This is the nightmarish moment a man whacks a large spider inside his cousin’s house with a flip flop, inadvertently sending hundreds of spiderlings scuttling across the floor and giving him and his relatives the fright of their lives.

Noah Navarro Duarte had not realised the large spider on his cousin’s kitchen floor in the administrative region of Guara in Brazil’s Federal District was pregnant when he went he went to whack it with his flip flop on 1st April.

His mum, Lillyan Duarte, who was filming the incident on her mobile phone, and his cousin, whose house they were at, can be heard getting the shock of their lives, with Lillyan gasping “My God, she was pregnant” as around 200 spiderlings scamper across the kitchen floor.

Duarte told news site BHAZ: “It was a drizzly day and the house has a very big garden. It wasn’t the first time a spider had turned up there.

“I was alone in the kitchen, saw the spider and realised it was very big. I was going to kill it straight away, but as it was a bit different, I called my mum and sister over to see.

“My mum came in already filming with her mobile phone. When I started to whack it with my flip flop, I realised why the spider was so big: it was expecting spiderlings.”

Duarte had originally thought about killing the arachnid with spider killer, but was worried about it running away and so opted for his flip flop instead.

He then had to use the same flip flop to try to kill the hundreds of darting spiderlings before grabbing the spider killer to try to finish them off.

After receiving some criticism for his actions on social media, Duarte told BHAZ: “I’m not in favour of killing, either; I know how important spiders are for the environment.

“It’s just that my cousin lives with her young daughter and the spider had 200 spiderlings. I was scared of returning it to the garden only for the spiderlings to come back to her house.

“The scene might not have been pretty, but I think I did the right thing. It was necessary.”

Eagle-eyed spider spotters identified the arachnid as a wolf spider (Lycosidae), which is not harmful to humans or other animals.

According to arachnologist Jean Martins Duarte de Paiva, if you find a spider in your home, “the best thing to do is to grab a container, like a glass, for example, and place it over the spider.

“Then, slide a piece of paper underneath and release it in a suitable place.”