Woman finds dinner-plate sized tarantula in her garden

A woman in Twente was enjoying the sunshine in her garden on Wednesday when she came face to face with a tarantula the size of a dinner plate.

Dierenambulance Enschede posted photos of the poisonous spider on social media after they were called to the town of Oldenzaal to retrieve the arachnid.

The woman spotted the creature in her yard and informed the regional animal ambulance, who were able to capture it by placing a container over the creature and slowly sliding the lid underneath.

Tarantulas do not live in the wild in the Netherlands and it is suspected the spider escaped from a neighbour’s house.

According to the Dierenambulance Enschede, tarantulas are largely harmless. Their bites are akin to a wasp sting.

A number of people admitted they would not have had the woman’s composure. “If I had found the spider, this spider would now be the new owner of my former house,” one commenter wrote on the animal organisation Facebook post.