Irrational as it may sound, I have a phobia for cockroaches, only because it is associated with a bad childhood memory: a cockroach almost slipped into my mouth in the dark. I know it’s irrational but whenever I see a cockroach I just want to run. I’ve been called a sissy by my family because I can’t bring myself to enter any place with a cockroach. They don’t know aside from that I fear no animal.

I’ve had nightmares about sharks. Since I don’t swim in the ocean I’m not really likely to meet one in the flesh so I’m not really terrified by them outside of my dreams. I’ve had dreams about dinosaurs chasing me, I don’t think T-Rex is going to be heading this way either.

Snakes are the animal I worry about with genuine reason. I live in the bush. There are poisonous snakes out there and pythons that could eat my pets. I’ve rarely seen them though (madly touching wood now!), so as long as I don’t go sticking my hand in holes and I’m careful, I’m sure I’ll be fine. However, snakes are actually a real risk here.

Wolverines. They are nasty visions animals that strike out for no reason. And they stink.

What creeps me out though, are rats. I shudder just thinking of them.

I hate fucking roaches. I’ve had one in my mouth from a beer can. Don’t sit your beer down…

I canoe in swamps and saltwater a lot. I encounter alligators, snakes and large spiders. The sharks always scared me though. Usually the first dolphins I see scare me at first. Then I enjoy their company. I hear sharks don’t like dolphins, so I feel a sort of security when they’re around.

Wolverines! Haven’t had the pleasure.

Bears.

The Possum.. Hitler of the animal kingdom.

Awww @JP, I can’t understand how you can be scared of these.

What do your possums do to make them so scary?

Possums have more teeth than any other mammals. But I love them. They try and act tough because they are slow,can’t see well, and are pretty much defenseless. The term ‘playing possum’ comes directly from the animals only real card to play. It puts itself into a coma of sorts to really pull it off. They also have a very low chance of getting rabies. Their skin temperature is too low for the disease to be passed to them is the most recent hypothesis on why. Don’t be afraid of Possums. They rock.(I’m speaking of the ones in USA.)

Thank you for your explanation @MrGrimm888. Ours are so cute. They aren’t scary at all. They do make a fierce noise though. Sounds a bit like having the walking dead outside your window when they’re making a noise.

This is the noise they make. When I first moved to Australia, we heard that noise outside at night and were seriously freaked out. And some more possum night sounds (she doesn’t seem happy about the prospect of some night fun).

I’ve raised them from birth before. The females stay nice. The males, if not nutored, get less cranky. But they are a slow gentle animal when not scared.

There’s a lot of things I’d rather meet in a nightmare than a wolf. But I actually think human beings are the scariest animals.

I was just informed that Nile Crocodiles have introduced into South Florida. They are not the same as an American Crocs. I read they are quite vicious. I’m a little uneasy now that I know.

The big cats. They are extremely well equipped, hard to read, patient stalkers, deadly silent and incredibly fast in the attack. Very efficient. I don’t like it when I find cat sign anywhere near my property as not one of my animals are safe. I see sign, I lock everything down and carry the 30.06.

I’m usually afraid to answer this sort of question on the Internet, because I think of the government looking up the information at some point and using it to torture me. Like in 1984 where they do just that.

You could use the question to plant false information @Zaku.

I have this terrible fear of kittens. Even worse are cuddly lap cats. I think I’d tell anyone exactly what they wanted to know if they left me with a bunch of cuddly cats for long enough.

Nods! Those kittens are damn scary and adult cats – ugh! Evil.

Are spiders animals? I am irrationally afraid of spiders.

@Mimishu1995, not irrational at all! I’ve had one crawl into my hair and my horrified screaming must have been heard in space! Those bugs freak me out. Then come locusts, mantises and other such creations!

Homo Sapiens

bees, wasps, hornets, skinheads

Trapped in a nightmare? Crocodiles and alligators. Just too instinctively violent. Bears and wolfs too but not as badly.

In real life though, I am most scared of dogs. Don’t get me wrong; I like dogs, but there are so many of them all around us that my chances of meeting a rogue one are quite high compared to meeting a croc or wolf. There are few dangerous wild animals in the UK.

Human beings.

Crocs and alligators. They hide in the muddy water where they cannot be seen – until they leap up and grab their victims. They are incredibly strong and fast for their size so they can pull you down and hold you under the water until you drown. And those teeth! Yikes!

I wonder how many are slithering around in flooded homes in Baton Rouge right now. .

:-| Nice visuals @Lucky!

30,000 homes were flooded there recently. The water is finally subsiding leaving homes with up to 6 feet of muddy water from the Amite River. No doubt some people have gators lurking in their bedrooms!
@Earthbound_Misfit Sleep tight.

^Damn that’s creepy. <shudders>

@LuckyGuy I didn’t know those alligators in sewers from the American movies I watch are actually real. I always thought they were just sonething bizarre thrown in movies…

@Mimishu1995 They live in places with rivers and warm climates like Louisiana and Florida… and where you live! :-)
We don’t have them up here. They’d freeze. Whew!

Not a fan of spiders, wasps, cockroaches, hornets and the like.

Other big scary animals (sharks, wolverines) don’t scare me as I’ll likely never run into them because I avoid nature.

Fuck billed twattypuss

Killer whales – same thing as what @LuckyGuy describes. I think of the trainer at Sea World that was dragged under and killed by the whale, and how terrifying it must have been. Other trainers had similar traumatizing experiences (if you see the movie “Blackfish” it’s all spelled out with video and discussion).

Other than that, any animal that is very numerous and crawling, like rats or roaches.

Pretty much only leopard seals. That’s highly irrational, especially if you’re swimming in a German lake.

Spiders.

The Red-necked Ignoramus

@Earthbound_Misfit This is what possums look like here.

This pics were taken by me, in my house. This is just 2 of the 8 or some possums we’ve discovered in our house over the last couple of years. We finally realized that they aren’t coming in on their own. Dakota is bringing them in. She walks up to them in the back yard, they fall over “dead” and she brings them home.

Just, not even a week ago I walked into the living room, up to an easy chair. Rick, who was standing off to the side, said, “You barely missed that one.”
I said, “What?”
He said, “Turn around. Look behind you.”
Yep. I had come within inches of stepping on a “dead” possum in our living room.
It was startling, to say the least, because they look just hideous when they’re “dead,“but I’m not scared of them.

We used to call animal control, but now Rick just picks them up with fireplace tongs and drops them over the fence. I think I’m comfortable enough now that I’ll just pick the next one up by tail (with gloves on) and drop him over my fence.

Also, if a possum doesn’t bite you when you pee on them, it’s a safe bet they aren’t very aggressive.

donald trump.

If I were to manifest a fear of animals – aside from the healthy respect that I have for most species, and the distance that I attempt to maintain between us – it would be hippos and mosquitoes.

^Good call. Hippos are scary as shit.

hippo are delicious

House lizards/geckos, and believe me there are many in tropical climate where I live.

Most bugs, especially spiders.

@thorninmud Lol. But not the first time I’ve gotten glares from people in the library.

Badgers. Badgers are a bitch. Powerful jaws and nasty teeth. My buddy in Sweden got nailed by one and it snapped the two bones in his lower leg just above the ankle like a couple of twigs. They jump out of bushes and go for your ankles at lightening speed before you see them, snap your leg and run. Rural people in northern Sweden know this and stick wooden 1×1 slats into their Wellington boots so the badgers will break the the slats instead of their legs and take off.

I hear the Tasmanian Devil is really nasty, too..

Arck!

My sister is terrified of frogs. You can’t even joke about it, she’s so scared of them.

Arck? Was ist das, Dutchess?

It’s the noise I make when a badger snaps my shine bone in half!

Awww @Espiritus_Corvus, tassie devils do have an incredibly strong bite force, but they’re not dangerous to humans unless they’re cornered and feel threatened. They’re timid creatures and they’d rather stay away from us. I like them. I wouldn’t go playing with them or poking my hands near their face, but they’re under a lot of survival pressure.

Virus’s and Bacteria.

Parasitic animals (Worms and protozoa).

@rojo FYI: viruses and bacteria are not animals.

^^^
True, but they still scare the shit out of me; a lot more than any charismatic megafauna.

They aren’t plants either. They’re the precursors of animals.

I don’t like the New Zealand weta. New Zealand can keep it.

Ew! That a giant ass cricket @flutherother! I’m still more scared of bears.

I had a insect very close to that once on my property in the swamp. I.figured it was a locust. It just walked around for two days until I found it dead in a red ant pile. Never saw anything like it until that link. Colors are the same and everything. I’m a LONG way from NZ though. Maybe it was stuck in a cloud and eventually fell with the rain….. Or maybe it was just the biggest locust ever….