Spider smuggled its way into Britain in suitcase

9:00am Saturday 6th September 2008

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A schoolgirl was bitten by a tarantula which hitched a lift home with her from a holiday.

Eleven-year-old Charlotte Maddison was bitten on the foot by the two-inch spider when she put on her favourite Converse boots as she unpacked her suitcase after a family trip to Cyprus.

Her mother, Rachael, carried the boot outside and covered it with a plant pot to trap the arachnid to prevent it escaping into the wild.

By the time an RSPCA officer arrived at the family’s home in Hastings the following day, the spider had survived a five hour flight and two nights in the toe of a shoe.

But it showed no sign of failing health because as soon as the RSPCA officer picked up the boot, the resilient arachnid leapt into the air and ran behind the kitchen fridge.

Animal collection officer Roy Jezzard took the spider - a female European tarantula - to the RSPCA Mallydams Wood Wildlife Centre near Hastings to be rehomed.