Nightmare Warning: Monstrous Spider Creeps up on Scientist

Spaceman Spiff

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Sep 23, 2013
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Cheesus crust that is terrifying. At that size it's time to break out a shotgun or flamethrower. When those fail maybe lure it into a hydraulic press.
 

loa

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Jan 28, 2012
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Elusive?
Don't people even keep those as pets?
They will also not "attack anything they encounter", they're actually rather benign and only look terrifying.
 

Doom972

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Dec 25, 2008
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Charcharo said:
I still dont get why MOST people are THAT damned terrified. Especially from an animal that is for most people absolutely harmless.

*Note: People with arachnophobia I understand. It is extremely hard to overcome that even if you are rational.
I think that there's something about a spider's shape and the way it moves that triggers something in most people's minds. Perhaps some ancient survival instinct.
Personally, I like spiders and I'm fascinated by them. I don't kill the really small ones if I find them in my home (I prefer having spiders kill bugs than chemicals). With that in mind, I think I understand why people get freaked out by them - especially with the larger ones.
 

Doom972

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Dec 25, 2008
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Charcharo said:
the December King said:
What a beautiful creature. There is something so efficient about spiders...

I love the idea of a human-sized spider that specializes in hunting apes and humans- she'd be like a giant crab-spider that has amazing camouflage, cable-like muscles, a furnace-like metabolism, unearthly patience and unmatched reflexes... and maybe even a brilliant, inhuman intellect.
Until it meets a shotgun to the face. :D

Doom972 said:
Charcharo said:
I still dont get why MOST people are THAT damned terrified. Especially from an animal that is for most people absolutely harmless.

*Note: People with arachnophobia I understand. It is extremely hard to overcome that even if you are rational.
I think that there's something about a spider's shape and the way it moves that triggers something in most people's minds. Perhaps some ancient survival instinct.
Personally, I like spiders and I'm fascinated by them. I don't kill the really small ones if I find them in my home (I prefer having spiders kill bugs than chemicals). With that in mind, I think I understand why people get freaked out by them - especially with the larger ones.
Yeah, but arent usually the larger spiders also the tames AND safest? From what I know tarantulas are not dangerous to people that arent allergic.
I dont kill spiders either.
You are correct, but instinct isn't always logical. I'm not claiming to be any sort of expert on the matter. It's just an idea I thought I'd share.
 

Xan Krieger

Completely insane
Feb 11, 2009
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Doom972 said:
Charcharo said:
I still dont get why MOST people are THAT damned terrified. Especially from an animal that is for most people absolutely harmless.

*Note: People with arachnophobia I understand. It is extremely hard to overcome that even if you are rational.
I think that there's something about a spider's shape and the way it moves that triggers something in most people's minds. Perhaps some ancient survival instinct.
Personally, I like spiders and I'm fascinated by them. I don't kill the really small ones if I find them in my home (I prefer having spiders kill bugs than chemicals). With that in mind, I think I understand why people get freaked out by them - especially with the larger ones.
I think it's because they look so alien compared to us, they're different in just about every way. 8 eyes instead of two, 8 legs instead of 2, fangs instead of a mouth, there's almost no way we could possibly relate to them.
 

sinterklaas

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Dec 6, 2010
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Xan Krieger said:
Doom972 said:
Charcharo said:
I still dont get why MOST people are THAT damned terrified. Especially from an animal that is for most people absolutely harmless.

*Note: People with arachnophobia I understand. It is extremely hard to overcome that even if you are rational.
I think that there's something about a spider's shape and the way it moves that triggers something in most people's minds. Perhaps some ancient survival instinct.
Personally, I like spiders and I'm fascinated by them. I don't kill the really small ones if I find them in my home (I prefer having spiders kill bugs than chemicals). With that in mind, I think I understand why people get freaked out by them - especially with the larger ones.
I think it's because they look so alien compared to us, they're different in just about every way. 8 eyes instead of two, 8 legs instead of 2, fangs instead of a mouth, there's almost no way we could possibly relate to them.
I would suppose it is because of an evolutionary mechanism. Spider with venom hurts/kills, therefore spider bad -> normal human reaction to seeing spider = scared. And a healthy dose of "mommy/[insert other people from environment while growing up here] is afraid of spiders therefore I have to be as well".
 

totheendofsin

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Jul 31, 2009
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I want one, I would love it, and feed it, and call it george.

seriously, outside of legit arachnophobia I never got the fear of spiders. 99% of them are harmless and the ones who can harm you don't want to be anywhere near you.
 

J Tyran

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Dec 15, 2011
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Amazing, the world holds so many amazing creatures. It even looks kinda cute and fuzzy, not quite as cute as jumping spiders though.
 

babinro

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Sep 24, 2010
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If I had to choose to fight a bear with my bare hands or run through a web of those spiders I'd choose the bear.

Logic be damned...that thing is horrifying.
 

pearcinator

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Apr 8, 2009
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Fun Fact:

It has been more than 30 years since a healthy adult human being has been killed by a spider bite! At least in Australia...A toddler has been killed by a Sydney Funnel-Web but apart from that the last recorded spider-bite death in Australia was in 1979.
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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Charcharo said:
I still dont get why MOST people are THAT damned terrified. Especially from an animal that is for most people absolutely harmless.

*Note: People with arachnophobia I understand. It is extremely hard to overcome that even if you are rational.
Actually, it's believed by some that spiders are psychic and can project a degree of fear and use it to paralyze their prey. This is allegedly why most people have an innate fear/revulsion reaction to them, and in many cases will even seize up for a second even if the spider is tiny. Allegedly this happens to the prey of a lot of spiders as well, who for whatever reason don't react quite as "rationally" as they would for their species when confronted. I'm not saying this has been proven or anything, it's just something I've read before, and it's also probably why so much fantasy tends to give spiders mind-effecting powers or psionics and stuff as well as generally tying them to mysticism.

I tend to mostly think it comes due to an inherent distrust and revulsion of anything really alien, Spiders are just too different, and also recognized as being predators even if they are not generally threats to us. People tend to have similar reactions to say an Angler Fish, realty big spiders are pretty much the land based version.

I've heard theories about memetic responses being encoded for survival reasons, with people being afraid of certain species like Spiders due to having been preyed upon them heavily at one time. While I suppose in theory there might have been giant spiders at one point that went extinct, and that the nature of their bodies might not have left remains, but when you consider people don't have the same kind of responses to cats and dogs which preyed on us for a VERY long time (and still can under the right circumstances). Basically Fluffy The House Cat doesn't inspire an immediate attack of instinctive dread because of some lizard brain reminder of your ancestors being chomped on by huge tigers, nor does Fido The Puppy cause instinctive reactions based on how Wolf Packs competed with human very effectively up until the last few centuries (guns really changed that). Yes I know Lupine and Canine are different, but as they say every dog does go back to a wolf. :)

As far as that Spider goes, perhaps the elusive sighting is a sign that Lloth's return is imminent :)

That said I'm not an arachnophobe but I do tend to have an aversion to spiders when I see them even when I know they are harmless. Of course then again I suppose part of it is rational because I am not an expert, and I find it wrong that someone so small can potentially kill a person with the right poison. On some levels that big spider bothers me less than say a Brown Recluse or Black Widow, because it at least looks dangerous and I can accept it more on that level even if it's fairly harmless in reality. Brush against the wrong woodpile and have some really bad luck and it could be the end of your life though, especially if nobody is around to get help immediately. That's scarier than the spiders you see.