AAAAARGH! Right, let’s try to be rational about all this.
Here are Liam Forrester and Kirsty Garand from Stockwood, Bristol.
One morning a couple of weeks ago, Kirsty opened the attic door. A family of spiders scuttled out. Apparently in the coming weeks their home was "infested" by the eight-legged nightmare machines.
AAAAARGH! But ok. Let's try to talk about this calmly.
It was, apparently, a Hobo Spider. According to MailOnline, this is a much more aggressive spider than the normal walking horrorshows you see around your house at this time of year: "the spiders rear up and attack humans rather than running away."
This is not really true. As the Burke Museum makes clear, it might bite if you trap it against your skin. It's not going to suddenly leap up and bite you in the face because you've offended it.
However. The fact remains that they can bite, and as it happens Mr Forrester has been bitten.
SWNS.com SWNS.comBarbara Evripidou
Ok, you can maybe get back to screaming now.
According to the SWNS service, this "deep infected wound could take three months to heal."
BUT. Deep breaths. Gloucester University spider expert Professor Adam Hart told the Bristol Post that people shouldn't panic: "Most bites become nasty because they are not cared for properly and get infected, not because of spider venom."
Also: there are no deadly species of spider in the UK. The venom's designed to kill small insects, not you.
SWNS.com SWNS.comBarbara Evripidou
Still. AAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!
Mum-of-three Kirsty told SWNS: "We opened the attic door and a few of them came out so now we are scared to go up there again. "They are horrible, vile things. I found one in the bath last week, and when I put a pint glass over it, it's long legs just filled up the whole glass. They are like normal spiders on steroids. I hate them."
And there are a whole bunch of stories going around about how the warm weather means we're all about to be invaded by giant versions of the godless eight legged bastards (H/T Charlie Brooker).
SWNS.com SWNS.comBarbara Evripidou
