A venomous Huntsman spider has been found stowed inside a shipping container sent from China to Dumbarton.
The giant hunting spider was discovered at a manufacturing business in Lomondgate, Dumbarton at 8am on Friday morning.
The company regularly has parts for generators shipped to Scotland from overseas.
The Scottish SPCA attended the scene and removed the arachnid.
A source told the Evening Times how terrified workers called the SPCA when a colleague noticed a black object scuttle past.
He said: “The guys were working on set this morning when someone saw it crawl out. The whole team were terrified it was poisonous. One worker managed to get it into a bin and everyone was crowding round trying to identify it. Nobody wanted to go near it, it’s obviously not from Scotland.”
Scottish SPCA Chief Inspector Fiona Henderson said: “An arachnid expert identified the spider as a Huntsman spider. We believe due to the yellow stripe on it’s abdomen that the spider is female.”
“If a Huntsman spider bites you, it will not kill you but it does contain venom. If you do get bitten by one it can be extremely painful.” She continued: “It must be a tough little spider to survive living in a cold container for so long before arriving in Scotland. “The spider appears to be in good condition and is already an adult so we are going to try and find a specialist home for it.”
Huntsman spiders are common in warm to tropical parts of the world and are known for their speed and venomous bite.
Their bite is not regarded as dangerous to healthy humans, however it can have painful side effects including sickness, heart palpitations and in rare cases neurological effects.
The spider found was estimated to be the size of a man’s palm, with legs 6 to 7 inchs long.
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