Spider alert in Neustadt supermarket

When the banana boxes were unpacked in a supermarket in the German Neustadt last Saturday, fruit was not the only thing employees found. At 2 pm the store leader informed the Neustadt police inspection that they had found a spider whilst emptying the banana boxes that were delivered that morning. She suspected it was a so-called poisonous 'banana spider', report the German website infranken.de.

Both the rescue service and the fire department, as well as the technical help organisation were alerted. When they arrived at the supermarket, the staff had already brought the banana box to the loading platform and wrapped it in plastic foil. The bananas already in the fruit section were also removed from the shop with a shopping trolley.

A 42 year old spider expert in Coburg was then called to the scene, and investigated the banana box. He found the body of a dead spider, which was presumably squashed during the transport from the shop to the loading platform. To be sure another four delivered boxes and those already unpacked were examined. However he was soon able to give the all clear. No other spiders were found. Whether the dead arachnid was the aggressive and poisonous Brazilian banana spider, cannot be said at the moment.