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snake fear / hatred

Haha I find it funny how many people are appalled by me keeping pet rats as well. Too funny.
I was at the vet a couple weeks back, and this guy came in with something in a bucket. I was very curious so I asked him what it was. He's like "oh, it's a....snake" and he takes a step or two back. My response "OH COOL, what kind? Can I see?" Here I am holding my rats in a bag on my lap. lol. It was pretty funny. He had a really pretty boa with mite problems, unfortunately she is fond of rat smell and has bit him when he smells like rat, so I didn't get to hold her. But it was a very funny conversation. I guess he is used to a very different reaction.
 
One of the vet techs I work with frequently brings in her pet rat for the girls up front to cuddle. Whenever this happens, everyone is overly protective of the rat around me. The lady even asked me, "So, if I leave on vacation and get you to take care of my horses, and my rat dies when I'm gone, will you feed it to your snake?" Hmmmmmm. 'Only if you want to.' I think. But I tell her something much different to her face.

Devon
 
Look at a lizard. Ear holes, two front legs, two back legs, long-obvious tail, eats things that stretch it's body out a lot. Look at a snake. No ear holes, no legs at all, no obvious tail (unless you know how to look), eats a rodent or two every 1-2 weeks that makes it stretch its jaws and body. Snakes are weird.

It makes sense to me for people to hate/dislike snakes for different reasons. I don't feel like listing them all, but all we can really do is either try to educate them, or live with them. My mom is somewhat afraid of snakes, but she's held a couple of small corns at pet stores and my small normal a few times. She's slowly getting over their creepy/weirdness.

And I know there's number of people here who used to be afraid of snakes that now own corns. Humans are weird. xDD
 
ShenziSixaxis said:
And I know there's number of people here who used to be afraid of snakes that now own corns. Humans are weird. xDD
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We certainly are. My dad has always been afraid of snakes (he has recurring nightmares about them), but since I starting keeping them he has been herping in the field more than I am! He'll find some garters or water snakes every week and send me pictures.
 
You know, until recently, I always assumed that more people were afraid of spiders than of snakes. Maybe this is because I used to be an arachnophobe but have always loved snakes myself. Maybe it's because people encounter spiders more often in everyday life, so you get to see the fear reaction more often. But now that I have snakes, and tell people about it, I'm starting to see that this is perhaps not the case. I genuinely cannot imagine how anyone could look at a baby snow corn and be scared. But a friend of my mother's who asked to see a picture apparently started *screaming* when she saw this tiny little thing curled up in a cardboard box, on her computer screen. Not even in person. I always assumed that things with too few legs were less scary to people than things with too many legs. I may have been wrong.

When I was young, I was volunteering at a day camp, and a couple of the kids found a rough green snake in one of the trees and started freaking out. I went over and talked to them about snakes and showed them how to consider it fascinating and beautiful (which it really, really was) rather than terrifying, and within a few minutes, a little boy who had almost been crying with fear wanted to see it more closely. So I picked him up and held him nearer, and he agreed that it was in fact beautiful. Obviously I didn't let anyone touch it-- I was 12 or 13, but I had sufficient sense for that. But that's my only direct experience with ophidiophobia up to this point, and it wasn't that hard to conquer in the kids. I kind of wish I could try to do the same with more adults.
 
Here is something someone on that aforementioned forum sent me, I think it sums it up well.

I think snakes are just one of those primal fears like spiders and sharks. I suppose further back along the evolutionary trail, having an instinctive fear of a genus that includes a number of venomous species may have served a survival purpose in place of the existence of knowledge
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I personally think it's a phobia. There are certain common themes in animal phobias, common ones are snakes, spiders & insects. The common theme is probably venom/poison. Me, I am phobic about bees & wasps. Can't stand 'em! I also find large hairy spiders a little disturbing although I can stand to be around them. Snakes never bothered me. Don't know why as my mother was TERRIFIED of snakes.
 
I do wonder how much of that is directly inherited from our parents, not just our culture. No one in my family is afraid of snakes, so I never had anyone from whom to learn that fear.

How about the rest of you? Is your fear or lack of fear the same as that of your primary family role model(s)? If it changed (and I assume it has for a lot of you, as you're here), did it originally match said role model?
 
GothPixel said:
I do wonder how much of that is directly inherited from our parents, not just our culture. No one in my family is afraid of snakes, so I never had anyone from whom to learn that fear.

How about the rest of you? Is your fear or lack of fear the same as that of your primary family role model(s)? If it changed (and I assume it has for a lot of you, as you're here), did it originally match said role model?
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This is an excellent question. I'm curious to see how people respond.

My mother was a biology geek through high school; her passion was marine biology, and more specifically, sharks. As long as I have known her, she has never exhibited phobia of any particular animal and shares my love of misunderstood creatures. She went out on my bug catching adventures as a child and she loves my snakes.

My dad, as I have mentioned before, has a history of snake-related nightmares. He is, however, overcoming his fear a great deal. Other than that, I have no siblings or close family members who could have influenced my opinion on snakes. I have never personally been afraid of them, or quite understood what makes them scary.
 
Let's see. My father was probably not my "primary" role model but he did not have ANY genuine phobias that I know of. My mother was probably closer to my "primary role model" for the most part, but she was deathly afraid of snakes even though intellectually she realized that in the USA little green snakes are NOT venomous. Both my parents were unbothered by bees & wasps. I am unreasonably terrified of them.

I was never afraid of snakes. Encounters with copper heads, cottonmouths & little rattlesnakes did not change my lack of fear. They taught me to walk cautiously & look where you put your feet, because I did not want to step on a snake (good way to get bitten & I was in shorts and sneakers) but I was never afraid, just careful, Actually, I LOVED to see them from a little distance, close enough to see them clearly but far enough away that they couldn't connect if they struck at me.
 
I don't remember either of my parents ever being afraid of snakes, but I was told I was bitten by a garter snake as a very young child, which you would think might make me afraid of them, but I've never feared snakes.

On the other hand, neither was afraid of spiders, crickets or grasshoppers, but those were some of my biggest fears. The cricket one I got over pretty quickly after being exposed to them on a daily basis once I started working in pet stores. I'm still not overly fond of grasshoppers. Spiders I've kinda made a truce with...as long as they stay over there and I stay over here, all is good. I can hold tiny ones, but I don't know that I would be getting so friendly with the one that started this thread.
 
Sweetseraph said:
Spiders I've kinda made a truce with...as long as they stay over there and I stay over here, all is good. I can hold tiny ones, but I don't know that I would be getting so friendly with the one that started this thread.
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LOL I'm in the wrong thread....disregard that remark. :laugh01:
 
I can understand people who really have a phobia for snakes. And those are not the ones you can win over by providing information. A phobia is irrational and cannot be overcome that way.

I don't tell everyone (easier here sort of anonymous :)) but I used to have a real phobia for spiders. We don't have venomous ones out here (or so mildly that it cannot to harm to humans), but I couldn't be in the same room with a common "house spider". It became a real problem when I went to live on my own, with me calling the neighbours when I had one in the appartment. I could not control it, just started sweating and freaking out. If I had to get closer I'd start screaming, and I'm really not the screaming kind!
I finally had enough and went to a psychologist specialised in phobia's. And it went well ! After every session I got "homework". In the beginning I had to write down how long I could LOOK at a spider picture (couldn't even do that at first, I used to blurr my eyes to be able to) and practice every day. Later on he gave me my "practice spider" :) First a week of looking at it, then looking at it with the lid open, etc. I ended up taking it out of the jar by a leg !!! (when I showed him at the next session, the leg broke off, and my therapist laughed his head off when I went "OH!!!" and put my head over the jar and yelled "SORRY!!!" :D) Since then, I still thing they're kinda creepy, but at least when there's one in the house, I can catch him in a glass and put it outside. My practice spider did his job well and I set him free after that, he scurried away quickly on his seven legs :)

Long story short, even when I was completely terrified, I could acknowledge that it was different for other people who were fascinated where I was frantic. The info I got made me admire spiders, but didn't do anything for my fear.
On the other hand, a quick change can happen with people who just don't know enough about the critter in question. But like said before, they have to be *willing* to listen.
And that last one is a big problem with many people
 
It seems like the two main phobias in our society are snakes and spiders. I understand the spiders personally, though I don't mind them as much as I used to. My grandmother HATED snakes to the point that you couldn't even say the world snake around her. I even sent her a picture of my leopard gecko once and she freaked out a bit because it apparently looked too much like a snake. Don't as me how...she's old ;).
 
Honestly, part of how I got over some of my fear of certain bugs was because I'm such a control freak and don't like something having that much control over me. LOL I'd have to agree that in the case of a true phobia, it takes much more to get over it.

My store manager has a pretty bad fear of snakes and when we had snakes in the store, he did gradually build up to getting closer to them. He was even able to change the water in the cage! A few times I've brought a snake to work and it's really interesting to see the gamut of reactions. Some people will show interest and want to touch him. Some really freak out and, yes, the men seem to be worse than the women.

The other day I went to my doctor's wearing a shirt with corn snakes all over it and I brought Kathy's book to read while waiting and he commented on this and was asking me a few questions about corns; how big do they get, where are they from, they aren't venomous?, etc. He said that his wife wouldn't go near a snake, but that someone else he knew wouldn't even be able to look at my shirt! I can sort of understand seeing something on TV and having a reaction, but a shirt?? That seems a little weird to me, but I guess that's the nature of phobias.
 
Sweetseraph said:
The other day I went to my doctor's wearing a shirt with corn snakes all over it and I brought Kathy's book to read while waiting and he commented on this and was asking me a few questions about corns; how big do they get, where are they from, they aren't venomous?, etc. He said that his wife wouldn't go near a snake, but that someone else he knew wouldn't even be able to look at my shirt! I can sort of understand seeing something on TV and having a reaction, but a shirt?? That seems a little weird to me, but I guess that's the nature of phobias.
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You're right. It IS weird. But I must admit, back in the days, I wouldn't have been able to look at somebody's shirt either if it had that kind of spider on it.
And then you go calling yourself names "Idiot!! It's a SHIRT for crying out loud !!!"
 
I sympathize with people who have genuine phobias. I'm terrified of wasps, and the worst part is feeling embarrassed in front of people who don't understand what that kind of irrational fear really feels like.

It's a great measure of character to have a phobia and actually take steps to overcome it. That takes courage.
 
I feel for people with phobias- the stitches on my face back in the day now declare all dogs guilty until proven innocent- but anybody can at least get less fearful if they put in the effort.
When presenting my corns to those who are unsure of snakes, I try to be informational, encouraging, and very slow, doing everything on that person's terms. And corns are a great place to start! They sure are a lot friendlier than hamsters! :laugh:

And I'm not sure if this has been brought up, but the snake and spider phobias' commonness (if that's a word) is NOT entirely cultural. Bad scifi movies do make things worse, but psych studies have shown that many are engrained to not like these critters from birth. The hypothesis is that ancestors who were weary of wild animals were more likely to survive and pass on their genes. I can't find the original article I learned this from, but here is a similar one: http://www.livescience.com/animals/fear-of-spiders-100218.html
This is interesting because in studies of twins separated at birth, the disorders most found in common between the twins were phobias!
 
oneirogenesis said:
I sympathize with people who have genuine phobias. I'm terrified of wasps, and the worst part is feeling embarrassed in front of people who don't understand what that kind of irrational fear really feels like.

It's a great measure of character to have a phobia and actually take steps to overcome it. That takes courage.
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I completely understand the embarrasment you talk about. Luckily for me an encounter with a spider (more specifically the house spider I was most afraid of) was less probable in company than that of a wasp. And if you do, they don't come flying around your head and into your drink. :) So mostly I could just ignore it and just make no mention of it.
Not sure about the courage though. It took me about ten years thinking "I really should do something about this" before I took those steps. And then only because it was really nessecary. You can't keep calling neighbours to remove a spider from your home. Those spiders come in the house every spring and autumn and it was ridiculous how every time I entered my own home, I started checking every wall, floor and corner just in case.
In stead of courage, you could just as well call it cowardly, too scared to keep living with that fear :)
 
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