h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was thinking about this thread recently because there was an article in our local paper about fears, phobias, but mainly disgust.

It was just a paraphrasing of a study I'd already read or heard about somewhere else that humans developed a reaction of disgust to prevent them having close contact with things that can give them diseases.

The article was illustrated with a huge picture of a hairy spider. But while it said we had a natural aversion to things that could infect us because they carry parasites, there was no specific mention that spiders carry parasites.

So I am still no nearer getting to the bottom of why so many people have arachnophobia. Or was all that in another thread?

On re-reading this post I kept reading "parasites" as "pasties". Must be lunchtime.

arachnidpasty

mmmm... oo it is nearly lunchtime isn't it?

Fleas

the cat keeps bringing them home no matter what we do
I *think* we may have finished killing the latest wave but there is no way to be totally sure... cat is currently banned from the house apart from to eat, it's warm out there he can cope

If you're interested in arachnidpasties, you should talk to Malabarista. She's done some work in that line.

TRiG.

I wouldn't say this is disgusting, really, but I'm sure my reaction can't be normal...

The sound of toothbrush bristles (either someone really scrubbing or running a fingernail down the bristles, like you do to spatter paint) sends chills up and down my spine. Not the good kind of chills. If it's particularly bad, the chills go down my arms, as well. And I'm feeling them now, too

Why, yes, I'd say my oral hygiene is affected and, yes, I *do* have a missing tooth

"The word 'Baby'."

To be fair MMF, the way folks in the south east of England pronounce 'baby' does sound terrible

On post 41 and phobic reactions to arachnids, arachnids don't necessarily carry disease, though some species do, especially ticks, but many are venomous and others can trigger serious allergic reactions.

Evolution evidently opted for a 'better safe than sorry' avoidant mechanism here.

...a couple of unusual responses, indigenous to the American southwest, there's a large spider variet, about an inch across its body, that looks kind of like a tail-less scorpion, claws and all, called a "vinegaroon", since if one is exposed to the vinegaroon, everything one eats will taste sour for three or four days afterward.

It isn't necessary to make any kind of physical contact with the vinegaroon, let alone be bitten; simply breathing the same air in close proximity will set off the reaction.

Recommended, if you find one inside, trap it under a glass or plastic jar, slide a card under the opening of that to keep it from escaping, remove it out of doors a goodly distance from the dwelling, let it go, dispose of everything you used to handle the creature in an out of doors trash point.

That won't necessarily stop the reaction, but the alternative, smashing it, is worse.

I'm so glad we don't have venomous spiders where I live - for now at least...

In about an hour on a Google image search, I couldn't find pictures of our local variety.

The closest matches, the camel spider pictures, showed creatures that lacked the crab or scorpion or lobster or jumping-spider like claws on the front pair of legs.

My local variety also lacks the whip like tail appendage shown in many of the photos, of another kind of 'vinegaroon', and, again looks more like a truncated bark scorpion without the tail than anything else, so much so I usually do a double take looking for that tail when I see one.

Its claws are somewhat more gracile than those of the bark scorpion.

Do you know the Latin name?

Not on this one.