In dramatic efforts to avoid or kill a spider, people have reportedly crashed their cars, set a house on fire , and even caused such a commotion that police showed up. A pathological fear of spiders, known as arachnophobia, is of course, a legitimate condition.
But in reality, we have little to fear. Read on to find out why you should love, not loathe, our eight-legged arachnid friends. The last confirmed fatal spider bite in Australia occurred in Only a few species have venom that can kill humans: some mouse spiders Missulena species , Sydney Funnel-webs Atrax species and some of their close relatives.
Antivenom for redbacks Latrodectus hasseltii was introduced in , and for funnel-webs in However, redback venom is no longer considered life-threatening. Spiders mostly eat insects, which helps control their populations.
Worldwide, mosquito-borne viruses kill more humans than any other animal. Tragically a wasp sting, not old age, killed her. Spider silk is the strongest , most flexible natural biomaterial known to man. It has historically been used to make bandages, and UK researchers have worked out how to load silk bandages with antibiotics. In another experiment, researchers gathered together 57 spider-phobic undergraduates and asked them to poke tarantulas with a probe until they moved.
The tarantulas moved, that is. The students were asked to verbally rate their experience in SUDs: "Subjective Units of Distress", on a scale of 1 to , as a way to quantify just how freaked out they were.
No one assessed how freaked out the spiders were after being poked, which is a pity. After their spider close encounters, students were asked to estimate the tarantulas' size. The more fearful the student, the bigger their estimate of the spider. Their fear actually makes the spider seem larger. Enlarged abdomen significantly contributed to the rating of fear and disgust; however, this trait seemed to play a more prominent role in the perception of disgust than fear.
We suggest that the abdomen of spider plays a dual role in perceived fear and disgust. An enlarged abdomen may visually enlarge the body of the spider, and the larger the size of an animal, the more likely it is perceived as a threat for humans Prokop et al. This may be a simple mechanism as an enlarged abdomen can increase perceived fear.
Enlarged abdomen, however, may also superficially resemble a big tick or other blood-eating ectoparasites that can transmit serious infections to humans e. The presence of body hair seems to be significantly associated with both fear and disgust of spiders Davey, We suggest that the rationale for this perception fear of hairiness is that body hair or fur when standing up in many mammals occur when the animal is threatened.
The elevated body hair strategy makes the animal appear bigger than its original size Bubenik and Bubenik, Body hair can be therefore perceived as a cue of fear. With respect to the emotion of disgust, body hair correlates with disgust sensitivity Tiggemann and Lewis, , perhaps because hairy bodies can suffer from high loads of ectoparasites that end up transferring diseases to the host animal, and ultimately decreasing the fitness of an individual Rantala, ; Prokop et al.
Thus, it is not surprising to find that their presence was also associated with disgust of spiders. In general, women are more feared of spiders than men e. In particular, spider chelicerae were significantly more associated with the fear of spiders in females than in the male group. Furthermore, hairiness was also more associated with disgust by females than by male respondents. Regarding the former, female participants reported greater fear of predators than male participants e.
Perhaps, female lower physical condition Puts, and greater vulnerability to predation Treves and Naughton-Treves, could be ultimately responsible for a greater fear of sharp spider chelicerae. Regarding the latter, females are more disgust sensitive than males Curtis et al. The long legs feature is thought to promote fear of spiders Davey, ; Lindner et al.
We suggest that legginess should be investigated with manipulation of the total number of legs of spiders and with interactive videos, where spider movement can be observed along with modified legs in relation to their size or number before reaching any conclusion.
Contrary to these findings, spider eyes did not show any significant influence on ratings of fear or disgust. We suggest that this null effect could be caused by insufficient manipulation e. Compared with the non-biologists group, we found that biologist participants rated hairy spiders less frightening and less disgusting although marginally not significant.
Biologists are expected to be knowledgeable about animals, and their general interest in animals should be higher than in non-biologists. The conservation of spiders seems to be more difficult than that of any other invertebrates and most vertebrates , and this is partly due to the fact that at least in the Western culture, spiders are considered dangerous, small, and apparently insignificant Branco and Cardoso, In addition, the absence of any economic benefits from investing in their protection makes spider conservation even more difficult.
Understanding beliefs and preferences among the public may result in more successful pro-environmental actions Alves et al. Compared with research on vertebrates, it seems that conservationists should avoid some universal features on animal bodies, such as large bodies, short legs, small eyes, and dull coloration Frynta et al.
In addition to these features, we found that long legs and excessive hairy bodies should be avoided when presenting a representative spider specimens to the public. Regarding body coloration, further research on spiders is required. Citizen science and educational programs not only would increase awareness of animal species that can be easily identified species Devictor et al. We acknowledge that individuals by themselves are not in the best position to establish protected areas and manage the conservation of endangered species, however, we believe that everyone can avoid killing spiders in their households, and instead relocate them to different areas.
Similarly, everyone could reduce the use of pesticides which are harmful not only for spiders but also for insects, a major food source of almost all known spider species.
Finally, almost everyone can reduce mowing their lawns to support the biodiversity of insects and consequently spiders. We consider this study as an initial step in this direction.
Although we still do not know which cues are attractive, we have provided some evidence that unattractive i. Large chelicerae, abdomen, and hairy bodies are specific cues that promote fear and disgust of spiders. Each emotion is associated with slightly different cues, and female participants appear to be more sensitive to sharp, fear eliciting cues, such as chelicerae, as well as to disgust-eliciting cues, such as body hair, than their male counterparts.
We consider that with this study, we have taken a further step toward understanding the bad reputation people assign to spiders. It seems that the use of manipulated visual cues produces different results than scores obtained by rated items. Visual cues, therefore, need to be considered in similar research in the future. We also submit that further research needs to consider additional visual cues that we did not manipulate e. Finally, it would be helpful to determine whether individuals who are fearful of spiders perceive certain body parts as more frightening or disgusting than those in non-clinical samples.
We hypothesize that careful identification of these cues can help improve conservation strategies by using more positive human-spider interactions. The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation. Ethical approval was not provided for this study on human participants because this study does not require ethical approval. All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Albo, M. Fearless and positive children after hands-on educational experience with spiders in South America. Alves, R. A review on human attitudes towards reptiles in Brazil. Bateson, M. Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting.
Borgi, M. Attitudes toward animals among kindergarten children: species preferences. Anthrozoos 28, 45— Branco, V. An expert-based assessment of global threats and conservation measures for spiders. Global Ecol. Bubenik, G. Google Scholar.
The importance of human emotions for wildlife conservation. Human attitudes towards herpetofauna: the influence of folklore and negative values on the conservation of amphibians and reptiles in Portugal. Cornelius, R. Sex differences in fear of spiders. Cranshaw, W. Attitudes and concerns about spiders expressed in a freshman entomology class. Curtis, V. Evidence that disgust evolved to protect from risk of disease. Or Give Us a Call.
To keep them out, consider the following: Seal up gaps, cracks, and holes around the outside of your house to prevent their entry into your home. Repair damaged screens on doors and windows and install door sweeps on exterior doors.
Keep moisture levels low in your house. Reduce clutter inside, so there are fewer places for spiders to hide. Spiders follow a food source, so if you have a spider problem, you may have another pest problem as well. Share on facebook. Share on twitter. Share on whatsapp. Share on email. Share on print.
Author Bio: Zach Smith.
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