I don't think it's the eyes; I think it's all the legs, and just how quickly they can move. Even I, though I love and respect spiders, am leery of handling them for this reason. But I do love their unique beauty, and they can't be beat for keeping the insect population down around Manderly. The spiders that venture indoors somehow seem to know intuitively to stay off the floor. We let them be, and on cleaning day Paul and I will warn one another about where the spiders are so that we don't accidentally hurt them. We have free-range spiders. ;-)