A UK family went to Aldi and purchased a bunch of bananas, but little did they know that the fruits were already claimed by the world’s deadliest spider.
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The family found a nest of eggs on the bananas and sent them to the Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary for examination. What they were told is that these were the eggs of a Brazilian Wandering Spider, which is considered the most venomous spider on planet Earth.
It was at that moment that people asked, “Where’s the momma?”
The news caused quite a stir. The Aldi store was shut down and the family’s entire house was fumigated just to be safe.
Geoff Grewcock, who runs the Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, told The Mirror that this was a big concern.
“We had to determine what the eggs were and we thought on the balance of probabilities it was probably eggs from a Brazilian Wandering Spider,” he said. “They can kill you, people who get bitten do die. I have dealt with scorpions and Black Widow spiders before, but never one of these.”
Yes, they can bite you and you can die in two hours.
Grewcock said if you see one of these guys — pictured below — just get out of town.
“My advice if you see one would just be to run away as fast as possible and then call the police,” he said.
The mother spider still hasn’t turned up, despite fumigation and a concerted search effort in the Aldi. One Aldi spokesman, however, said that the claim that such a spider was in the UK and at that store was unsubstantiated.
“Recent reports alleging that the eggs of the Brazilian Wandering Spider have been found in a bunch of bananas at the Aldi store in Hinckley are unsubstantiated. The bananas in question have been removed from the store and sent for expert analysis,” the spokesman said. “The Hinckley store in question has now been reopened and customers should be reassured their safety remains our number one priority.”
The Mirror noted that the “Brazilian wandering spider has been classed as the world’s most venomous arachnid in Guinness World Records since 2010.”
Inform reported in the video above that another Brazilian Wandering Spider was found on a wooden pallet from South America in a warehouse in Tamworth, Staffordshire — about 16 miles from the family’s home– and is believed to be the largest seen in the UK.