SpiderEx Blog

A HORDE of tarantulas could be on the loose in Bolton, experts have warned, after two rare spiders were found in back gardens.

The 10cm-wide Chilean rose haired tarantulas, which are capable of blinding people by spitting hairs in their eyes, were found by shocked residents within two miles of each other.

Now, the RSPCA has urged residents to be on their guard after experts warned there could be more on the loose.

The spiders are the same age, breed and gender, causing arachnid experts to believe they could have escaped from the same place — and might be part of a larger batch.

The drama began on June 23, when 20-year-old Lisa Broad was confronted by one of the spiders in her garden on the Oldhams Estate in Sharples.

She called the RSPCA, who re-homed the creature, named Fang, at Smithills Open Farm.

All was quiet on the spider front for three-and-a-half weeks until a second shock sighting.

On Monday, July 19, a woman from Lostock came face to face with another tarantula sitting on her garden wall.

She eventually trapped it under a plant pot on her path and alerted the RSPCA.

Derek Hampson, an inspector for the animal welfare charity, said: “We advised her to keep it under the plant pot until we arrived. They can quite happily go a week without food, so it was quite content.

“It got a bit aggressive when I picked it up. I wore safety goggles as these creatures can spit hairs which can blind you.

“It is possible there could be more out there, but unfortunately we haven’t got the resources to search for them.

“It is up to members of the public to call us if they spot any.”

Mr Hampson took the female, which is known to kill the male after mating, to Bugworld in Liverpool.

Read Story Here

Staff at a BAE Systems base in Lancashire reportedly fled in terror when they found over a dozen Australian Redback spiders in a crate.

According to The Sun, Warton Aerodrome near Preston had to be sealed and experts brought in to investigate the arachnids.

A source at the base told the newspaper: "It was like a scene from a horror film. There were these tiny black spiders with a red stripe down their back running around a container of parts from Australia.

"It caused a major panic. Big, tough men were yelling with fear when they saw these things crawling all over the place. There were also loads of eggs in there. The big worry was one could have escaped."

A BAE Systems spokeswoman said: "The situation is under control."

Read Story here

A ship was turned away from a port after thousands of giant spiders spilled from its hold when it docked.

Workers had just begun unloading the ship's cargo when waves of the hairy beasts scrambled towards them at the harbour in the US territory of Guam.

The cargo — mainly insulation and beams for housing units — was instantly put back on the boat which was ordered to set sail from the West Pacific isle.

The ship was told to return to South Korea where it had last docked. It was not known where the giant spiders and thousands more smaller ones had come from or how the infestation occurred.

The Guam Department of Agriculture Director Joseph Torres said: "When you get this many from this many various sizes, it's definitely an infestation."

Mr Torres added: "It's not on Guam. We don't want it here."

Agriculture officials said they did not know what type of spiders were on the ship.

Officers from the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency had initially boarded the ship before it docked and given clearance for its cargo to be unlocked for offloading.

But when port workers saw the spiders, the containers were ordered back on the ship and it was anchored in the harbour.

The decision was later made not to let the ship return.

Read more here - The Sun

 

 

 

 

 

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