A man was left shocked after he discovered a nest of the world's largest spider in his car boot - a true nightmare for any arachnophobes.
Jared Splatt, from Melbourne, Australia found around 200 baby huntsman spiders.
Jared had agreed to give his friends a lift and was clearing out his car when he discovered the nest.
Advert
“I encountered the horrific sight on opening my car boot, which incidentally hadn’t been opened in a good while,” he said.
“I was cleaning out the car to drop some friends off to a winery and I’m now glad I opened the boot.
“I was greeted with a giant huntsman and egg sac on the left hand side.
“My initial response was revulsion but then seeing the b****** thing guarding the egg sac took it to another level.”
Advert
The female arachnid produced a white egg sac of papery silk, which allowed her to carry up to 200 of her babies.
Jared had to act fast with the prospect of being overrun, and certainly lived up to his surname.
He said: "I was fairly grossed out and shocked.
“At first with the egg sac I thought ‘oh that’s cute it’s got a backpack’, then it dawned on me what it was.
“The realisation I could have hundreds of baby huntsmans crawling through the car quickly turned it into an annihilation mission.”
Advert
Jared then compared his response to a popular character in the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder.
He continued: “I grabbed the can of Mortein and went to town – scorched earth like Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder.
“I flicked it off the car, covered it in white chemical death and then promptly stomped on the egg sac; some green goop shot out.
“My view was I’d saved the neighbourhood from 200 plus one hunstmans.”
To ensure all the spiders had gone, Jared checked under his sun visors to make sure any no nasty surprises were waiting.
Advert
He admits that some will not approve of his actions, but says it was not the most extreme response he considered.
He said: “The result may not please the spider lovers but can you imagine hundreds of huntsmans crawling throughout your car?
“Umm yeah – no thanks, I’d rather torch the vehicle if that happened.”
These types of spiders are not usually aggressive, but females have been known to inflict painful bites on humans when defending their egg sacs.
Callum Jones