Spiders as large as cars!

A frightening sight for some people

This week sees the release of a new film guaranteed to make spiders Public Enemy Number One.

"Eight legged freaks" is the story of a rural mining town in America where a chemical spill causes hundreds of tiny spiders to grow to the size of a family car.

And this being a film, you can be pretty certain they aren't going to sit quietly knitting the town a new rope bridge.

The average spider isn't actually a threat to anything much bigger that a fly, so why are we so afraid of them?

Breakfast spoke to Dave Clarke who is the head keeper at London Zoo's Web of Life exhibition. He said:

"The common house spider is what scares most people."

The house spider is what scares most people. London Zoo runs a friendly spider programme, it is one of the most successful in the world. 80% of people who go through it come out much better able to deal with their fear. We use hypnotherapy to deal with the phobia which often has its roots in irrational fear. The fear can be quite debilitating.