I used to be terrified of spiders, but then began studying them, feeding them and such, until it's reached the point that unless I happen to inadvertently walk into a web and the spider's stuck to my face, I can deal with them and leave them alone.
That said, what is the real chance a tarantula of ANY size is going to happen to just climb onto you without you knowing, much less not seeing it coming?
I had one in my middle school science class, (the same period of my spider terrification LOL) and I thought it was the coolest thing, but I was never there when they let it out to walk on you.
RE: "That said, what is the real chance a tarantula of ANY size is going to happen to just climb onto you without you knowing, much less not seeing it coming?"
I'm glad you asked that, because they're sold in many pet shops as pets, and thus are commonly available in most communities. So here's a scenario for you:
Someone you've pissed off in the past is secretly a revenge freak, and after running across the countless videos on YouTube about lock picking, key bumping, and burglar alarm circumvention techniques, he buys a big hairy tarantula and slips into your residence with it. Then he lets it loose under your bed, and slips back out without leaving any signs of an intrusion.
The tarantula likes it under your bed, because it's dark, and he finds a few small bugs to snack on. So it decides to wait until dark before doing any exploring. Then you come home and flip a bright light on in the room, slam drawers, turn unpleasant music on, talk incessantly on your phone, fart, etc. And this whole time, the tarantula is thinking you're a jerk, and he doesn't like you for disturbing him and scaring bugs away.
Then you turn the light off and crash down on the bed, alarming the tarantula even more. Now it's really pissed, and it's thinking, "Who does this freaking ahole think he is? Doesn't he know who he's fucking with?" Literally seething with anger, it waits until it senses you're asleep, and quietly crawls out from under your bed, and then up the side of it onto your mattress.
As it crawls onto your butt, it pauses, considering whether to bite your ass. After a minute or so of deliberation, it decides to head for your big head instead, since your little head isn't accessible. As it gingerly crawls onto the side of your face, it pauses for a few seconds, and suddenly sinks it's fangs into your eyelid, penetrating through to your eyeball as it injects it's venom. And when you wake up screaming, it becomes frightened and shoots a mist of microscopic barbed hairs straight into both of your eyes in order to defend itself.
^
No mom should have to rescue her 20 year old son, naked and sobbing in the corner of a shower from a spider ...
