False Widow Spider: Man Picked Up Poisonous Arachnid With Bare Hands, Then Understandably Freaked Out

A father of three had a lucky escape after he picked up a deadly false widow spider with his bare hands.

Nickie King, 25, didn’t realize just how dangerous the creature was at first. King was at work cleaning an office on Thursday morning when the spider landed on his duster. King then took a picture of the spider, before he then picked it up and placed it outside.

King decided to take a picture of the spider because he wasn’t quite sure what type it was, while he’s also admitted that he was quite scared by the fact that it had a “skull on it.” He then posted the picture on Facebook to ask people, who informed him of just how dangerous it was.

King, who hails from Cambridge, England, admitted, via the Mirror, that he was completely “freaked out” when he realized that he’d had Britain’s most venomous spider in his hands.

He explained, “I was cleaning and this spider dropped on to my feather duster. It made me jump. I thought it was just a common spider so I picked it up with my hands and put it outside. It didn’t bite me or anything. I didn’t know what it was, so I took a picture of it and put it on Facebook to ask people.”

King added, “Lots of people said it was a false widow and saying I was lucky I didn’t get bitten. They were saying I shouldn’t have picked it up.”

However, despite King’s worries, experts have insisted that false widow spiders don’t actually pose a serious threat to humans. Bites can lead to people having chest pains, severe swelling, and tingling fingers.

According to the Express, Chris Ayre, an entomologist at conservative charity Buglife, has stated that the spider was a male Steatoda nobilis, and it was probably out trying to find a female.

[Image via Edupic]