[Secret Agent Man]

There are good reasons for rational fear of several of these on the list, however. Some of them can kill you if you aren’t careful. Usually the ones that can have some venom in them.

[The KG9 Kid]

Had my mother in law from New York City visiting us last fall. She saw a big furry spider in the backyard and was certain that it was poisonous. I told her that I looked on the Internet for an entomology site the year before and found that there are no venomous spiders in this part of the country that she's got to be worried about, but that the spiders we do have are harmless even though they can sometimes look very frightening. We do have black widows, but they are easy to spot and so are their webs. 'Don't worry mom', I said, I make sure there's none of them in the garage so there won't be any inside the house.

Couple days later our Siamese kitten was scratching around a sand pile in the backyard and wouldn't leave it alone. He was sure that something he wanted was in there. They shoo'ed him out of there and found a baby Great Basin rattlesnake coiled up in the sand pile. Mother in law went through the roof.

I guess I forgot to mention to her that we do have rattlesnakes here, but my assurances that we've never had one in the backyard before wasn't satisfying to her.