"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
On 6/13/2013 10:42 PM, Bastette wrote:
I'm pretty sure there's a biological component to the fear of snakes -
many
people seem to have it and so do many other animals. I'm not so sure how
that works for spiders, though. I have a feeling that's a much more
cultural
thing. Seems like in some places, people are a lot more easygoing about
bugs,
unless they know one to be dangerous, and then they seem to know what to
do
to avoid them. I don't think any other species of animal has a spider
phobia,
either (that I know of). So that one is probably taught.

I think Tweed is doing a great job conquering this fear by grabbing them
up in a towel and tossing them out. I don't see really *big* spiders
around here. I'm not really afraid of spiders but I sure don't like them
in my house.

As for snakes, just the other day I was sitting here in the corner of the
living room, typing away. I glanced out the glass door and saw a large
black snake was slithering across the patio. I'm not exaggerating, that
sucker was over 3 feet (about a meter) long.

I'm glad it was too hot for me to be sitting outside. I probably would
have screamed like a girl... wait, I AM a girl! These black snakes
aren't poisonous but I sure don't want one slithering over my feet.

The thing I have an absolute horror of is Palmetto bugs. They look like
really large cockroaches, but they can fly! shudder

Jill

I'm sorry, and don't want to belittle anyone's fear of snakes, but the idea
of a snake that small being considered large strikes my funnybone. The
rattlesnakes that grow in the hills around here easily reach twice that
size. I avoid poisonous snakes, and any snake if I don't know whether or
not it's poisonous. However, I like the nonpoisonous ones, and have held
them several times. Once I was one of several people holding a snake that
was about 20 feet (6 or 7 metres) long. Another time I held a little one,
about one and a half times the size of yours, for about 20 minutes. It was
draped across my shoulders, and wound its tail around the temple of my
glasses. When the owner went to take it back, I had to take off my glasses
so we could unwind it. I quite enjoyed that.

Joy