Barry Naylor weaves a tangled web in the relationship department.

For four years his long-suffering wife Janet has had to put up with his unusual collection of tarantulas - 2,500 to be exact - and 30 snakes and a collection of lizards, frogs and turtles.

Now Janet, a support assistant at Immanuel College, Thackley, Bradford, is to issue him with an ultimatum on national television, saying: "It's them or me."

But according to Barry it's not the spiders his wife objects to but the amount of time he spends working and rescuing his beloved reptiles.

Viewers will see couple on the Trisha show tomorrow when they appear alongside other couples with unusual hobbies.

Barry, who runs the Art Gecko exotic pet shop in Shipley, said: "Janet and I have been together for nine years before we got married four years ago and she knew all about my interest.

"In those days I only had a couple of spiders. Basically it isn't the spiders she objects to, it's actually the time I spend at work.

"I leave the house at 7.30am and don't get in again until 10pm and that's just with work. After working in the shop I do talks at schools or at Brownies or Cubs and then after that I have to go to do rescues which could be anywhere round Yorkshire and then maybe go out in the countryside to rescue some other animals. It's fairly time-consuming and that's what Janet objects to."

Janet, 39, said: "I have got used to all the creepy crawlies but I think that there is going to come a point when it gets too much. But on the whole I think it is more nerve-racking being on television rather than facing 2,500 spiders!"

Barry, 35, a former pub licensee, has been an exotic pet fanatic for 20 years but turned his hobby into a successful business when Janet told him to get a shop after three rooms of their home in Wrose were completely taken over by tanks of creepy crawlies.

"I just find them fascinating and I think they get a bad press. We are finding a lot more now that animals are having to be rescued from private homes maybe after a relationship breaks up. There are a lot of snakes that we have to rescue. They have become 'It' pets for people," said Barry.

But how was his television performance? He admits to teasing the popular chat show host who trounced Vanessa Feltz in the ratings war by saying her legs were hairier than any spider he had come across.

"I did get a bit of flak from some members of the audience but I think I did okay on the whole."

Trisha producer, Jo McAllister, said: "Barry's reptiles are everywhere and his wife is at her wits end!

"Janet promised not to give him an ultimatum on the show but tune in at 9.25am tomorrow to see what happened."