Ship with poisonous spiders refused at Port of Rotterdam

A ship from South Africa was finally allowed in the port of Rotterdam on Tuesday night . The DAL Stellenbosch was delayed by a day, because it had about 20 potentially dangerous spiders on board.The crew has caught the spiders and put them overboard, the port reported Tuesday.

During the trip the crew observed spiders, which they thought to be Black Widows (a notorious spider species). They captured a number of them and threw them overboard, according to a spokesperson.

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With this knowledge in mind a special inspection team went on board when the ship arrived in Rotterdam. They found about twenty more spiders. As far as they know all spiders were found and thrown overboard.

Specialists determined the spiders were not the notorious Black Widows, but the less poisonous Brown Widow (Latrodectus geometricus).

After a customs inspection the ship finally got a green light Tuesday afternoon to unload its cargo in Rotterdam.