They Got Too Many Legs

I don't entirely understand arachnaphobes.* Not the fact that they're afraid of spiders though. That makes perfect sense to me. Seriously, have you seen a frickin' spider lately? Those things are pretty damned scary. Especially the giant ones. And the poisonous ones. And the ones that eat birds. And the giant, poisonous ones that eat birds. Pretty terrifying. No, what I don't understand how spiders can absolutely petrify you, but you have no problem with any other kind of bug.** Naturally, this doesn't apply to all arachnophobes, but I have met some like that, and it confuses the hell out of me. The difference is, what, two legs? Some of them are just as scary-looking, if not more, and just as dangerous.***

I'm sure it's some sort of weird psychological thing. Now, I firmly believe that a human being's personality and fears are a product of their upbringing, rather than pre-programmed at birth, with the notable exception of mental disorders. So this sort of changes depending on whether or not you believe that phobias are ingrained due to minimal birth defects or can only grow through traumatic experiences. I'm thinking it might be both, but I'm not good enough at this sort of thing to really call anything for certain.****

I do enjoy trying to get people to explain why they're terrified of spiders though. They can never really give a solid answer besides "they're creepy-looking", which is fine I guess, but so are a lot of other things. It gets to be a bit worrying at times.

*Firefox's spell-check claims that this is not a real word, but it didn't have any alternate suggestions. I'm forced to either assume that Firefox is stupid or that it isn't actually a word. Yet.
**Yes, I realize that spiders aren't actually bugs. Turns out I don't care. I know, shocking.
***You know what's frickin' scary? BEES. Seriously, BEES.
****Science and agnosticism, coming together in perfect harmony once again.