A man with a fear of spiders has been left terrified after a giant 'tropical' spider escaped into his back garden.
Arachnophobe Jim Dodds said he is left living in fear and has to check under his pillows before going to bed at night.
The 53-year-old found the massive, mysterious, eight-inch creepy crawly in his garden.
But worried about what the species the arachnid was, he trapped it in a plastic box to prevent it from wandering into his house.
A man with a fear of spiders has been left terrified after a giant 'tropical' spider escaped into his back garden
Jim said he then spent a day-and-a-half trying to get an expert to come and examine it.
But the spider has now vanished from his backyard in Tetbury, Gloustershire.
The kitchen fitter and his wife Helen managed to take a photograph of the spider before it escaped from the box.
Sitting in a huge, dusty web, it has long pincers, bony legs and a giant, fat abdomen.
Jim said: 'My first reaction was b****r. Then my second reaction was "Oh s***, where has it gone?"'
He said Helen, 51, had discovered the spider lurking inside a plastic box the couple keep in the garden of their home on Sunday.
Arachnophobe Jim Dodds (pictured with wife Helen) said he is left living in fear and has to check under his pillows before going to bed at night
Jim said he then spent a day-and-a-half trying to get an expert to come and examine it. But the spider has now vanished from his backyard in Tetbury, Gloustershire
Jim added: 'I contacted Great Western Exotics, Cotswold Council, the RSPCA, Rentokil and others but no one would touch it.
'I think it is venomous but I'm not 100 per cent, I just wanted it gone but no one
