Yeah I heard that as well and then checked it out and it is an urban legend afaict.
I have no idea why spiders (and most crawly type bugs) creep me out so much. It's weird because I have zero fear of snakes (probably to a fault), which most people I know are terrified of, and wasp/bees generally don't bother me either.
The only thing I can think of is my brother was/is an ahole and when we were kids he used to scare me constantly by putting bugs on me and screaming something like ... "OH MY GOD!" as loud as he could while pointing at me. :)
Man those spider pictures are awesome, I love 'em! Most of the time creepy-crawlies don't bother me much, though for some reason I can't stand moths. Especially the really big ones with furry bodies. The worst is we get luna moths up here where I am and while they're beautiful, they freak me right the hell out if they blunder into me. It's not like they can bite you or anything - for chrissake the luna moth doesn't even really have a mouth, they only live long enough to mate before they die - but they're just so damn big that they make my skin crawl!
I can understand that unfortunately I was the ahole brother who used to do those things to my little brother. I wasn't squeamish back then. Seems to be as I'm getting older.
Yes I thought the spider swallowing thing was BS but I'm a bit OCD and once I get an image stuck in my mind it's hard to get rid of. So my rational mind tells me it is BS but the image still bothers me! Crazy.