A six-year-old boy was “terrified” when he found a live spider crawling in his cereal.

Jase Culver, of Gateshead Road, Borehamwood, was getting ready to pour his chocolate Weetos into his bowl when he spotted a brown spider the size of a 50p piece in the packet.

The shocked schoolboy threw the contents of the box, which had only just been opened, on the floor.

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Jase's mother Amy Payne, 24, said: “He yelled so loudly that my first thought was that he had been shot. It was terrifying.

“It was a very scary ordeal for him. He went up to his room for around an hour and was shaking like a little leaf.”

Borehamwood Times:

The mother-of-three says her son has since refused to eat breakfast.

Her other children, Aaron, four and Tyler, two, were also affected by their big brother’s ordeal.

Ms Payne added: “He is deeply traumatised. He hasn’t wanted breakfast since. When he opens crisps, he tips them out and inspects the contents of the pack before eating them.

“He’s been having the most terrifying nightmares and night terrors. He wakes up petrified there’s a spider on him.

“He keeps asking – what would have happened if I’d eaten it? What if it had gone on me? He had never been scared of spiders before, but now I know he’ll have a phobia of them.”

Ms Payne bought the box from Co-op, in Leeming Road, last week and said it was completely sealed until moments before the spider was discovered.

Her first instinct was to kill the spider with her shoe, but then she realised it would be better to send it to Weetabix to find out where it had come from.

Borehamwood Times:

Ms Payne contacted the company, which told her the creepy crawly must have come from her house – something she denies.

She was told to scoop it up in a jiffy bag and send it to the firm's head office, which said it was a woodlouse spider and would not have been harmful if eaten.

Weetabix has not offered Ms Payne any compensation and she says she is now contemplating taking her case further to ensure this does not happen again.

She added: “They are denying it came from their factory, but it couldn’t have come from my house because the packet was completely sealed until the moment Jase opened it.

“They said they’d send me a letter – but that’s not good enough. It’s left my little boy scarred.”

Jase said: "I took a handful and the spider came crawling out. I reacted like screaming and shouting and my mum came running in, and she told me to get a glass. She put the glass on the spider and she took it into the kitchen and put it down.

"I stayed in my room for a little while."

A Co-op spokesman said: “We look forward to hearing the outcome of the manufacturer's investigation."

A statement from Weetabix said: “We were concerned to hear from Ms Payne and are grateful for her assistance in the investigation. Having identified this as a common house spider, we’re confident this box left our factory in perfect condition. We have shared our findings with Ms Payne and are writing separately to her children to explain they won’t be finding any more spiders in their favourite cereal.”

Weetabix were contacted for a comment.