[ioulian]

When I was young, I was also afraid of insects, especially flying ones. But I've read somewhere that you are afraid of animals if you don't see what they are thinking. Take for example dogs or cats, you can easily see what they are "thinking", by their movement, ears, tails...

Insects are so small that you can't see that, you don't know where they are looking, or if they are afraid or not.

Looking at macro photography of insects, you can see how they are build and the spiders (especially the jumping spiders) are quite cute. Knowing how they look and their behavioural patterns, and just reading more about them, allowed me to be less afraid of them.

Now I don't know if that is "scientifically correct", but it helped me.

[rocqua]

I have something similar with cows. I can't read their intentions. If I am walking in a field with them it just seems like they are always 'mildly annoyed by my presence' and yet they will amble straight at you. And they are big and heavy enough to do damage if they need to.

Horses on the other hand, are a lot more nervous, but I can read them and I can 'manipulate' them. They are probably more dangerous, but they are less scary to me.