If you want an inspiring story about conquering your fears, you need to look no further than Vanessa Woods, a woman who was terrified of spiders for 30 years but overcame those fears and now keeps 35 tarantulas at home.
Watch her fascinating story here:
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Video credit: Rumble
Some of the hairy critters that Vanessa keeps are up to 9 inches long and are venomous. The care assistant said she collected all 35 of them over a period of nine months and hopes to get even more. She keeps them in an enclosure in her bedroom, just a few feet from where she sleeps.
Vanessa said: “I was always one of those people who would run out of the room when they saw a spider, I was terrified of them. If one was in my house I’d have to call for someone to come and get rid of it because I was too scared to go anywhere near them.
“Now I’m absolutely in love with them, I can’t imagine my life without spiders in it, I think they’re the most amazing animals.”
So how did she manage to conquer her fear of spiders? YouTube.
She explained that she started watching hours-long educational videos of spiders about 12 months ago and just fell in love with them.
Vanessa, from Wymondham in Norfolk, said: “At first the videos gave me the heebie-jeebies but as I learned more about spiders I realized they weren’t this scary creature that I had imagined, I actually became fascinated by them.”
Her newfound interest led her to buy a lasiodora parahybana or the Brazilian salmon pink bird-eating tarantula. It’s native to northeastern Brazil and is the third-largest tarantula in the world.
Her collection also includes a burgundy Goliath bird eater named Tank, who is nine inches long, and a Costa Rican zebra tarantula she named Ziggy.
Skitters, a curly hair tarantula, is one of Vanessa’s most dangerous pets. Curly hair tarantulas are opportunistic ambushers and hold their prey with their front limbs as they inject a venom using two hollow fangs.
Vanessa said: “When I think back to how I was with spiders just over a year ago, I could never have possibly imagined I’d have 35 of them as pets. I’m so happy that I was able to change my attitude and grow to love them, owning spiders is such a fulfilling hobby and they bring me so much joy.”
It also helps that her pets are “low maintenance,” with some only needing to be fed once a week and others only once every 12 months.
She added: “I’d like to have 100 of them and maybe then I’ll stop.”
Replaced!