You might think you're familiar with all the creepy crawlers of the , but have you ever heard of a "zombie "? Though you may believe there is just the common house or garden spider that could be found in your garden, sightings of these newly discovered fungus crazy creatures are on the rise. These eerie, white-foamed spiders are infected by a parasitic, entomopathogenic fungus that takes control of their brains and bodies, putting them into a zombie-like state.

Slowly but surely, the fungus consumes the , eventually leading to its death. First found by Sir David Attenborough in caves in Northern Ireland, someone working on a garden in Wanstead, East London, just 12 miles from central London, has now found not one, not two, but a staggering 15 of these fungus infected spiders.

Gareth Jenkins, landscaper at Greenman Landscaping , 46, told : "They had almost see-through legs and were about half an inch big. I've been a landscaper for 20 years and never in my life have I seen something like this."

Jenkins said that the British Mycological Society confirmed that the spiders were indeed infected with the zombie parasite but that this does not spread to humans.

He added: "They assured me it can't spread to humans but if I saw one of them run towards me, I know I will died of a heart attack.

"The house is just in the middle of suburbia, you would never expect to find these spiders here."

These spiders are in fact orb-weaving cave spiders, though technically called Metellina merianae and Meta menardi that have been infetecd by a fungus David Attenborough discovered in 2021 while filming BBC Winterwatch within caves in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Sir David Attenborough thereby coined this disease struck creature as the Gibellula attenboroughii, a disease where the fungus manipulates the spiders' behaviours before killing them, causing the to leave their normally concealed lairs or webs and die in exposed positions on roofs or walls of caves, according to CABI News.

However, this new sighting in London could suggest that these spiders are more widespread than we thought, and not confined to cave environments.