arachno-folks, another spider ob of the week:
when did I become a spider cheerleader? the video of the peacock spider is nuts. non-sequitur.
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Commenting again because after taking a hike this summer through wetland that consisted of about 5% orb weaver, uploading the resulting creepy-crawlies to iNat has almost entirely cured me of the NOPE reaction :-D I’m still going to get twitchy if one jumps up unexpectedly, but I’ve really started to appreciate their beauty.
And then back in September I took a picture of what I thought was a spider eating a moth. I’m uploading a huge backlog today and it’s a spined orb weaver! That frill thing isn’t a moth; it’s part of the spider!
Behold my weird doom-spider: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/36098447
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I made friends with one of these gals this summer! I actually spent hours staring at her building and mending her web over the course of a few weeks approximately. I even chatted with her. They are so cool that it is easy to forget to be freaked out.
This is my biggest recent leap in progress:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/36132424
Also, thanks for the spider field guide tips. I did get the little one with the drawings and I’ve been starting to make use and learn from it.
This has been an interesting experiment and I think my sharing and the sharing of all of you who’ve participated thus far has been instrumental in exponentially increasing the rate of comfort I experience with our eight-legged companions. I thank you.
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“I wanted to be her friend. I ran to find her a real fly.” I understand the feeling :)
I even was inspired to make a YouTube video about spiders in my neighborhood. I called it “Three Talented Spider Families in South Carolina.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T19SvMsin9M
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Same here I didn’t want anything with spiders at first. It’s Inat that helped me to pay attention to them and now I have already joined the jumping spiders fan club.
I have just discovered Crab spiders and Spinybacked Orbweavers last week and I am amazed.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41012572
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40733801
Giants like Heteropoda venatoria are still terrifying me though.
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“A lot of us spiderhuggers started from a position of phobia. Including me.”
So true for me! Spiders made me almost move out of my house, as each spring and autumn it was overrun with the big and furry ones. That was around 2010. It was either me or the spiders. I started a last attempt to deal with my fears by trying to find out as much as I could about them. I had a crappy digital camera back then and took pictures and tried to identify them and read up on them. I just uploaded a series of that time of one of the most impressive situations.
Middle of the night, bathroom and I almost stepped on a big ball with to many legs. I kind a screamed and shivered with disgust…bah! But wait…this were waaaay to many legs, even for a spider. And I took a closer look. There was another spider hunting down these big furry ones that made my life so hard. Aside from Salticids, which I always kind of liked and didn´t really view as spiders, I started to like those little hunters, which were as common in my house as the big ones. I think those little helpers are the onse that started to tip it overfor me, despite them being very spiderlike.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41721707
When I then started to read up more and more about behaviour of different species I found, I started to get more and more amazed. So many spiders show just the most incredible behaviours! Well, from there in went all downward with me ;-)
I bought a DSRL because I wanted to make better pictures of them and it turned out to be my biggest hobby until today. Also I spent 6 years studying social spiders and I do find them extraordinarily cute…and also just some of the most amazing beeings in general. Read up on them, it´s worth it! I think, they could definately also serve as Gateway-spiders!
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is that unreasonable to someone? 
Seriously, those are amazing photos you captured
I might be able to call myself an aspiring spider lover now as I’ve come a long way since my original post where I still felt firmly that I’m an arachnophobe. Not quite there with love for the big and furry yet and even baby dolomedes make twitchy.
I’m definitely going to look at social spiders. I’m generally interested in all animal behaviors and have developed a routine of spending time on the ground with my face close to the world beneath our feet. I see some amazing things that way. I also visit webs a lot. Right now I’m hanging out with two furrow orbweavers who have taken advantage of my porch light mothing. They stay still and obvious a lot which makes them “safe” for me. Between them and the many little maevia inclemens friends, I’m not getting bitten much and the midges are minimal.
Thanks for sharing!
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I used to be quite wary of bees and wasps, but the more I see them outside in nature doing their thing, pollinating flowers, digging nests etc, the more I am able to appreciate their beauty. Most recently I spent some of my quarantine time watching a Vespula squamosa queen (what I assume) is looking for a good nesting spot.
In terms of spiders, I never was really afraid of them for some reason. In Hong Kong, Nephila pilipes is sort of a ubiquitous critter you would find so I guess I just got used to them? I did scare myself a few times though, once I poked a Heteropoda venatoria (because i wanted to) in the leg and WOW IT WAS FAST.
I think I’m getting more appreciative of cockroaches too, mostly because I now know that the majority of species are not pests and that their roles as detritivores are extremely important to the ecosystems they live in.
Large orthopterans, eg. Mecopoda elongata, slightly scare me too due to their jumpiness, but thats actually my fault because for some reason I always like to poke them with my finger. Its an unexplainable urge.
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Totally. Also, important to very frugal gardeners looking to turn poor soil into gold. One part do nothing, one part add some compost, one part do more nothing once leaves fall, do more nothing so as not to disturb leaf moulds and delicious plant food, continue to mostly do nothing except add some plants and remove any invasives over the course of a few years then pat yourself on the back because you throw an awesome insect party and there’s endless food and drink and they invite their friends and you have beautiful plants. So, um, yeah, wood cockroaches are good outside!
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I’ve had the same experience with spiders and snakes! (Used to be afraid but now I seek them out.) Jumping spiders are definitely the cutest! Joining Facebook pages dedicated to snakes and spiders, respectively, have really made a difference. I think education in general reduces fear, and then it’s hard to be afraid of something when your Facebook feed is full of people going “Look at this sweetie pie!” We always trap and release spiders we find inside now too.
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I just found my first Northern Crab spider doing its classic “hide in a flower” behavior this week and I was HYPE!
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I think you are totally correct about education being a big factor. I was thinking to myself the other day, as I had all sorts of involuntary reactions to the spider whose name I share, that even though I am still having those reactions my actual “fear” and psychological experience had really morphed. In no place in my mind was I considering harming it. Usually with a large scary member of pisauridae or an agelenid in my bed (song title?) I am more afraid that my physical responses will harm them where as in the past I wanted them gone and didn’t care how. I now empathize with any organism displaying an involuntary fear response and am aware of their fragility. As I have learned the names and gotten to know behaviors I have cultivated a much deeper interest and respect that has soared far above the modicum of tolerance and peace I had hoped for when I began this conscious journey to change my phobia into something else. I maneuvered the vigilance from fear into a vigilance of discovery and curiosity. The sweetie stuff helps a lot to take the edge off. I use that knowingly and with humor. I’m kind of spider crazy now. Yepping around safely capturing them with much less general spider anxiety and only saying nope nope nope to the big guys but also, sorry, please just don’t go there/hide there/ surprise me where I sleep or pee. I am still in awe and fascinated by the dolomedes and pisaurina mira but unfortunately, have yet to shake that visceral thing. I hope to.
I realized recently that aphids might be another gateway organism and something that may be a nope for some. Get up close and watch their behavior and the interactions they have in their inter-insect symbiotic relationships…you too, will wow your friends.
Welcome to the forum, @cammie :)
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Thanks for the welcome!
By aphids, you are in fact referring to tiny ant cows, right? How is that not objectively awesome? 
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and hosts for tiny parasites…
mmmm…dewlicious. moo.
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I mean, I don’t necessarily want them touching me but I think it’s really cool that ants have their own pets.
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That is pretty cool!
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Thanks for the book recommendations, everyone & especially @joanfaiola. I love this one And feel that , like the author states, I have now become an arachnophile rather than an arachnophobic mess. Still really triggered by the families everyone else seems a little weirded by But my progress since beginning iNat and first post here is impressive to me, I continue to be in awe of how much power knowledge can give you over the more primitive elements of the psyche. here I am proudly showing off my newest Acquisition to a not amused phidippus audax gentleman. I have begun considering naming the spiders I visit as she has done. I am wary of my sensitivity getting out of hand like hers though so I’m trying to temper the least helpful bits of my anthropomorphism.
Anyone else have any adjustments with a “gateway“ or “nope” organism Recently?
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After realising I had a somewhat twisted perception of cockroaches as being an incarnation of evil a few years ago, I have come full circle to being a full on arthropod evangelist with family and friends and devoting most of my spare time this year to recording them.
I feel like its been a series of gateways, and remains ongoing…this has been my path
Bees - the charismatic ambassadors + perfect gateway to arthropods for many.
Wasps + Hoverflies - easy starter insects to follow on from bees
…then…flies in general (even finding interest in drab houseflies now)
Spiders - Salticidae definitely sealing the deal for me too
Over the last winter, my interest moved on to more macroscopic worlds due to lack of flying critters… making me discover the wonders of collembola (along with lichens and mosses)
Collembola then took me to mites!
I recommend Damaeidae in particular as a gateway species for mites
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/39427463
Crazy camouflage.
Mites took me to pseudoscorpions … who can’t be blown away to find these at the bottom of an English garden?!
Also highly recommend www.chaosofdelight.org as a gateway for the world of mesofauna more broadly.
Currently excited by these somewhat rare 3mm long parasitic wasps with giant heads that I found in a local car park. - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47570005
Who would have thought parasitic wasps could be so cute?!
And that something so seemingly exotic would be in a car park.
Also found some incredible tiny midges today - those plumose antennae! wowee!
Upcoming - hoping to find a gateway species for cranefly - don´t feel much love for these gangly fellows yet, but sure there´s some out there to change my mind.
My major remaining challenge though is ticks. Having struggled after getting a tick bite…I don´t have much love for these still I must admit. One day!
Yet to encounter cockroaches again, but imagine I would perceive them differently these days… :)
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