A ZOOLOGICAL expert did his best to dispel myths about snakes, spiders and scorpions when he met an enthralled young audience at Bedale on Wednesday.

Children attending Bedale Day Nursery in Sussex Street were given the opportunity of a hands-on experience or a close encounter with animals of the wider world as, joined by nursery staff and parents, they surrounded Gary Spires, who works for the Falkirk-based organisation Zoo Lab UK.

There were mixed reactions among youngsters aged from two to 12 as Mr Spires produced such creatures as a 2ft North American milk snake, along with two identically coloured babies, an emperor scorpion which is among the largest in the world, a young African land snail which will eventually grow into a giant, a tarantula and a giant African millipede.

Some younger children shrank back but, under Mr Spires's gentle encouragement, many others were happy to feel the scales of the colourful non-venomous adult snake or the texture and shell of the snail.

The tarantula and the scorpion were kept firmly in their boxes as they were passed round for close inspection.

Mr Spires, who has a degree in zoology and works full-time for Zoo Lab UK, had also brought more homely animals including gerbils and pet rats.

He revealed that the African land snail has about 25,000 teeth and that the emperor scorpion will die within a few weeks if its sting is removed. The example he took to Bedale was four years old and can live up to ten years.

Zoo Lab UK gives talks on science subjects to schools and children's organisations and Mr Spires said: "We are fully booked up throughout the school year.

"There are a lot of myths about snakes, including the one that they are slimy, and while there are venomous spiders in the world, the general claim that a tarantula will kill you is nonsense.

"That belongs in films, where you see people brushing them off, but that will kill the spider when it lands on the ground because its stomach is so hard, thin and delicate.

"We find that this method of introducing youngsters to such creatures is better and cheaper than going to a zoo, where you have no hands-on experience."

"A lot of things seem very scary at first but are not so bad when you have a chance to meet them. By introducing children to animals in this way, hopefully they will not develop phobias.

"We have found that girls always want to touch things more than the boys. The quiet boys are often those who are more ready to touch than those who might be called bully boys."