A SPIDER EXPERT has reassured the public that the large number of tropical spiders discovered in a Co Carlow house would not have survived in Irish weather.
The Irish Mirror reported this morning that a member of the public called the National Exotic Animal Sanctuary (NEAS) to deal with ‘over 100 killer spiders’ at the house.
There was no little hysteria after the news broke but spider expert Myles Nolan, who assisted Kevin Cunningham of the NEAS with the expedition, said there is no need to worry.
He has confirmed to DailyEdge.ie that all of the ‘pets’ were in tanks, apart from a “couple of lizards and harmless geckos”.
“There were no dangerous spiders running around – there were a few with harmful bites but none of them were loose,” he said.
Nolan says there were “a lot” of spiders at the house, but not 100, as had been previously reported. Some were just run-of-the-mill tarantulas, but there were more dangerous species like Black Widow and Funnel-Web spiders present also.
He has reassured us that if any spiders were to have escaped, they would not be able to survive in Irish weather. However, he is concerned about the ease in which people can purchase these tropical arachnids on the internet:
The main concern is that people are able to buy this stuff from the internet… There is very little legislation governing people buying tropical pets like these online.
All of the spiders were dealt with – some were given new homes, while the more dangerous ones were ‘despatched’.
No need to burn the whole country down, then. Thank god for that.
