Spiders cause game to freeze

Damage to spiders will cause game to freeze.
This includes attacking a spider (it sometimes freezes on a hit, but always on a kill) and if a spider falls enough to die, or lands in lava, etc.
I have completely re-installed Java & Minecraft (uninstall-reboot-reinstall) and issue is consistent.
It's a lockup so no crash report file is generated from minecraft or java.