I once had a basement full of cellar spiders and killed them all. Literally the next day the basement was FILLED with much more annoying more mobile spiders. One crawled into my water bottle and I didn't realize until I pulled off my tongue.

Cellar spiders are now my best friends. I didn't realize until then, but you can actually pick them up by hand and they don't bite if you're gentle.

I thought my kids not to be afraid of them and they handle them regularly. My wife is another matter and she has a very distinctive spider scream that I can hear from anywhere in the house.

Yes, I have noticed this too. Despite my best intentions and full knowledge that we have none here which can hurt me, I am still shit phobic about spiders. The daddy longlegs are a protected species in my household since I first realized their stunning efficiency as resident security corps.

My wife was terrified of spiders. She want to a hypnotherapy session along with a arachnaphobic friend some years ago. She wasn't completely cured, but has been much better ever since (now calmly asks me to remove my "8 legged friend" instead of freaking out). I think the friend also became significantly less phobic.