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In a shocking incident, a man, who was on a vacation with his wife to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary on a cruise, discovered that a spider had laid eggs inside his toe. Colin Blake, from the United Kingdom, and his wife were spending the evening in Marseille, France, when he noticed his toe had swollen up and turned purple, as per a report in BBC.
Concerned by the same, Mr Blake visited the ship’s doctor and found that a Peruvian wolf spider had bitten him and laid eggs inside his toe. He is expected to fully recover after having a “foreign body” removed from his toe and receiving medication to fight the toxins.
The wolf spiders live in France after arriving in the region on cargo ships. As per the outlet, Mr Blake, from Cramlington, was bitten by the spider when the couple was enjoying a meal. He stated that he was “totally unaware” of the incident 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.
After he met the ship’s doctor, they cut his toe open with a scalpel and a “milk-like pus came out.” It looked like it contained tea leaves, which turned out to be spider eggs.
Mr Blake received hospital treatment when he returned to the UK, and he was prescribed an antibiotic course to lessen the swelling. After the swelling reduced, the poison passed through his foot and the marks left by the spider’s fangs became visible.
However, four weeks later, he noticed something else unusual in his toe. The doctors discovered one of the eggs had hatched into a small spider, which was stuck underneath his skin. “One of the spider eggs hadn’t been flushed and must have hatched. They believe the spider was making its way out – eating its way out of my toe,” Mr Blake told BBC.
After the spider was killed by the antibiotics, the doctor removed it by cutting open Mr Blake’s toe. “I did ask if I could keep it but they said no,” he added.
