Snake’s alive! Video of spider devouring reptile goes viral

If you’re afraid of spiders or snakes, we suggest you look away now.

A video showing the gruesome moment a golden orb spider ate a live snake has become an Internet sensation.

                                                                [This video contains no audio]

Ant Hadleigh, of Freshwater, Queensland, filmed the eight-legged creepy crawly feasting on the brown tree snake in his friend’s back garden last week.

Things turned nasty as soon as the half-metre-long snake became snared in the giant spider’s web.

It took about an hour for the helpless reptile to die as it succumbed to the arachnid’s venom.

Mr Hadleigh told The Cairns Post:  "I thought it was pretty incredible.


[Related story: Meet Peng Peng: The Chinese cloned sheep with worm genes]



“A few times the snake managed to get up and attack the spider, and the spider would run back up the web.

“I would have put my money on the snake for sure, especially seeing how big it was.”

“You could see the spider just chewing into it and the part which the spider was eating had gone all black and the insides were bubbling.”

Mr Hadleigh added he’d seen the critter eat a wasp after a fierce battle the day before – evidently he hadn’t quite had his fill.