A MILFORD Haven family recently had a close encounter with a venomous spider.

Richard Howells noticed the critter on the wheel of his son’s bike, which was in the kitchen of his home on Howarth Close.

Usually fearless of spiders he picked it up with a bit of tissue, but soon found it crawling up his arm.

Richard said: “I shook it off and it landed on the floor. It then raised its front legs and began aggressively charging towards me.

“I picked it up again and managed to throw it out of the window, thinking it will be good at keeping the flies away.”

Having never seen a spider like it before, Richard sent pictures to the British National Museum and also to a group on Facebook which specialise in identifying spiders which people find in their homes.

Both confirmed the species as a female False Widow. They are found among human populations worldwide and while they are less harmful to people than Black Widows, their bite is still venomous and can be extremely painful.

Richard said: “To make it worse the experts told me the spider looked like she had laid eggs. I have called the council to see if they can send someone out, but they told me they didn’t deal with cases like this and I need to contact a private pest control company.

“It’s worrying that there could be eggs around the house. I really wish I had just stood on it!”