A mum-of-two was surprised to find a tarantula spider the "size of my hand" in her front garden. Sarah Rodmell, 30, believes that the large spider is an "aggressive" orange baboon tarantula which originates from South Africa.
She was first alerted to it when workers knocked on her door on Friday morning (October 21). The shocked mum, who lives on Devonshire Drive in Stapleford, added: "The workers were doing some tile work on my neighbour's roof - and they left their stuff in front of my garden.
"When they came back, they saw it and they knocked on my door to tell me to sort it. They did not want to touch it or be anywhere near it." The brave woman said that while she is "terrified" of spiders, she finds tarantulas "more calm". Ms Rodmell edged the exotic creature with a lid into a box.
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The mum said her daughter had done some research and matched the profile of the spider to an orange baboon tarantula. She added: "It was a bit unreal because he or she was chilling in a box in my kitchen. Every time I was walking in the kitchen, I was like 'oh my God, I have a tarantula in my house'.
"It was my 13-year-old daughter who looked up trying to match the spider - and we think she got it right. She had a very good look at it and she matched it because on the top of of its back, it has quite a distinctive pattern. It has got a circle and it looks like those little wedges that go all the way around the legs - so she actually found the species of the spider."
The species - orange baboon tarantula - is found on the African continent, in Angola, as well as central, eastern, and southern Africa. They are incredibly defensive and, as with most old world tarantulas, should not be held.
"This type of tarantula is very aggressive and they bite straight away. They do not hesitate. I do not find tarantulas that scary to be honest. I am terrified of spiders, but tarantulas are more calm."
She added: "My three-year-old son wanted to name it Dobby and keep it as a pet. The rescuers actually kept his name as Dobby."
It is unclear how the spider got to where it was. Ms Rodmell said she contacted the Washington’s Relentless Reptiles in Loughborough who collected the tarantula straight away. The mum added: "I put a post on Facebook asking people if they lost the pet. But it is highly unlikely that this was someone's pet because it is just not a common thing. But from what I heard Dobby is just being kept in there and looked after at the Washington’s Relentless Reptiles." It's the second time in few months an exotic animal has made the news in Broxtowe, and it comes after an 8ft python went missing in Chilwell.
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