Tuesday, July 6, 2010

 

That scream and crash moment caused by eight legged creature

Now, I may be a bit of a girl about this, but the thought of finding a spider in my car is pretty stomach churning – particularly when you're driving along a busy high street and an eight legged creepy crawly suddenly drops down on its web to land in your lap.

That's commonly known as a "scream and crash" moment.

But what if that little spider was a deadly Redback from the far flung shores of Australia? And before you say, "Well they're from Australia!", it has recently been revealed that a number of these spiders were found alive inside a package of parts which had been sent to a firm near Preston in Lancashire not long ago, so it could happen... it could!

A witness to the opening of the package described the scene as like something from a horror film with lots of tiny black and red spiders running around inside the container which had arrived from Australia.

He said, "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."

Pest controllers were summoned to the factory to exterminate the creatures, but there were fears that some of the creepy crawlies may have already fled.

So, when I get in my car this evening, which does have a few feathery cobwebs in its farthest corners, I shall be aware of any tiny movements in my peripheral vision and for any hints of a red stripe.

Image © graibeard via Flickr under Creative Commons Licence