Oz danger spider crawls into … Kent
THEY are usually found in the sweltering heat of the Australian Outback.
But this monster spider seems satisfied with recent warm weather in Britain.
The Huntsman, which has a vicious bite and can grow to 6in including the legs, was found on the wall of a house in Kent and reported to the RSPCA by a terrified caller.
While it may be little comfort to an arachnophobe, Huntsman spiders generally do not go out of their way to bite humans, unless irritated.
They are not poisonous, but their bites are extremely painful, and can become infected.
How the eight-eyed creepycrawly found its way to Sevenoaks remains a mystery. Possible theories are that it stowed away in fruit or an exotic plant, or even travelled inside an unsuspecting holidaymaker’s luggage.
Huntsman spiders eat frogs, insects and small lizards and are found in Australia, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
RSPCA officer Louis Horton, who captured the spider, said: ‘I honestly expected to find a big house spider or a toy spider or something silly, but it was a Huntsman.’
Pictures show the creature stretched out across a house brick, giving an indication of its size. Mr Horton added: ‘It was about the size of the palm of my hand so it wasn’t the usual spider you’d expect to find in your house.
‘It was clinging to the outside wall of the man’s house … I removed it, confined it in a box and took it to Heathrow’s animal reception centre to be quarantined.
‘Huntsman spiders can give a nasty bite so they [ the householders] were lucky they didn’t get hurt.’
Experts will now determine its species – there are an estimated 1,000 types of Huntsman – to give a clue to how it arrived in this country.