What do you think of when you hear the word tarantula. With many people words like: creepy, crawly scary and deadly appear. But, with tarantula's that is not the case. So, it is my job to prove and disprove common misconceptions of these amazing arachnids.
The first words was creepy. I have no clue why people think tarantula's are creepy. Many are used as Halloween icons. But why? In many cultures, scary stories were often associated with spiders. Have you heard of the greek goddess Arachne. I was Arachne for Halloween last year, I knew people would find her creepy. So the creepy aspect comes from stories.
Crawly! Well, duh. Tarantulas crawl. How else are they supposed to move around!? Have you actually ever held a tarantula? It doesn't feel at all like needles scraping across your skin. It feel like little flower petals brushing across your palm. My pet tarantula is very mellow. She rarely moves fast, when she does that is when she is about to eat her cricket. That brings us to scary.
Scary, are you afraid of tarantulas? I am not. Many people are arachnaphobic, which is the fear of spiders. This fear is mental. If you actually get to know these cool creatures then they are the exact opposite of scary. This mentality comes from rumors. Like "A spider in your house is bad luck" or "a spider's venom will kill you." Both of those statements are not true. Because no one has ever died of a tarantula bite. Hmmm… Deadly?
Now deadly. One truth though, is their venom. All spiders are venomous, that is how they hunt. They mean no harm to us. They are more afraid of you then you are of them. Tarantula's are not deadly. But, only a few species in the world, out of thousands, have venom strong enough to kill you. You are actually more likely to be killed by a dog, then by a tarantula.
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