What Animals Are You Most Afraid of?

The other night, we were watching TV and caught some story about spiders complete with pictures and my wife became completely unhinged. She is very afraid of spiders as are a lot of people, more than you might think. I'm not crazy about cockroaches and my boys are scared of coyotes. It got me to thinking about the animals that scare people the most. I found a recent survey done by Public Policy Polling about that very subject and was very surprised by the results.

Spiders were near the bottom of the list, which was really surprising. Public Policy Polling ranked the top nine scariest animals according to their poll.

1. 21% of people polled said snakes were the scariest taking the top spot in the poll. Snakes are a problem in this area and that fear is shared by many.
2. 19% said alligators, which is one reason I hate going to Florida. I was on a golf course there once and one lunge at me while I was looking for my ball. What's interesting here is that 6% of those polled said would like one for a pet.
3. 18% sharks were the scariest. Last summer we went to the beach in South Carolina and were constantly told to get out of the water because of nearby sharks.
4. 14% said bears were the scariest.
5. 11% said cockroaches.....I'm with you there and some of them fly!!
6. 9% said tigers, but 26% of those want one as a pet....really? Good luck with that.
7. 5% were afraid of bats...my boys hate looking at them at Masker Park Zoo
8. 2% were afraid of spiders, I would have thought #1 or #2 on the list..very surprising.
9. A paltry 1% said wolves. Not a big problem around here, but in places like Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, for sure.

[Public Policy Polling]