AS a youngster, Bat Grainge decided there was only one way to overcome his arachnophobia -- by popping down to the local pet shop and buying a very large tarantula.

When he returned home and put it under the Christmas tree in its box, his mum was not best pleased and the eight-legged visitor soon got its marching orders.

But there began for young Bat a love affair with spiders which has endured to the present day -- and one which has been passed on to wife Ann and daughters Jessica, two, and 18-month-old Jade.

"They are fascinating creatures," says full-time house-husband Bat, 29.

"And when you are hooked on them, you stay addicted."

And four baby tarantulas are not the only unusual pets which now share the couple's mid-terrace home in Wickworth Street, Nelson.

The house, appropriately named "Bat's Cave", is a Noah's Ark of lizards, snakes, dogs, a cat, fish and even stick insects.

It also serves as a foster home used by pet charities when they desperately need to re-house lizards and snakes who find themselves without a roof over their heads.

Bat, in fact, recently played foster dad to a 7in python until a new permanent home could be found.

He admits to having had the odd bite from tarantulas -- "It is a bit like a bee sting, and it swells up, but nothing too serious," he says.

Bat, a former florist and martial arts instructor, adds: "You can never really get friendly with a tarantula -- but snakes and lizards are different.

"They get accustomed to you and they all have their own individual characters." Pride of place in the snake pit is his American Albino Cornsnake.

"He is as tame as anything and the kids just love him -- although after a while Jade gets fed up of playing with him and moves on to something else."

Bat and Ann's taste for the unusual extended to their marriage last year -- a Gothic wedding in Manchester with the bride wearing all black.

The date? Hallowe'en, of course.