Woman makes horrifying discovery after buying bananas from supermarket
Pauline Smith was about to drive home from her Aldi store in Montrose, Scotland, when she saw something strange on the bunch of bananas she had just bought
A gobsmacked customer got the shock of her life when she found an unexpected guest in the form of a South American spider hitching a ride in her supermarket bananas.
Pauline Smith, 51, had just purchased the fruit from Aldi in Montrose, Scotland, and was loading her shopping into the car when she clocked something peculiar. While Asian hornets are wreaking havoc across the UK, Pauline had discovered a different kind of creepy crawlie.
She said: "When I was putting my shopping into the car, I noticed debris stuck to the banana, and on taking a closer look, I realised it was spider silk with bits of leaf. Then I spotted the small mound of eggs."
Back at her home, Pauline couldn't wait to examine the nest and eggs up close with a hand lens and microscope, snapping some pics along the way. But it wasn't all fascinating discoveries; she also stumbled upon a squished baby spider under the microscope's gaze.
She figured: "On returning home, I was excited to look at the nest and eggs in more detail using a hand lens and microscope, and I took some photos. Sadly, I also found a squashed hatchling spider when I looked more closely under the microscope. I assume some eggs had hatched, with the remaining eggs being non-viable."
In search of some answers, Pauline turned to a spider group on Facebook for help. She explained: "It is a very large group, and its members include experts, keen enthusiasts and also those trying to overcome their fear of spiders. "Almost immediately, I had an ID of one of the arboreal wandering spiders."
The genus in question, Acanthoctenus, is home to 13 species that hail from Central and South America, and thankfully is in no way harmful to humans, with the hitchhiking arachnid proving to be an extremely rare occurrence.
An Aldi representative highlighted the multiple steps they take to ensure creatures like spiders hitching a ride on bananas are a rarity. They stated: "While it is extremely rare for naturally-occurring foreign bodies like this to be found on fruit, it can happen in exceptional circumstances due to outdoor growing conditions. However, we want to reassure our customers that this type of spider is harmless and poses no risk to their safety."
Following the ID on social media, The British Arachnological Society chimed in, concurring that Acanthoctenus was a solid bet , reports the Mirror.
Media officer Meg Skinner commented: "Based on the photos provided, we wouldn't confidently be able to identify this to species level, but Acanthoctenus does seem likely.
"Some spiders do lay eggs on bananas, many will carry egg sacs with them. The main species that makes headlines is the Brazilian wandering spider which is of medical significance and rarely found on imports. These have huge egg sacs and are rainforest specialists in Brazil."
Although the lethal Brazilian wandering spider belongs to the same family, the venom of Acanthoctenus poses no danger to humans. Spider expert Paul Hillyard, former curator at London's Natural History Museum, clarified: "The families known for attaching their egg sac to a banana are harmless to humans.
"These tiny spiders sometimes construct their nest on a banana because the fruit offers a safe and shaded spot close to the minuscule fruit flies they prey on. The spiders have no interest in the banana itself."
Dr Smith from St Cyrus, safely stored the affected banana and consumed the rest of the bunch. For her, this was an enlightening experience.
She expressed: "I was fascinated and excited, as it was a great opportunity to learn more about nature, and to have a closer look at how the nest was constructed and the details of the eggs. I was also sad imagining the amount of time the spider would have taken to create the perfect nest to protect her eggs as they developed, only to have her efforts wasted."