14 DAY TRIAL // This past weekend, a farmer in Australia had the shock of a lifetime when he found a snake trapped in a spider web that was hanging from his car. The snake was still alive when the farmer found it but was barely moving.
Even more disturbing, the spider that had caught the snake and had hurled it off the ground was also present. As shown in the footage below, it was standing guard over the defeated reptile it most likely hoped would be its next meal.
When two deadly creatures meet
The farmer, identified as Neale Postlethwaite, says that he found the spider and its prey on Saturday evening. He soon realized that the two species that had battled each other under his car were two of Australia's deadliest.
Thus, he explains that the reptile was an eastern brown snake, whose venom is known to cause coagulation issues and sudden death. The arachnid, on the other hand, was a deadly redback spider.
The man has no idea how it was that the spider managed to kill the snake, let alone lift it off the ground and neatly wrap it in its web. Its only advantage was probably the fact that the reptile was a youngster and, therefore, inexperienced.
Then again, the sheer size of the snake when compared to its own seemingly feeble body should have kept the spider from taking on the reptile. One can only assume that the arachnid was seriously hungry.
“I can't believe it was actually able to stop it and then hurl it up backwards into its nest,” Neale Postlethwaite told the press in an interview, as cited by Daily Mail.
The spider didn't get to finish its meal
Having been caught in the act by Neale Postlethwaite, the spider decided to make a run for it and abandon its victim. The farmer says that, when he returned to the car the next day, the snake was lying on the floor, lifeless.
The only explanation is that, sometime during the night, the reptile succumbed to its attacker's venom. Since the spider was no longer around to secure it, the snake's body fell to the ground, where ants found it and got busy tearing it apart.
After making sure that there was nothing to worry about, the farmer picked up the snake's corpse and threw it away. Life returned to normal, except that Neale Postlethwaite and his wife are having trouble mustering the courage to get back behind the wheel of their car.
