Tarantula on the Loose in Bristol
A woman in Bristol has found evidence of a rogue bird eating spider roaming around the Bristol suburbs.
Heather Underwood discovered what she believed to be the cadaver of a deceased tarantula as she was walking along the street outside her home with her three young sons. The family were setting off on a "nature trail" and were hoping to find butterflies and other native fauna, not venomous spiders as big a your hand.
"I was completely shocked at first," Heather told the Bristol Evening Post."We had been hoping to spot some butterflies and we found a tarantula. Well, we didn't expect that at all!"
"My boys were absolutely fascinated by it. It was so exciting!"
Mrs Underwood picked up the specimen and placed it in an egg box for safe keeping.
"I've shown the spider to my neighbour. She thought I was going to give her a box of eggs, but was a bit panicked when she realised what was inside. She couldn't believe that we had found it, that kind of thing doesn't normally happen around here."
Although Mrs Underwood first thought what she had found was a dead spider, local spider expert Mark Pennell of The British Tarantula Society informed the Bristol Evening Post that it was just a shed exoskeleton from an Indian ornamental tarantula and the actual spider may be still at large and thriving in the recent heatwave.
"The way the abdomen is crinkled up suggests this is an empty skeleton and the spider is still alive and probably thriving in this weather." Mr Pennell said.
"In this weather, if that spider was out and about it would survive for quite a while. It could quite easily be living in someone's roof space and surviving quite happily. It can give an incredibly painful bite with its fangs, but it has never been known to cause a fatality."
The shed spider skin was found in Williams Close, Longwell Green, Bristol. My advice for residents in that area is to check under the bed and inside shoes before putting them on.
The Morning Star: September 2009
