This handsome family home has stood empty for two years – after it was found to be infested by a jaw-dropping 6,000 brown recluse spiders.
Susan and Brian Trost bought the Missouri ranch-style property in 2007, but were forced to flee when it became overrun with arachnids.
Despite numerous visits from exterminators, the problem persisted, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
The Trost family home has been empty for two years after it was found to be residence to 6,000 brown recluse spiders
The Trosts sued the property’s previous owners, complaining they were not informed of the infestation and have also filed claims with their insurance firm. The house eventually went into foreclosure.
In court, Mrs Trost testified that on her first day in the new home she noticed a large stringy web wrapped around a light fixture.
The brown recluse spider's bite is poisonous
The newspaper adds: “In the following days she saw spiders and their webs every day. They were in the mini blinds, the air registers, the pantry ceiling, the fireplace.
“Their exoskeletons were falling from the can lights. Once when she was showering, she dodged a spider as it fell from the ceiling and washed down the drain.”
The infestation is reminiscent of the 1990 film Arachnophobia
Now crews have draped the 2,400sq ft home with tarpaulin and are pumping it will 200 pounds of sulfuryl fluoride gas at 67 degrees below zero.
Tim McCarty, an exterminator with McCarthy Pest and Termite Control told KMOV: “Many times people bring them in, you can move from a house that has them.
The cost of the latest extermination effort is thought to be around $14,000
“You buy things at an auction, you have furniture in storage, many times brown recluse spiders are carried right into the house.”
The brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) is most common in the south and central states of the United States, especially in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, eastern Texas and Oklahoma.
The spider’s bite is poisonous and symptoms can include chills, itching, fever, nausea, sweating and ulcers.
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In extreme cases coma, seizures and kidney failure can occur, the US National Library of Medicine writes.
It recommends taking patients to hospital emergency rooms and bringing the spider in a secure container if possible.
Jamal Sandidge of the University of Kansas told the New York Daily News: “It’s not going to kill you, but it will make you wish you were dead.”
