Spiders And Snakes In Our Homes, Oh My!

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 113 months ago
Spiders And Snakes In Our Homes, Oh My!

Photo by Jon Spence from the Londonist Flickr pool

It's like the news is gearing up for Halloween: two tales of scary animals finding their way into London homes have emerged in the last couple of days, just to freak you out completely.

A family in south London got a Brazilian Wandering Spider as an unexpected extra with a recent Waitrose delivery. The poisonous arachnid came along with some bananas but that's not even the worst part of this story; the spider ended up trapped beneath the fruit and ripped off its own leg to escape, leaving behind a sac of babies. (We've been itching ever since reading about that.) The story originally appeared in the Mail but they've done a graphic so terrifying we'll direct you to this slightly more soothing Independent story instead (still has a massive photo; arachnophobes do not click).

Then on Sunday, a royal python slithered its way into a basement flat in Beckenham. Landlady Jill Aebi-Mytton, not quite realising what she had on her hands, captured the reptile in a plastic sheet and let it go outside. After posting photos to Twitter and being told, er, best not to let it roam free since it'd freeze to death, she rang the RSPCA — which responded better than it reportedly did during the spider incident where, after calling the animal charity and police, the family ended up relying on Waitrose for help. Adds whole new angle to supermarket sweep. (Side note: Londonist actually holiday-sat a royal python for a friend once; lovely beasties.)

Sweet dreams, London...

Last Updated 20 October 2014