Paratrooper's family flees home after Afghan spider 'kills dog'

A paratrooper's family have fled their home in Essex after a large and possibly deadly spider apparently hitched a ride back from Afghanistan with him.

Lorraine Griffiths, who believes the spider killed the family's pet dog, Bella, is refusing to move back into the Colchester house with her three children until the sandy-coloured creature, thought to be a camel spider, is captured.

Her husband, Rodney, returned home from a tour of duty in Helmand province in June, and she believes he accidentally brought the spider back with him. He has since returned to Afghanistan.

She said Bella had confronted the spider when it first appeared but ran out whimpering after the creature hissed at it.

"It seems too much of a coincidence that she died at the same time that we saw the spider," the 37-year-old told the East Anglian Daily Times.

She said the family, who have now moved in with her mother, had unsuccessfully laid traps for the spider, which she had identified using the internet.

An RSPCA spokeswoman said: "If it is the spider they believe it is, then normally they don't attack humans but could give a painful bite."

It "hissed" at her? It "hissed" at her?! I've said it before and I'll say it again: if I saw that thing in my flat I think that I would literally die of the shock.

Article found here.