A true story and its source was the Australian Quarantine Inspection
Service in Adelaide.

A bloke and his family were on holidays in the United States and
went to Mexico for a week. An avid cactus fan, the man bought a
one-metre high, rare and expensive cactus there. On arrival back
home Australian

Customs said it must be quarantined for 3 months.

He finally got his cactus home and planted it in his backyard, and
over time it grew to about 2 metres. One evening while watering his
garden after a warm spring day, he gave the cactus a light spray. He
was amazed to see the plant shiver all over, he gave it another
spray

and it shivered again.
He was puzzled so he rang the council who put him on to the state
gardens people.

After a few transfers he got the state's foremost cactus expert who
asked him many questions: How tall is it? Has it flowered? etc.
Finally he asked the most disturbing question.

"Is your family in the house?"
The bloke answered yes. The cactus expert said get out of the house NOW,
get on to the front nature strip and wait for me, I will be there
in 20 minutes.

Fifteen minutes later, 2 fire trucks, 2 police cars and an ambulance
came screaming around the corner. A fireman got out and asked "Are
you the bloke with the cactus?" I am, he said. A guy jumped out of the fire
truck wearing what looked like a space suit, a breathing cylinder
and mask attached to what looked like a scuba backpack with a large
hose attached. He headed for the backyard and turned a flame-thrower
on the cactus spraying it up and down.

After a few minutes the flame-thrower man stopped, the cactus stood
smoking and spitting, half the fence was burnt and parts of the
gardens were well and truly scorched. Just then the cactus expert
appeared and laid a calming hand on the bloke's shoulder.

"What the hell's going on?" he says.
"Let me show you" says the cactus man. He went over to the cactus
and picked away a crusty bit. The cactus was almost entirely hollow
and filled with tiger striped bird-eating tarantula spiders, each about the size of two hand spans.

The story was that this type of spider lays eggs in this type of cactus and they hatch and live in it as they grow to full size. When
full size they release themselves. The cactus just explodes and
about 150 dinner plate sized hairy spiders are flung from it,
dispersing everywhere. They had been ready to pop.

The aftermath was that the house and the adjoining houses had to be
vacated and fumigated: police tape was put up outside the whole area
and no one was allowed in for two weeks.

And here's what one of them looks like sitting on a full size dinner
plate.

Attached Images

goliath-plate_1.gif (40.8 KB, 34 views)

Oh my gosh!!!

__________________
Nuh Watch No Face
2 Sweet