A cargo ship loaded with thousands of cars from South Africa has been sealed off at a European port after health officials found huge exotic spiders on board.
Port officials in Zeebrugge, Belgium, sealed the container ship and docking bays after inspectors noticed distinctive spiders’ webs onboard.
An inspection by experts, local media reported on 18th July, found several large creepy crawlies, believed to be wolf spiders.
Inspectors recommended that the ship’s cargo could not be touched until an extermination team had destroyed all spiders onboard the ship.
Port of Antwerp-Bruges spokesperson Gert Ickx told local media: “On several parking levels, the staff noticed that there were spider webs.”
He added: “They went looking for the spiders, took pictures of them and delivered them to the port authorities.
“It was then decided to hermetically seal the loading areas so that the spiders would not spread any further.”
Wolf spiders are highly venomous hunters with bodies about an inch long and can bite humans when disturbed.
Their venom causes swelling and pain and in some recorded cases necrosis, the destruction of body tissue that can bring on gangrene.
Ickx added: “As a precaution, it was therefore decided to call in a specialised company to exterminate the spiders, with a biological pesticide, before the trucks are allowed to leave the ship.”
The shipping company and the port have reportedly been working with a specialist company tasked with eradicating the spiders from the vessel before it can be unloaded.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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