Moment Giant Wolf spider eats rodent on doorstep in front of terrified mum and son

A video shows the horror moment a monster devours a rodent on a family's doorstep.

Meagen Wallace, from Austin in , made the grim discovery when she and three-year-old son Jameson were about to leave their home for the tot's preschool. After opening the door she saw one of the US's largest spider types with the furry creature in its jaws.

Describing the shocking moment of seeing the Wolf spider, the mum said: "At first glance I thought it was a piece of dog poop and was irritated that a neighbour would allow that to happen and not clean it up. But once I got closer I realised it was moving slightly, and I immediately but calmly instructed my son to take a step back, as he was about to unknowingly step on it.

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“Once assured my son was behind me, I inspected it and realised that it was in fact a mostly-dead mouse with a massive wolf spider on top eating its head. There were little clumps of mouse fur all around, like there had been some sort of struggle beforehand.” Texas arachnologist Ashley Wahlberg, known as the “Spider Lady”, said it was a wolf spider of the hogna genus – among the largest found in the US.

However, Meagen wasn't so happy to see the eight-legged creature. She said: "My initial reaction was disbelief and horrified awe. I’ve worked very hard to not be as afraid of spiders as I once was as a child, but this definitely caught me off guard. I knew my son was right behind me so I swallowed my first reaction and switched to curiosity, so I could show him how cool this absolutely insane event is. Internally I was freaking out but kept it together for my kiddo.”

Ms Wahlberg, who teaches at Angelina College in Lufkin, believes the spider could be scavenging another animal’s kill, but had most likely killed the mouse itself, adding: "Wolf spiders are active predators so it is likely the spider killed the mouse itself rather than scavenging, but without seeing the interaction take place we can never really know. It is unusual for a spider to take down prey this large, but it's seen often enough among the larger spiders.

“However, most reports of spiders feeding on vertebrates are with orbweavers and widows. Both of these have their webbing that the prey initially gets caught in, then they use their venom to finish it off. Wolf spiders make webbing but they don't hunt with webbing, therefore it would just be relying on its strength, quickness, and venom to take down prey.”

Meagen is an environmental scientist so has done her fair share of travelling around remote jungles and forests, but says the grim site was "unlike anything she'd ever seen before."

“I’ve travelled all over the doing research and field work in remote jungles and forests," the mum said. "I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff, but never in my life have I seen this – I honestly didn’t even know wolf spiders ate things like rodents. I have seen them eat every insect under the sun but watching it consume this mouse that was much larger than itself was definitely one for the record books.”

After taking some pictures and video, Ms Wallace left nature to take its course. She joked: “I had no clue what to even do about it, and part of me was hoping that the spider would remember my kindness and choose not to come after me now that it’s had a taste of flesh.”

For little Jameson, it was an exciting encounter to tell his whole class about. And in the end, it was a learning experience for Meagan too, who said she didn't know she was so good at keeping it together in front of her son.