A man who sparked an emergency police response when a passer-by overheard him screaming “Why don’t you die?” was trying to kill a spider, police have said.

The man was doing battle with the arachnid in his house in Perth when his shrieks, and the wailing of a toddler, were heard by a concerned neighbour.

Wanneroo Police tweeted out a screenshot of the log of the incident, adding: “Police spoke with all parties, who advised that husband had only been trying to kill a spider (has serious fear of spiders). Apologised for inconvenience to police. No injuries sighted (except to spider), no further police involvement required.”

The tweet was later deleted, though officers confirmed to Guardian Australia the incident had occurred, but that the log was removed because of “some typos in it.”

Arachnophobia – or fear of spiders – has seen sufferers call the fire brigade to report the presence of spiders and has even seen several people accidentally burn down their homes in their attempts to kill them.