Our bastion of 'quality' news, the British Broadcasting Corporation flails wildly in poorly researched directions with what is actually quite an attractive story here.
US workers in Kent wisely spotted and trapped a female black widow spider (Latrodectus) at Chatham Docks, which had legged it into Blighty on cars imported from the States.
The amorous alien (she was carrying hundreds of spiteful spiderlings in her sac) was handed to a Maidstone vet in a takeaway carton.
It's not unheard of. Black widows have, in recent history, made it into the UK on US-imported goods.
They're not generally as dangerous as the reputation that proceeds them, but I would doubt most UK A&E departments have the anti venom to slake the pain should one pinch a pasty Brit!
* Note to 'Mr Rowland, of the Trinity Vet Centre', Latrodectus species don't weave funnel-shaped webs. They are tangle web spiders which spin clever individual strand lines to ensnare unsuspecting prey!
* Note to the BBC - Black widow spiders are one of the most 'Venomous', not 'Poisonous' species in the world. Both male and female of the species are venomous!
Click photo-link for full story.
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