Hemel man warns people of the dangers of false widow spiders after claiming he was bitten by one

The 43-year-old, who lives in Highfield, woke up with a burn on his leg and was unsure what had caused it at first.

But after seeing a false widow in his bedroom, and the burn on his leg bursting, he now believes it was a false widow that had bitten him.

He is hoping that after weeks of going to the doctors, the urgent care centre and the pharmacy, he can now get the help he needs.

He said: "I woke up with a blister on my leg, it looked like a burn, but I had actually been bitten in the night.

"The dogs tail hit the burn and it burst, it was about 8cm long.

"After three and a half weeks of going to my doctors, the pharmacy and even the urgent care centre, and a number of different antibiotics, they might now be sending me to the Infectious Diseases department at the Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital.

"It's very painful and has affected my nerves and calf muscle, it feels like a constant cramp.

"It is starting to heal slowly now, I've got to wait until next week to see if I need to go to the other hospital.

"I just want to make people aware of how bad these bites can be. It was a false widow spider, it was in my bedroom and I disposed of it.

"I went into my garden and there was about 40 of them in the front garden. There are definitely more of them about now than compared to what there used to be.

"It's scary because if it happened to my child it could have been really bad.

"There's not a lot you can do to get rid of them, but I've been spraying their web with wasp spray and it has helped a bit."