UK’s most venomous spider found in Reedley

A builder has stumbled upon the UK’s most venomous spider as he was renovating a house in Reedley.
Brunswick Street resident, Chris Kelly, discovered the suspected Widow Spider in his lunchbox.Brunswick Street resident, Chris Kelly, discovered the suspected Widow Spider in his lunchbox.
Brunswick Street resident, Chris Kelly, discovered the suspected Widow Spider in his lunchbox.

Labourer Chris Kelly (left) was working at the house on Colne Road opposite the Oaks Hotel with two work colleagues when he came face-to-face with the poisonous False Widow Spider on Friday.

Chris recognised the eight-legged beast’s dark and cream markings on its bulbous abdomen immediately from newspaper cuttings in October.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The spider scuttled into the national news spotlight last month as the reason behind the temporary closure of a Gloucestershire school.

But instead of becoming tangled in its web like usual prey, Chris reversed roles and caught the brute in his lunch box before taking it home to care for it for the weekend while he worked out what to do with it.

Chris has also christened his new friend Boris, not because of The Who’s hit song “Boris the Spider”, but because “he’s a bloody big bugger”.

Chris said: “I was rewiring between the floorboards and as I’m feeding these wires through, I turned around and it was there on the wall.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I thought ‘bloody hell, that’s big’. My two work colleagues didn’t believe me at first. But we’ve had a look at pictures of this (False Widow) spider and I’m absolutely convinced it’s one.

“I said ‘right, you’re going in there’ and I got it in my butty box. I’ve put some holes in it for air but just to make sure it doesn’t escape I’ve taped the lid down.

“To be honest, I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t know what it feeds on. There’s a few scraps of sugar puffs in there and if they drink milk he’ll be alright.”

Related topics: