I understand why so many are afraid of snakes and spiders. Hollywood hasn't been too kind to them and that kind of thing can really take root. My grandma was deathly afraid of them and so she told my mom all kinds of ridiculous stories when she was younger about snakes chasing people to bite them and snakes killing people, etc. Mom ended up having quite a fear of snakes as a result, but she decided to really face that fear and went to a meeting once that I remember as a child. There was a man with many snakes there and he talked about them and had people touch them and hold them. Then Mom watched a lot of nature shows on snakes and read books about them. After awhile, education prevailed and she learned to be fascinated in them rather than to fear them.

She even got to the point one day where she picked up a baby garter snake on the road by our house one day and brought it in for me to look at, before releasing him into our garden. Thanks to her perseverence and determination, I was raised to respect but not fear snakes. I think it had to have been hard for her though, and I truly admire what it took for her to face her fears, and make sure that I wasn't raised the same way.

As for me, not too many creatures cause me fear or revulsion. I'd say parasites do though, I can hardly stand to look at them or think about them. Leeches, ticks, or anything that attaches itself to other beings like that repulse me. Yellowjackets I fear because I was once stung by one while washing my car and I had a pretty bad reaction to it.

The other thing that I'm fearful of though I've never even been around one is sharks. I have watched a lot about them and know how rare shark attacks are but that is one creature I have had nightmares about, thanks to Jaws.