Bugged with spiders and snakes

Cecil gets all knotted up over snakes and why people have bug fear, while SDStaff Doug looks into ina [The Straight Dope] Bugged with spiders and snakes By [The Straight Dope]( • Issue #22 • [View online]( Cecil gets all knotted up over snakes and why people have bug fear, while SDStaff Doug looks into inadvertent spider consumption. Threadspotting The best of the Straight Dope Message Board  May 29, 2020: [Testing kids these days.]( Straight Dope Classic: July 15, 2016 [Illustration by Slug Signorino] Illustration by Slug Signorino [Why are people afraid of bugs]( Dear Cecil: Why are humans so afraid of insects? My first response is to think that insects spoil our food, and a single insect can quickly turn into many, but mice and birds eat our food too, and mice carry diseases. But almost nobody is afraid of birds, and mice don’t inspire nearly the same revulsion that insects do. — Nathan Cecil replies:  I don’t know that I’d nominate mice as an exemplar of an unscary stimulus, to be honest — fear of mice is one of the most common fears out there. It’s got its own entry as a phobia in the DSM-IV, and in most surveys it’s right up there with fears of spiders, snakes, dogs, and insects. I’ll give you birds, though. Nobody’s afraid of birds. [Click here to keep reading](. Straight Dope Staff Report: September 8, 2000 [Does the average person consume four spiders per year in his sleep]( Dear Straight Dope: I have heard from numerous sources (many of them seemingly credible) that the average human consumes an average of four spiders per year in his or her sleep. Is there any truth to this fact? And if so, why would the spiders go in our mouths? — Michael O'Shea SDStaff Doug replies:  Amazingly, I cannot find this one debunked in either the alt.folklore.urban or snopes urban legend archives. I know it’s been debunked in the AFU newsgroup — I’ve been in on the debunking personally, but none of that comes up in a search on the AFU archive. So it’s up to me to do what must be done. [Click here to keep reading](. Straight Dope Classic: October 31, 2014 [Can a snake tie itself into a knot it can’t get out of]( Dear Cecil: Not that I hope to ever need this information, but can a live snake be tied into a knot that it can’t get out of? — Richard Payne  Cecil replies: Well, I suppose you could do that, and then you’d have a snake that was either badly injured or dead. Fortunately, snakes themselves don’t wriggle into knots they can’t wriggle out of — at any rate healthy ones don’t. (For unhealthy ones, see below.) On the contrary, many snakes and other legless critters have an extraordinary facility for self-knotting, and can tie and untie themselves with a dexterity that would leave a sailor or Boy Scout in awe.  [Click here to keep reading](. Did you enjoy this issue? [The Straight Dope]( By [The Straight Dope]( Fighting ignorance since 1973. (It's taking longer than we thought.) [Tweet](    [Share]( If you don't want these updates anymore, please unsubscribe [here](. If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe [here](. Powered by [Revue](