Creepy crawly creatures come out for Halloween

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Around Halloween season all the creepy crawlers are front and center. 

Bats, spiders, and other bugs are great for decoration, but is the real thing really that scary?

“It is really a misnomer,” said Eric Hovland, Associate Curator at the Florida Aquarium.

Hovland showed FOX 13 the softer side of some of the scariest creatures. Including hissing cockroaches.

“They're actually very clean, you might think of them filthy animals where you might see them in a grungy restaurant that’s not on the roach that’s on the restaurant,” he said. 

FOX 13 also met Snickers, an eastern rat snake.

“You got to love them because it’s right there in the name, rat snake that’s because they eat rats and other animals like that could otherwise be chowing down on our food,” he said. 

He saved the best (or worst) for last. Spiders are a Halloween staple.

“Snakes and spiders and bats are really good at helping manage other populations of animals out there that you don't necessarily want in your home,” he said. 

So maybe our fears are a bit misguided on these things, at least they are not the undead.

“If you see a zombie you've got a bigger problem than snakes and spiders and black cats that’s for sure,” he said.