A spider bit a British man on the big toe and laid eggs in the wound while the fellow was trying to enjoy a French cruise with his wife on their 35th anniversary. One egg began to hatch and the baby spider “ate its way out” of the man’s toe. Colin Blake was bit by a Peruvian wolf spider, an insect native to South America and one that apparently sometimes climbs on cargo ships and hitches a ride to France. The spiders are venomous but not lethal to humans. One of the eight-legged critters crawled inside Blake's toe and laid eggs, numbing the area in doing so. Blake, who had fallen asleep “totally unaware” he had been bitten, woke up to a swollen, purple toe. “My wife thought it may be because I had new sandals and they were rubbing on my big toe and that was causing it to be red,” he told BBC.But it wasn’t the sandals. He went to the doctor aboard the cruise ship and found he was being used as a human spider nest. The doctor slit the toe and drained the milky pus of the spider sack, but evidently didn’t get it all. Four weeks later the “foreign body” of a remaining baby spider hatched inside the toe. “One of the spider eggs hadn’t been flushed and must have hatched,” Blake said. “They believe the spider was making its way out — eating its way out of my toe.”Blake was given antibiotics, which killed the spider and doctors cut into the toe a second time to remove it. “I did ask if I could keep it,” Blake joked, “but they said no.”
A spider bit a British man on the big toe and laid eggs in the wound while the fellow was trying to enjoy a French cruise with his wife on their 35th anniversary. One egg began to hatch and the baby spider “ate its way out” of the man’s toe. Colin Blake was bit by a Peruvian wolf spider, an insect native to South America and one that apparently sometimes climbs on cargo ships and hitches a ride to France. The spiders are venomous but not lethal to humans. One of the eight-legged critters crawled inside Blake's toe and laid eggs, numbing the area in doing so. Blake, who had fallen asleep “totally unaware” he had been bitten, woke up to a swollen, purple toe. “My wife thought it may be because I had new sandals and they were rubbing on my big toe and that was causing it to be red,” he told BBC.But it wasn’t the sandals. He went to the doctor aboard the cruise ship and found he was being used as a human spider nest. The doctor slit the toe and drained the milky pus of the spider sack, but evidently didn’t get it all. Four weeks later the “foreign body” of a remaining baby spider hatched inside the toe. “One of the spider eggs hadn’t been flushed and must have hatched,” Blake said. “They believe the spider was making its way out — eating its way out of my toe.”Blake was given antibiotics, which killed the spider and doctors cut into the toe a second time to remove it. “I did ask if I could keep it,” Blake joked, “but they said no.”
