An aerosol may seem like an effective tool for killing a spider, but it could also prove to be damaging to other things, such as a house.
A man in Bridgend, Wales was successful in using such a tool to burn a spider alive Wednesday, but ended up having to call the fire department to put out a fire in his house, according to CNET. The South Wales Fire & Rescue Service managed to put out the fire at the back of the house with just one water jet.
Following the incident, the fire department used Twitter to offer the rest of the world a suggestion on how to get rid of spiders.
"When attempting to remove spiders from properties, please don't use aerosols," the department wrote.
The fire did not cause any serious damage, and thankfully, no one was hurt, Mirror reported.
The Bridgend incident, however, is not the first time that a person looked at fire as the answer to getting rid of the eight-legged creature. In 2010, Chris Welding in Essex sprayed a spider that crawled behind his toilet with aerosol and decided to use a lighter to see if he killed it. The end result was an explosion that blew him off his feet and gave him flash burns on his head, legs and torso. In 2012, a man in California decided to use a blowtorch to clear cobwebs in his backyard, resulting in $25,000 worth of damage to his house. A woman in Kansas was arrested last June after allegedly setting a pile of towels on fire with a cigarette lighter to kill the insect.
Spray paint and a lighter were used last month by a man in Seattle to kill a spider in his laundry room, CNET reported. While he was successful in killing the spider with his DIY blowtorch, he also managed to set his rented house on fire and cause $60,000 worth of damage.
"There are safer, more effective ways to kill a spider than using fire," said Kyle Moore with the Seattle Fire Department. "Fire is not the method to use to kill a spider."
