Willenhall workers find widow spider lurking in car
[gallery] It was just an average day at work for this pair of car valeters. But they got a shock when they discovered that lurking behind a car mirror was this creepy crawly – one of Britain's most venomous spiders.
Richard Lloyd and Marcus Cork, who work at a car dealership in Willenhall, found the false widow spider during the course of their duties.
It had been hiding behind a mirror in a brand new Renault Traffic van, that had been shipped directly from France.
Females lay up to 120 eggs at a time and a bite can trigger a fatal allergic reaction, although most people will suffer swelling and pain. It is the most dangerous of more than 600 species of spider in the UK and the British Arachnological Society has said the spider is now 'extremely abundant' in some places.
The arachnid, properly labelled Steatoda nobilis, is known by its common name because of the penchant for the female of the species to eat the male after mating.
Amateur footballer Steve Harris, from Devon, had to undergo emergency surgery after being bitten by the False Widow and a 39-year-old decorator almost had to have his leg amputated after one of the spiders sunk its fangs into his thigh. Richard, who initially spotted the spider said: "Everyone in the office has been talking about them and a colleague said that's definitely a widow."
The men, who are both 25 and from Wolverhampton, have been keeping the spider in the jar they originally trapped it in.
