This is unbelievable...........definitely worth the read....
then look at the pic....
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. 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 the bastards looks like sitting on a
full size dinner plate.
