This week: Eight legged freaks Edited by: Arakun the Scary Raccoon  
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Quote for the week:
"Her cold wind calls, and so I follow.
No time to rest my weary bones.
I hear her voice, and my heart grows hollow.
Best not walk these woods alone.
Best keep to the roads and out of the shadows.
Best get on home.
Best to leave them ghosts alone."
~From "The Land Unknown" by Landon Blood. |
What do you think of when you think of spiders? If you are immediately filled with dread, you are not alone. According to some studies, 3-15% of the world's people suffer from arachnophobia, or fear of spiders.
When arachnophobic people see a spider, their reactions can vary from an involuntary shudder to screaming, crying, and full blown panic attacks, depending on the severity of their phobia. In some cases, even a toy spider or the mention of spiders can trigger a panic attack. Some people have a similar reaction to spider webs, even if the web does not contain a spider.
According to some psychologists, arachnophobia may be a remnant of an instinct that helped early humans to survive. If early humans lived in an area where dangerous spiders were common, avoiding them may have saved them from being bitten.
Some people may have developed arachnophobia due to a bad experience such as being bitten by a spider. Others may have had their fears stoked by exaggerated stories about spiders, such as an urban legend about a plant that starts pulsating and explodes as thousands of baby tarantulas emerge. Fearsome movie spiders such as Shelob from Lord of the Rings and Aragog from the Harry Potter series may also contribute to irrational fears.
A common question many people ask when they encounter a spider is "Is it poisonous?" Spiders are actually venomous, not poisonous. Venom is is substance that is actively injected through a bite, sting, or other specialized structure. A poison is passively absorbed by eating or drinking it, absorbing it through the skin, or inhaling it. Dr. Ronald Jenner, a venom evolution expert, explains the difference with this rule: "If you bite it and you die, that's poison, but if it bites you and you die, that's venom."
While most spiders are venomous, very few of them have a venom known to affect humans. Many of them do not have big enough fangs to penetrate human skin, while many others do not cause significant problems even if they do. While many people fear tarantulas because of their large size, most of their bites do not cause much more of a reaction in non-allergic individuals than a bee sting. Handling a pet tarantula is still not a good idea, because many of them have irritating hairs that they deliberately rub off when disturbed. These hairs can cause extreme discomfort especially if you get them in your eyes.
Spiders known to have the most dangerous venom include the widows (Latrodectus species,) recluses (Loxoceles species,) Brazilian wandering spiders (Phoneutria species,) six-eyed sand spiders (Hexophthalma species,) and the Australian funnel web spider (Atrax species.) The Sydney funnel web spider is was one of the most dangerous to humans before the development of an effective antivenom in 1981, since its venom causes most extreme effects in primates. (They are not related to the basically harmless grass funnel weavers found in North America.)
Spider venom can be characterized based on the body tissues that it affects. Widows, wandering spiders, and Australian funnel web spiders have a neurotoxic venom that affects the nervous system. This venom affects the entire body with symptoms such as muscle twitching, headache, abdominal pain, difficulty breathing, and loss of consciousness.
Recluse (Loxoceles) venom is histotoxic and cytotoxic, which means it causes a reaction to the skin, tissue, and blood vessels near the bite. This can lead to an area of dead tissue that gets bigger if not treated. Extremely sensitive individuals can also develop more serious symptoms such as destruction of red blood cells and organ failure.
The six eyed sand spider is known to have a very potent venom, but its effects on humans are not well studied. It lives in desert areas of Africa where it buries itself in the sand in order to ambush insects and other creatures that crawl over it's hiding place. Since it hardly ever encounters humans going barefoot in the sand, very few humans are known to have been bitten.
FYI, the urban legend about daddy long legs having a potent venom but being unable to penetrate human skin is untrue. Several different creatures are known by the common name daddy long legs. Harvestmen are arachnids, but they are not spiders. They do not spin webs and do not have poison glands. They are scavengers that eat dead or decaying material. They can sometimes be beneficial in gardens because they eat the eggs of some pest insects. There is a group of thin legged spiders called cellar spiders that are often called daddy long legs in some parts of the US. They do have venom glands and are capable of biting humans, but their venom is not medically significant.
Something to try: Write a horror story that includes spiders. |
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Horror/Scary: September 10, 2025 Issue [#13331]
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