- Jul 2, 2003
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Peruvian authorities arrested a 28-year-old South Korean man for allegedly trying to smuggle hundreds of tarantulas, centipedes and bullet ants out of the South American country.
Security officials at Peru’s Jorge Chavez International Airport in the capital, Lima, were conducting security checks Nov. 8 when they noticed a man who appeared to have a swollen stomach, according to a press release Wednesday from Peru’s National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR). The security officials asked him to lift his shirt.
They found dozens of camouflaged plastic bags and containers reinforced with adhesive tape and tied to two belts. Upon closer inspection, the officials noticed hundreds of dark, crawling creatures that turned out to be 35 adult, hand-size tarantulas, 285 juvenile tarantulas, 110 centipedes and nine bullet ants native to the Peruvian Amazon River, and probably from Peru’s Madre de Dios region.
Bullet ants have an extremely painful bite and the pain is unceasing for 24 hours. The Amazon centipedes, which is probably what he had, have a venomous bite and is painful to humans.
Tarantulas are less agressive than people think, but they do bite, though the venom does not cause pain in a human.
But I don't want any of those things on a plane with me. It reminds me of that movie, Snakes on a Plane.
