A UK man’s romantic 35th-anniversary cruise turned into a nightmare after a spider laid its eggs in his toe.
Colin Blake was celebrating the milestone with his wife in France – when his toe started to turn purple.
When he visited the ship’s doctor – he discovered he’d been bitten by a Peruvian wolf spider.
Not only was he bitten – but the arachnid had also laid eggs inside his toe.
He told the BBC that he was “totally unaware” he’d been bitten – as the spider numbs its prey before laying its eggs.
"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 said.
When staff cut Blake’s top open with a scalpel, a “milk-like pus” oozed out, with what looked like “tea leaves” floating in the fluid.
These were the spider eggs.
He was treated with antibiotics when he returned to the UK.
Four weeks later, things got even more gross for Blake when he found a "foreign body” in his foot.
"One of the spider eggs hadn't been flushed and must have hatched,” he said.
"They believe the spider was making its way out - eating its way out of my toe."
The dead spider was removed from his toe, and Blake asked “if I could keep it”.
“But they said no.”
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