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Comment by 1MachineElf | Hacker News Reader

As a kid growing up in Florida, I remember a scary moment when an old man walking towards his car brushed up against the web of a very large Joro spider, which stuck to his back, right before he opened up his car and drove away. The spider must have been at least 6 inches in diameter if not more. I was worried the man could have gotten into a car accident after being surprised by the giant creature. I should have tried to stop him, but I was really young, had no time to react, and he was between one and two hundred feet away (I have good long distance eyesight). That was at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, which had so many of these spiders.

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>an old man walking towards his car brushed up against the web of a very large Joro spider, which stuck to his back, right before he opened up his car and drove away.

As someone with arachnophobia, what a terrible day to be able to read.

Luckily in Europe don't have these huge and poisonous spiders found in places like the US and Australia.

Bad news: Almost all spiders are technically venomous, in that they have venom glands that produce a toxin they use to incapacitate their prey.

Good news: Very few (like about 6) spider families are potentially dangerous to humans. Most spiders rarely bite us, or their fangs are not big enough to penetrate our skin, or their venom is not potent enough or voluminous enough to hurt us.

Spiders have a bad rap. I'd much rather have spiders in my house than flies or mosquitos.

Yeah I’ve never minded spiders much. Flies don’t bother me too much, and mosquitos suck but are rarely in my house.

Roaches for some reason though, evoke a sort of reaction in me that makes me want to become an arsonist.

Spiders reputation would be 100x better if their evolutionary features weren't as noticeable to us. Butterflies are proof of this. Horrific things up close, but from far away we adore them.

> As someone with arachnophobia, what a terrible day to be able to read.

Although I can't fault someone for having arachnophobia, as it's extremely common and we're potentially hard-wired to be susceptible to it, I encourage you to open your mind to the possibility of seeing spiders as incredibly beautiful.

Exposure to images online might be the easiest way to start, but seeing them in 3D is more impactful. I grew up terribly arachnophobic, and in my 20s I decided that (because I was living in a place brimming with spiders[1]) I would stop being arachnophobic. I decided to actively suppress my reactions first, simply to not panic, and over time that genuinely reduced my fear. Eventually I began to appreciate the weirdness and coolness of their little hydraulic bodies, and to see them as the valuable and amazing creatures they are. Truly, my life would be less full without spiders.

[1] I later learned that this is actually true pretty much everywhere.

I am more than capable of finding spiders beautiful and panicking when one crawls onto me.

Glad to hear it! I don't enjoy a surprise guest on my body, either, haha. I just have to fight this fight because arachnophobia is often paired with extermination.

Good news is that extermination of spiders won't happen because of arachnophobia, at least. It'll be because we decimate the planet's climate.

Spiders are amazing creatures. But when big black ones are inside my home and RUN when they see me, knowing they shouldn't be there.. I absolutely die of terror.

If I saw some giant one in the wild? Game over, instant panic attack..

My ancestors must have seen some serious shit that I am so hard-wired to be terrified of these guys.

They're not running because they know they shouldn't be there. They're running because they didn't expect you to be there, tromping like Godzilla through their living room.

Same here. In my youth I was so arachnophobic that I couldn't even look at a photo of a spider. Eventually, I'm not sure how, something clicked and now I think they're quite cute, basically squirrels with more legs.

Of course, it's still startling when one appears indoors where you don't expect it, but at least now I can go on with my day or else move it outside.

Be careful, I started out looking for exposure therapy and now I have a pet spider.

From personal experience, knowing a daddy long-legs isn't dangerous or even technically a spider doesn't help when one crawls out of your bike helmet onto your face.

Ha. I lived in Oxford for a year and the first day I arrived at my flat, there was a giant house spider. To this day it’s the biggest spider I’ve ever seen.

Are you sure it was a Joro? They are relatively new to North America. Believed to have come first to Georgia via a shipping container from Asia in 2013-14.

This article suggests that if Joros are in Florida at all, it is a recent phenomenon

https://www.wesh.com/article/east-coast-parachuting-spiders/...

Not the original commenter, but I wrinkled my brow at that 2013-2014 date because what we call a “Banana Spider” down here looks really similar to a Joro…so I can understand if there was some assumption that they were the same.

Growing up in the woods of Florida you become all too familiar with them.

https://www.imagineourflorida.org/banana-spider/

Yes, exactly. We've called them banana spiders while knowing there are totally different spiders elsewhere in the world that are actually real banana spiders. We've called them orb weavers. I guess Joro is the new name now.

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