World's deadliest Brazilian wandering spiders 'found crawling over bananas bought from UK supermarket'

A mother of two and her family were forced to flee their home after dozens of the world's deadliest spiders hatched from a banana she was eating. 

Consi Taylor saw the spiders drop off the banana she was halfway through eating after she inspected strange white spots on the fruit's skin.

The creatures fell on to her kitchen table before dozens of them started running off across the carpet.

Mrs Taylor, 29, her husband Richard, 37, and children Benjamin, three, and four-month-old Annabel were forced to leave their home in Hampton, south-west London, and stay in a hotel after a pest control firm said their house could be infested with lethal Brazilian wandering spiders.



Mrs Taylor told The Sun: 'I got halfway through the banana when I saw something white on the skin. I thought it was mould but when I had a closer look I saw some funny looking spots.

'I had a closer look and was horrified to see they were spiders.'

When Mr and Mrs Taylor took the bananas back to Sainsbury's they were offered a £10 voucher.

Their home had to be fumigated for three days and all of the family's clothes had to be professionally cleaned.

The supermarket has paid £1,000 to cover the family's hotel bill, fumigation and dry cleaning now the Taylors have returned home.

A Sainsbury’s spokesman told MailOnline: 'We’re very sorry and have apologised to Mr and Mrs Taylor. We do have rigorous controls on imported products at all stages – from harvesting to transportation – which is why this is so rare.'

The Brazilian wandering spider is responsible for killing more people than any other arachnid. Victims usually die within an hour of being bitten.

It is also known as the 'banana spider' because of its habit of stowing away in shipments of the fruit.


In 2005 a man was bitten by one of the spiders after it arrived in a shipment of bananas at Bridgwater, England. Due to quick medical care he survived, but it took him nearly a week to recover from the bite following treatment.

In 2008, a supermarket in Chatham, Kent, was forced to close after an assistant spotted one of the spiders under a box of bananas as she stacked them.

The wandering spider gets its name because the species prefers to wander the jungle floor rather than live in a lair or maintain a web. They are found in tropical South America and Central America.

While the Guinness Book Of Records has the species as the world's most venomous spider, an affective antivenom means that few fatalities occur.


Source :  Mirror , Daily Mail

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