One standard domestic house spider can often illicit such fear in people that their screams become ultrasonic and their hands flap fast enough to propel them off the ground.

So just imagine what it would be like if 25,000 of them INVADED YOUR TOWN! Because that’s exactly what happened in Australia this week.

The arachnid invasion of Maningrida, a town 300 miles away from Darwin on the country’s north coast, has left scientists scratching their heads and the residents (quite rightly) running for their lives.

Arachnologist Dr Robert Raven, whose own state of wellbeing must be seriously questioned if he chooses to spend his life pocking at these eight-legged freaks, is stumped as to what has brought so many venomous tarantula – oh yes, did we not mention, these are tarantulas AND THEY ARE VENOMOUS – to the small town.

He said: “Normally, I find two or three hundred spiders in one spot. Presumably, something is missing that would hammer them or there is something good [like a food source].

“It’s one of the beauties of science, being able to say ‘I don’t know’.”

Great, thanks Dr Raven.

The only comfort anyone can take from this is that the venom from the spiders is not strong enough to kill you, it will simply make you vomit for around eight hours. But seeing 25,000 tarantulas running riot in one town would probably do that anyway, with or without a bite.

Extraordinary News has suggested to the Australian government that the entire town and a 1,000-mile radius surrounding the new arachnid HQ is bombed until it falls into the ocean. We are yet to get a response… don’t they realise this is how apocalyptic horror films start?!

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