Sometimes, a picture is better than the real thing.
Hairy spiders, glossy beetles and house centipedes with a million legs: most of us have at least one creature that terrifies us no matter how small they are. But why do we hate them so much in the first place? According to Popular Science's interview with author and insect ecologist Jeffrey Lockwood, he says the answer is twofold.
On one hand, Lockwood believes we're "evolutionary primed to be keenly aware of insects in our proximity," however, he also says we don't have much experience with them. Even the creepy ones.
"In the modern world we have very little experience with positive encounters with insects. Culture overlays our evolutionary tendencies," he told the magazine.
And we can agree with this. You may have had an awful experience with a tiny spider in your shower or worse, been bitten by a bug while travelling. These negative experiences might make you more fearful in the long run — entomophobia is the proper term for a fear of insects.
But with Halloween coming up, we decided to check out 15 of some of these creepy crawlies. After a little research, most of them don't seem that bad at all ... in the pictures, at least. We would also like to apologize in advance if any of our slides cause any heartache, disgust and/or shivers.
Which ones would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments below: