It’s the story that has gone around the world - the Australian man who was so scared of spiders his terrified screams caused police to rush to his Perth home.

Neighbours reported hearing a young child screaming and a man shouting death threats on Wednesday and someone made a panicked call to triple-0.

But Rhys Howard said the commotion was caused by a large, black spider.

“I came out of the bedroom and I saw a spider on the floor … it was about 10 centimetres long; I freaked out as I normally do,” he told the ABC.

“My partner was in the shower so I grabbed the first thing I saw, which was a nappy because we’re toilet training our daughter, and I went down on my knees and I whacked it a few times.”

Mr Howard was left shaking with fear, even once the spider was dead. And then the police arrived.

“I’m very embarrassed, it’s probably the most embarrassing day of my life, but it’s hilarious as well,” he said.

“We’ve just been constantly laughing for the past two days now about how big it has gotten.”

He told Channel 7 he may have “overreacted”.

“I’m a pretty dramatic person at the best of times.”

His partner Kara Loran was normally the one who dealt with spider emergencies - but on Wednesday that job fell to him.

“So I had to just kind of do it, had to man up.”

He was screaming at his young daughter to stay back while shouting “why won’t you die” at the spider.

Police saw the funny side though when they arrived.

Wanneroo Police station then shared the experience to their Twitter feed before later taking down the post.