A Spider Lived Inside This Tourist’s Body For 3 Days After Burrowing Into His Skin Through A Scar

WARNING: If you're arachnophobic you're going to want to look away now.

An Australian tourist’s holiday in Bali ended horrifyingly when doctors were forced to pull a tropical spider out of his stomach.

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Medical staff at Bali International Medical Centre said the spider had burrowed itself into Dylan Thomas’s skin through a scar from where his appendix had been removed.

The 21-year-old, from Bunbury, Western Australia, told NT News he woke up on Saturday morning to find a 2-inch red trail rising up from his stomach.

Later that day it had risen two or three inches higher up his body, he said.

When he first went to doctors on Sunday they told him it was an insect bite and gave him some cream, NT News reported.

By Monday morning the trail had started to blister.

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Then Thomas saw a dermatologist, who recognised things were not right.

Doctors operated and removed a spider the size of a match head from his body.

Thomas told NT News:

"It takes a lot to deter me, but I do feel violated.

"It was a very bizarre experience just to know something like that was in my body for a couple of days."

The spider, which was dead when it was removed, has been sent off for tests, and Thomas is expected to learn what species it was in the coming days. He summed up his experience on Thursday:

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The Bunbury Mail said Thomas was now hoping his friends would help him raise enough money for a Spider-Man tattoo on his chest.

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He is also apparently hoping the ordeal leaves a “gnarly scar” on his body.

A number of scientists in Perth have now cast doubt over Thomas' claims and said the red trail may have been caused by a mite rather than a spider.

Arachnologist Dr Volker Framenau told WA Today: "We thought it may have been something like a mite, there are a few different parasitic mites out there, which can sometimes look a bit like a spider."

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