may not be ready for. And you dont want it going up inside your sleeve. A friend is useful here for taking the spider off you if it heads up your arm towards you.
With the spider on your hand, as it crawls, you should be able to let it crawl from hand to hand. You may drop it (accidentally or deliberately) as often as you like, but you will soon see that a walking spider just tickles. Nothing more. You may notice that it lays a silk line across your skin as it goes, as a safety line in case it falls. By this point your spider should be pretty tired, so should be slow and easy to handle.
At some point you will realise that you are handling a spider, with no ill effects. I wont say you are cured, but you should certainly be less afraid. You can repeat this process with other sorts of spiders, which may initially be more difficult to handle (perhaps because they are faster), but the process and the results should be the same.
I should say that I have done this many, many times, typically with children, and it works. There is a gradual transition from fear to fascination that I love watching. I did this with a HUGE house spider a few years ago at a Childrens BBC event, and it worked. That was about the biggest, fastest, scariest spider you can find in the UK, and children went from terrified to holding it within a few minutes.
So, give it a go. Try it, you might find you like it. And if you dont , you can stop the process at any time. I dont expect to turn people into spider-lovers like me, but I do think we should be trying to show our children what interesting and harmless animals UK spiders are.
