Missouri house filled with 6,000 venomous spiders, force owners out

A Missouri couple has unfortunately been unable to move in to their home for almost two years after discovering the house was infested with an estimated 6,000 venomous spiders, according to reports.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Susan Torst noticed the spiders shortly after she and her husband bought the house. The previous homeowners abandoned the 2,400-square-foot atrium ranch after years of pesticide treatments couldn't curb the invasion.

Blue-and-orange striped tarps covered the house this week as an exterminator blasted the spiders and eggs with 200 pounds of sulfuryl fluoride gas, pumped in at 67 degrees below zero.

A family bought the home in 2008 and later found out it was infested with what a spider expert estimated to be 5,000 brown recluse spiders. The family sued the previous owners, saying they were not informed of the spider problem. The house eventually went into foreclosure. An expert on brown recluse spiders said the creature's bite can be very serious depending on how much venom is injected.

"It's not going to kill you, but it will make you wish you were dead," said Jamal Sandidge with the University of Kansas.

An exterminator said there is particular reason why one home may be infested even though nearby homes have no such problems.

"Many times people bring them in, you can move from a house that has them. You buy things at an auction, you have furniture in storage, many times brown recluse spiders are carried right into the house," said Tim McCarthy with McCarthy Pest and Termite Control.

The Torsts also filed a claim with State Farm, their insurance company. The civil suit was found in their favor, but they've never collected the $472,110 that was awarded them. The house is now in foreclosure.

"[The bite is] not going to kill you, but it will make you wish you were dead," University of Kansas researcher Jamal Sandidge told KMOV.