“Kids need a healthy fear of vipers”
As age appropriate, they need to be taught to avoid them, later then taught to identify between good ones and bad ones.
This “irrational fear” is somewhat of a learned response.
I learned it to the bone. Same goes for spiders....well, except for that daddy longlegs that mom found on my pillow every morning while making the bed. She said it slept with me. Brrr.