Arachnophobia

I used to have arachnophobia really, REALLY bad. However, I did have a morbid fascination with tarantulas. I have no idea why. Then one day I was at a certain pet shop that happened to sell tarantulas. I stood there for awhile watching this beautiful female rosehair. (The clerk had told me what she was.) I told the clerk about my arachnophobia and morbid fascination with tarantulas. He asked me if I wanted to hold her. He said that the female rosehairs were very gentle. I don't know what possessed me but I ended up saying yes. He placed the tarantula on the back of my hand and she started to walk around. She was so so soft! I don't know why that surprised me. I mean, you can look at a tarantula and see the fur. After the clerk put the tarantula away he asked me if I wanted to hold a black scorpion. Nope! I wasn't that brave. I just did not have to same courage with the scorpion as I did with the tarantula. I don't know why. I think looking at its tail really intimidated me.

Years passed, and I ended up following a few spider accounts on Twitter. Little by little spiders stopped frightening me like they did before. That doesn't mean that I want to hold any of them that I see in the wild. It does mean, however, that I'm more likely to watch them with fascination.

There is a pedestrian bridge over the Ohio River that joins Louisville, KY with Jeffersonville, IN. On the ramp there are lighted hand rails. And spiders like to make their webs there to catch the moths etc attracted to the lights. We can see these spiders mostly at night. They presumably sleep during the day. Whenever I go up or down the ramps at night, or in the evening, I always look for the spiders. Now, would I ever hold any of these? Most likely not. But having said that, if one of them was on the ground and in danger of being squished I would do what I could to rescue it. I just wouldn't disturb one in its nest. That could lead to a bite. And I'm still not 100% over my arachnophobia.