Afraid of spiders... this is a craft for you!

Spiders are one of the most highly feared animals in the world. Fear of spiders, known as arachnophobia, is one of the most common phobias, with many people seeing doctors to help them control their terror.

Why are spiders so scary? There are a few different theories behind this widespread and irrational fear, but researchers tell us that the real reasons are simple matters of science.

Spiders, with a few exceptions, are dark in color. Through our combined experiences over the centuries, we've come to associate bad things with dark colors. The earliest example is the fear of nighttime. In ancient times, without the benefit of artificial lights, our ancestors had no way of knowing what was coming at them in the dark. They could be attacked by wild animals or other people, or they could become hopelessly lost if they wandered too far from home.

Even though we now have lights to guide our way at night, this fear is hard-wired into our brains from years of collective experiences. In addition to fearing the dark, a small part of our subconscious (in many people) fears anything dark in color.

For reasons that scientists still don't fully understand, humans are 'programmed' to prefer soft, rounded shapes over hard, angular ones. Spiders, with their long, angular legs, reach deep into our minds to activate this fear.

Spiders move very quickly, and they tend to avoid humans. While they're actually avoiding us because we frighten them (imagine that!), our minds interpret this 'sneaky' behavior as a threat. When we see something scuttling across the corner of our vision, our instincts tell us that whatever that fast-moving shape might be, it's up to no good.

A non-threatening way to overcome a spider fear is to simply learn about these beneficial creatures. Spiders' biggest gift to humans is their appetite – they eat mosquitoes and many other insects that can spread disease and generally make life unpleasant. Without spiders, the planet would literally be overrun by insects in a very short time. Instead of fearing these helpful arachnids, we should actually be giving them a big thank-you!

And what better way to learn about spiders than through a fun craft activity?

Cut a cell of an egg carton. Trim the edge of the cell to form a
small "bucket".

Paint the cell in black. Let dry.

Cut two pipe cleaners into four pieces to obtain eight small pieces that will form the legs of the spider.

Insert the legs into small holes that you make on each side of the cell with a needle or small sharp scissors. With a glue gun, glue the legs in place inside the cell.

Bend the legs of the spider. Glue googly eyes on its face.

Note : for a fancy spider decorate the body and the legs with glitter. Just put some white glue in the desired areas and sprinkle with glitter.

Start out as for the simple spider above, but instead of gluing the eyes directly on the egg carton cell, glue a pompon on one side of the cell to form the head of the spider.

Glue the googly eyes on the pompom.

If you want, you can add a dot of red paint to represent the nose.

Separate the cells of the egg carton. Cut the edges of two cells to form small "cups".

To create the body of the spider, put white glue on the edge of one of the cells.

Then, glue the two cups together so that the edges match as closely as possible.

Glue the styrofoam ball to the body of the spider.

Paint the body and the head of the spider. Let dry.

Cut 2 pipe cleaners in half.

Then, twist the 4 pieces of pipe cleaner in the middle to form the eight legs of the spider.

Glue the crossing of the legs between the head and the body of the spider with a glue gun.

Cut two small pieces of pipe cleaner and insert them in the front of the styrofoam ball to form the mandibles of the spider.

Bend the pipe cleaners to give them a characteristic shape of spider legs.

Glue googly eyes on the spider's face.