Actually I think it all has to do with background. When my mother was a little girl, she had a really pretty spider in a jar (pretty spider? :-). She showed it to one of her brothers and he grabbed it and threw it on the ground and stepped on it. He pointed out this greenish goop, and said, "How would you like all that inside you? They bite and have poison in them!" She was always afraid of spiders after that. Both my sister and I are. On the other hand, my aunt, her sister, is very much a gardener. She always carefully removed spiders from her house, and all of her daughters are the same way. My sister is scared to death of them, and will scream and jump away if she sees one. My cousins are somewhat amused. I read about the ladybugs everyone seems to have in their house, the last couple of years. They aren't "our" ladybugs, they are some imported to take care of another pest.. (this was the "be careful what you wish for" type of answer). From what I read, they are all over most of the US and Canada, now. They are called Asia Lady beetles, and they have been said to bite. I've never been bitten by any of mine, that I know of. The poor things get into the ceiling light shades, and then die. I don't know if they die because they are so near the heat of the bulb, or if they just are at that point in their lives. Most of the ones I find in my house are dead. I only see one or two still alive every winter. Kathy