OLIVE Acaster returned from her holiday in Australia with some unwanted souvenirs in her luggage - poisonous redback spiders.

Ms Acaster, 56, started unpacking boxes on Monday when a freight container arrived following an eight-month trip abroad.

She had been visiting ex-husband Robin Hesketh, near Brisbane, and her brother Barry Flynn, in Adelaide.

But she did not bargain for the uninvited guests in the container bringing 40 boxes of belongings back to her home in Radley Road, Abingdon.

The mother-of-three said: "When the men from the freight company got about a third of the way through the boxes we came across some garden stuff and one of them said, 'there's a spider in here'.

"I said, 'watch out, it could be poisonous', and saw that it was a redback, which is definitely poisonous, from the black widow family. There are cobwebs across some of the boxes which means the spiders could have laid eggs, so there may be more inside."

So far, Ms Acaster has caught five redbacks and one white-tailed spider, which is also poisonous.

She added: "I killed four of the redbacks and the white-tail and kept another redback in a jar.

"The container company recalled their staff once they found out what was happening and just left all the boxes on the patio.

"Eventually they agreed to put all the boxes in my shed and I have not been able to get any pest control companies to help, so I will just have to catch the spiders myself and kill them when I find them.

"I have spent quite a lot of time in Australia and have seen plenty of spiders, crocodiles and snakes, so I'm not scared of them. You just have to be sensible and keep your distance."

Ms Acaster added that the arrival of the spiders came just days before the wedding of her niece Sophie Rockminster, this weekend.

"I am holding the reception in the garden here and it will definitely go ahead," she said. "I have alerted the JR to ask them to locate the anti-venom serums for both these spiders."

Ms Acaster also contacted Dr George McGavin, assistant curator of entemology at the Museum of Natural History in Oxford, to see if he wanted any of the spiders for his collection.

He visited her home on Wednesday.

Dr McGavin said: "I went over to film one of the spiders and we would love to have them for our collection - we might even put them on display.

"It's not surprising the spiders hitched a lift - I do hear of that quite a lot. Fortunately, Ms Acaster is dealing with this very calmly."

Ms Acaster had been planning to stay in Australia for two years but returned home early to train for a round-the-world sailing race, which begins in Perth, Western Australia in September.