Mark Maskell collects tropical creatures, including spiders. But his partner Kelly Johnson is arachnophobic and has threatened to pack her bags or evict his eight-legged friends if they ever escape.

Mark, 33, from Haydon Wick, said: "She is very accommodating with my hobby, but cannot stand the sun spiders.

"So I keep them shut up in a cupboard and pray they will never get out because they have very sharp fangs."

Sun spiders are also know as windspiders and windscorpions so called because they can run like the wind.

Kelly, 26, a dental nurse, even has nightmares about the spiders finding the bedroom.

She said: "Mark sometimes leaves the skin they shed lying around. Once I screamed the flat down, thinking it was alive. If they ever escape, Mark must turf them out or I will pack my bags."

But Kelly is resigned to the rest of Mark's pets being long-term residents.

She added: "I get roped into looking after them because there are so many mouths to feed. They certainly make life more interesting."

Mark's passion for peculiar pets started when he collected caterpillars, beetles and scorpions as a child.

Now more than 100 exotic wildlife, including pythons, lizards, frogs and tortoises share his one-bedroom flat.

He said: "Things are a bit cramped. But once you start collecting unusual animals, it is impossible to stop. We are like one big happy, creepy crawly family."

And his pastime became a full time job when he opened a tropical pet shop, Fishaholics, in Gorse Hill, three years ago. But the business closed last September because of too much competition.

He said: "I stocked anything from piranahs and poison arrow frogs to stag beetles and lethal centipedes. At first they sold very well. But then other fish shops opened, so I lost trade and eventually had to shut," Mark added.

Fellow reptile enthusiast, Wayne Ingram, offered to buy most of his remaining stock.

Jungle pythons, carpet pythons, gecko lizards, tarantulas, scorpions, millipedes and cockroaches all now live in a specially insulated garage at the bottom of his garden.

Wayne, 39, from Gorse Hill, said: "Being a creepy crawly junkie myself, I was only too pleased to help. And I felt sorry for Mark because you can only fit so many legs in a small flat."

Besides scores of strange animals, Mark also owns a more conventional three-year-old boxer, Merlin.

He said: "Merlin loves all his flat- mates, slimy or furry, and tries to play with them all the time."

Despite the cramped conditions, Mark, currently unemployed, claims the tropical pets are no trouble and only increase his weekly food bill by £20.

He said: "They are very low maintenance and, unlike Merlin, do not need to be taken for walks."

Although they have modest appetites, their tastes are often obscure.

His six carpet pythons eat mice while his 20 poison arrow frogs prefer fruit flies. And his two tenrics (pictured), resembling a cross between a porcupine and shrew, are partial to maggots or worms.

As for sleeping arrangements, it is a free for all except the spiders.

Mark's menagerie

20 Poison arrow frogs

2 Tree frogs

4 Pythons

3 Sun spiders

6 Lizards

2 Tenrics

4 Tortoises

1 Dog