If you’re scared of spiders, you’re not alone. In fact, in the US, 1 in 10 people are affected by a phobia, and 40% of those phobias are related to bugs. If one of those people is you, here’s the bad news – there are nearly 40,000 different types of spiders in the world, and almost all of them are venomous.

Of course, very few of those venomous spiders produce a poison toxic enough to cause harm to humans at all. And since the use of antivenom became commonplace in the 1950’s, the instances of people falling victim to seriously dangerous spiders are practically non-existent. Which isn’t to say you shouldn’t be careful if you come across any of those known to be toxic to humans. So, what should you do the next time you see one?

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