A disturbing story. Briton Colin Blake claims he was bitten by a spider during a visit to France and then it injected its eggs into his big toe. However, his version is contextualized by experts in the field of arachnology.

On the left is Black’s swollen and injured finger. Right: Wolf spider. Photo: Colin Blake and montypeper/Freepik.

Blake was on a cruise when he noticed his big toe was swollen and red. When visiting a doctor, he discovered that the situation was even more shocking: during a picnic at the dacha, his big toe was bitten by a huge wolf spider, reports Portal R7.

In an interview with the BBC, Blake said he didn’t feel the bite, probably because these spiders inject a pain-killing mixture before turning the living creature into a nest for their offspring. “They ate me,” he said of the babies stuck in his big toe.

Doctors opened the finger and removed the milky substance surrounding the eggs. But even four months after medical intervention, Blake discovered foreign bodies inside his finger.

“One of the spider eggs was not destroyed and must have hatched,” the still shocked victim commented. The discovery of the last partially developed spider required a second operation on Colin’s finger, which is recovering from the situation.

Spider experts give context to the version

“I don’t see how that can be true because I know its biology,” Dr Sarah Goodacre, an arachnology expert, told the BBC.

According to the professional, wolf spider eggs take a long time to hatch. Moreover, the venom of this species does not have a necrotizing effect, but only paralyzes fruit flies.

She told the BBC that the wolf spider lays its eggs in a substance similar to a cotton swab. Some species even carry them on their backs. Goodacre also said there are no reports of eggs living in a wound like the one Blake described.

“There is no European wolf spider that can actually penetrate the skin,” Goodrace said. Like her, the British Arachnological Society also contextualized this theory and called it unlikely.