(CNN) – Here is a mystery that is sure to give you the heebie-jeebies – did a spider lay eggs in a man’s big toe?
Colin Blake, a man from England, said it happened to him.
Blake and his wife were celebrating their 35th anniversary on a cruise when he said a spider bit him while they were on shore in Marseilles, France.
The ship’s doctor diagnosed it as a Peruvian wolf spider bite, and the toe was incredibly swollen.
When the doctor cut open the toe, a milky pus with black dots came out.
The doctor told Blake the black dots were the spider’s eggs, and said, “but don’t worry, I’ve got them all out.”
When Blake got back home to England, he received antibiotics through an IV at a hospital for six weeks.
An MRI found a spikey object in his toe that a podiatrist removed.
“I’m like asking, ‘What are the spikes?’ And they said they would eventually become [spider] legs,” Blake said.
His infection gradually improved, though the toe is still tender.
Now that the swelling is down, Blake said you can see the bite marks on his toe.
However, animal experts are skeptical. They say it’s impossible for a spider to lay eggs in someone’s toe.
Nancy Hinkle, a veterinary entomologist at the University of Georgia, said “no spider on this earth can lay eggs in a person’s toe.”
Hinkle doesn’t dispute that Blake had a terrible infection, but she believes it was caused by bacteria, not a spider.
As for Blake, his grandson gifted him a remote-controlled tarantula, and hospital staff now greet him as “the spider man.”
Copyright 2023 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
GRAPHIC: Man diagnosed with spider eggs in toe: ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got them all out’
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