A holidaymaker claims she wasn’t spinning a yarn when she had a ‘creepy crawly’ experience in Narberth whilst spending a penny!

The lady, who said she visited the town whilst on holiday in Pembrokeshire, took photographs of what she believed was a ‘false widow’ spider sitting in the toilet facilities of Narberth’s Town Moor car park, but before looking it up on the ‘web’ she emailed the images to the local authority.

“I visited Narberth last week whilst on holiday in St. Davids, and I was alarmed to find this spider behind the door of the ladies toilets located in the town’s car park,” she explained.

“I think I am right in thinking this is a ‘false widow’ spider which has a nasty bite,” added the holidaymaker.

After viewing the photographs, Pembrokeshire County Council sent the images to the Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme for identification, who responded by stating: “This is Steatoda nobilis, the so-called ‘noble false widow’ - the spider which the media make such an unjustified fuss about.

“It has been frequent in the southern coastal counties of England for a great many years, and is nowadays frequent and abundant in many areas of southern England and Wales.

“The media frenzy caused by this spider is unwarranted.

“Steatoda nobilis spiders are unobtrusive, have no interest in attacking humans and would only bite if they were put into a position where they do so as a defensive reaction.

“Honey bees and social wasps pose a far greater risk.

“There are a number of other ‘false widows’ in Britain, some which are native or have been in the country for centuries, so there is a lot of misinformation about these spiders,” they added.