Shocked office worker finds ‘deadly Brazilian wandering spider in his Asda bananas’
Neil Langley, 52, had popped into the supermarket whilst on his lunch break and had bought the bunch of seven bananas before placing them in a clear plastic bag.
AN officer worker had a lucky escape after discovering a deadly Brazilian Wandering spider in a bunch of bananas he had purchased from an ASDA store.
Neil Langley, 52, had popped into the supermarket whilst on his lunch break and had bought the bunch of seven bananas before placing them in a clear plastic bag.
However, it wasn't until Neil had returned back to his office at the Department and Work and Pensions, in Birmingham City Centre, that he noticed the bag moving whilst tucking into this sandwich.
Neil, from Rednal, Birmingham, said: "I always buy a bunch of bananas to have for lunch and didn't notice anything strange about them until I returned back to work.
"I was eating my sandwich and noticed that the bag the bananas were in was moving.
"Straight away I spotted the brown spider and it did look unusual but I never thought that it could be so dangerous.
"I did some research afterwards and when I saw the side effects, I realised I had had a lucky escape.
Neil believes the spider, affectionately named "Webster", may have been hibernating inside the fruit and was blissfully unaware that he made his way to the UK.
Neil's colleagues had suggested he throw him out the window or even flush him down the toilet but one animal loving worker made a phone call to the RSPCA to come and collect the spider.
Neil said: "We place him in a sandwich box with some air holes in, we even left the banana in there so he had a nice snack.
"I'm not too scared of spiders but some of my other colleagues made sure they stayed well away.
"The RSPCA officer was really interested as they don't see many exotic spiders, especially in Birmingham anyway."
Neil returned to the ASDA store, in Tipton, West Midlands, and informed the staff that he found the deadly spider inside the bunch of bananas.
He said: "They did give me a refund and told me that they would be looking into it.
"I don't think you can blame ASDA too much as the bananas are imported from Costa Rica and South Africa."
The Brazilian Wandering Spider has distinctive red jaws, growing up to five inches in size, and anyone bitten by the creepy crawly will experience nausea, vertigo, blurred vision, convulsions and sweating as well as males experiencing a long and painful erection.
However, Webster caused no harm and was safely taken to his new home at Bristol Zoo.
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An Asda spokesperson said: “We sell around one billion bananas every year and each and every one is washed, sprayed and manually checked for quality and stowaways before being transported to the UK.
"We pride ourselves on high food standards and haven’t received any further complaints of this nature.
"We are investigating to see what happened, and will be in contact with Mr Langley to find a resolution.”
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