A POOLE mum almost included a praying mantis in her Christmas stuffing mixture this week after it crawled out of a bag of herbs from Tesco at Fleetsbridge.

Linda Hebditch, of Sandpiper Close, said she was terrified when she found the predatory insect among the sage leaves on Wednesday, just as she was preparing to chop and freeze them for Christmas dinner.

Her 16-year-old son Ryan took the six-legged beast to Southern Aquatics pet store in Poole so they could identify it, as she was still shaky after her unexpected introduction.

There, area manager Wesley Nor-ton identified it as a male marbled peacock praying mantis, with probably a couple of months left to live.

Mrs Hebditch, 53, said: “It absolutely scared the socks off me, my legs just turned to jelly.

“I thought it was just a bit of bark among the leaves, but when I went to take it out of the bowl I saw a leg move and jumped. The bag says the sage was imported from Israel so it has come on a long journey. I’m not sure what we are going to do with it.

“I don’t want to keep it here, although I think Ryan is in two minds about it.

“I don’t believe in killing things, hopefully the pet store will take it.”

Mrs Hebditch, who lives in Creek-moor with Ryan, husband Martyn and elder son Matthew, 25, has made a complaint to Tesco.

“It was a shock for me, so it could have been really awful if a frail elderly person had opened it,” she said.

“And someone could easily have just poured it all straight in the blender without checking, it’s a horrible thought.”

A Tesco spokesman said: “We expect our food to be of the highest quality and were really concerned to hear of this matter.

“One of our colleagues has collected the product from the customer so that we can begin an urgent investigation with the supplier.”