People with arachnophobia tend to feel uneasy in any area they believe could harbor spiders or that has visible signs of their presence, such as webs. If arachnophobics see a spider, they may not enter the general vicinity until they have overcome the panic attack that is often associated with their phobia. Some people scream, cry, have emotional outbursts, experience trouble breathing, sweat, have heart palpitations, or even faint when they come in contact with an area near spiders or their webs. In some extreme cases, even a picture or a realistic drawing of a spider can trigger intense fear.

Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders and other arachnids such as scorpions.

Zoophobia or animal phobia is a class of specific phobias to particular animals, or an irrational fear or even simply dislike of any non-human animals.

Examples of specific zoophobias would be entomophobias, such as that of bees (apiphobia). Fears of spiders (arachnophobia), birds (ornithophobia) and snakes (ophidiophobia) are also common. See the article at -phobia for the list of various phobias. Sigmund Freud mentioned that an animal phobia is one of the most frequent psychoneurotic diseases among children.

Zoophobia is not the sensible fear of dangerous or threatening animals, such as wild dogs (example: wolves, dingoes, and coyotes), big cats, bears or venomous snakes. It is a phobia of animals that causes distress or dysfunction in the individual's everyday life.