Say what you want about Huntsman spiders – seriously, say anything, arachnids don’t have ears – but you have to admit they’re hardy mofos. Kitchens, sheds, dunnies: those furry limbed boys seem capable of popping up just about anywhere, including in shipping containers destined for the UK.
A particularly leggy specimen freaked the hell out of an unsuspecting British removalist last week, after it popped up in a box of goods from Brisbane. All 18cm of its impressive span survived the 16,000km, three-month journey to the relatively spiderless Surrey.
Don’t do this.
Speaking to the BBC, removalist David Aldridge said “I had three guys unloading, one ran about two miles up the road when he first saw it.” Sure, there’s the possibility that’s metaphorical, but we’re choosing to take this one at face value.
via RSPCA / BBC.
As for how the stowaway managed not to cark it on the way over, Aldridge speculates “from the empty locust shells found in the container it seems he has thankfully been able to find food during that length of time, but it’s a long time to go without water, and he’s lucky he didn’t get squished by any boxes or furniture.”
Seeing as this is the UK we’re talking about and not, oh, any suburb in Australia, Aldridge made the call to capture the spider and hand it over to Heathrow Animal Reception Centre. The Beeb says it’ll be rehomed by a specialist, which we can only assume means it’ll be hurled from an old Tupperware container into the shrub out front.
This isn’t even the first time a big ol’ spider has caused enough of a consternation in Britain for the media to get involved. A lil’ while earlier this year, a fella in Kent called the RSPCA to intervene when he came across a Huntsman on his wall.
They’re not that big of a deal, but we’re still here for the occasional news of a Pom being freaked the heck out by one of our homegrown fang-mangs.
Source: BBC.
Photo: RSPCA.
