
Sic the adders on them
I used to be in the boy scouts, so I know what a Chilean Rose tarantula looks like.
The RSPCA has warned the good burghers of Bolton to keep a sharp eye out for Chilean Rose tarantulas after a couple of the eight-legged critters were spotted in local gardens. The organisation reckons the two may be from a larger batch of arachnid escapees and, if the Telegraph's headline is to be believed, it could be just a …
The last badge I remember getting involved learning to start a fire with a single match, a series of no less than five twenty-five kilometre hikes, getting a minimum of about 30 other badges that cover a large number of topics, something about survival camping for a weekend, about 250 hours of volunteer work and two recommendations from at leaders of two troupes you weren't part of for exemplary service.
By the time Post-secondary started to impinge upon my time enough that I couldn't devote the time to scouts, I was working on the next level of that badge which was roughly three times as difficult.
I don’t ever remember any badges being particularly easy to get. You wanted a badge for identifying spiders and snakes, you better be able to identify every one native to your area, and every known dangerous/poisonous one from all other areas of the world.
Some people might find it boring…I found it quite fun!
Drinks alla round just because.
Their headline:
"Tarantulas on the Loose in Britain"
Sub-heading:
"Britain could be facing a tarantula invasion after a number of the spiders were discovered in gardens in some parts of the country, wildlife experts have warned"
Could they be any more alarmist or vague? In the body of the article they provide no more info than El Reg does so for "a number" read 2 and "some parts of the country" read Greater Manchester.
A classic case of ill-informed journalism spreading FUD
... 'spit hairs' that's not quite accurate, they can flick them from their abdomen using their legs - which is handy if you're close, such as something that may want to eat the spider, but they aren't going to sail through 5 feet of open air into the eyes like a Spitting Cobra.
But hey, media sensationalism is always fun.... any spare ones found, give us a call, ours just died :(
Umm, no real danger of a sustained mass invasion then...
Besides, people keep these types of spiders as pets! As Scott has pointed out already.
I'd be more worried about the Redback invasion at Warton - at least those things can kill you (if you're unlucky)
Speaking as someone who is quite arachnaphobic, the "can't survive in the UK climate" causes me concern as we seem to be having rather a nice spell of warm weather.
I, for one, fear our new hair spitting arachnid overlords and will not be found anywhere near Manchester till they're gone.
N.B. For other arachnaphobes who managed to read this far, "Raid Ant and crawling insect" spray is quite effective against the 8 legged menaces.
..coming over here, taking white British spiders' webs, getting Bugworld benefits as soon as they arrive, bringing dozens of their family over no doubt. what we're seeing here is the steady arachnification of Britain. in 20 years time we'll all be under spidia law
this would never have happened under the BNP. arachnimmigration. open your ocelli.