A mother had the shock of her life when a huge spider fell out of a bunch of bananas bought from a Lidl supermarket. The spider was dead but it was accompanied by lots of smaller spiders emerging from an egg sac.
It has now been sent off for testing due to concerns it could be a Brazilian wandering spider - known for being aggressive and venomous.
The woman immediately called the Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary and Geoff Grewcock, manager of the charity, was shocked when he arrived to see the size of the spider.
He said: "I don't like spiders but I go along because something needs to be done.
“I get called out a lot for spiders, especially black widows in packets of grapes, and in a lot of cases some of them are very small so I was shocked when she pulled out this one.
“She was a bit puzzled, she opened the bananas in the bag and the spider fell out onto the floor.
“It’s all scrunched up and it’s just a bit bigger than a 50p but if it was alive and opened up I think it would be double the size.”
Mr Grewcock suspected that the spider had travelled from Columbia to the store in Nuneaton with the bananas. He has sent off photos of the spider and the egg sac for verification. Mr Grewcock added: “There were some young things in there too and they were put in the freezer to kill them, if it’s a wandering spider then they would be poisonous.''
The woman is now having her house fumigated.
A spokeswoman for Lidl said: “We have thorough procedures in place to ensure that the fresh fruit and vegetables available in our stores are of the highest possible quality for our customers.
“We are therefore very sorry to hear that these standards were not met on this occasion. The matter will be fully investigated by our quality assurance team.”
Source: birminghammail.co.uk
