Worst pest-control tip of 2026 just walked out of Bali. A tourist trying to smoke a spider out of his villa bathroom burned the $160,000 luxury property to the ground, PerthNow reported Oct. 13.
Gaorap Rana, 45, from Nepal, spotted the spider and its web in a corner of the bathroom at his villa in Kuta. His plan: light a piece of paper to scare it off. Badung police say he set the paper alight, left the bathroom for another room — and strong winds carried the burning paper onto the villa’s alang-alang grass thatched roof, which went up fast.
“After burning the paper, the victim left the bathroom and went to the work room,” Badung police spokesperson Ipda Ni Nyoman Yuni Eltari said, per The Bali Sun via PerthNow. “The burning paper was apparently carried by strong winds and caught the thatched roof.”
Firefighters and locals knocked the blaze down. The villa and its contents were ruined. Rana walked away unhurt; no injuries, no damage to neighboring homes. The spider species? Still a mystery. Whether Rana faces further consequences? Also not confirmed.
Translation: next time, call an exterminator — not a match.
Sources: PerthNow — Bali tourist burns $160,000 luxury villa trying to scare away spider (Oct. 13, 2026)
Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.
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