A family were forced to flee their home and have it fumigated after finding hundreds of potentially deadly spiders in a bunch of bananas.
Shocked father Jamie Roberts 31, of Hednesford, Staffordshire, spotted white patches covering pieces of the fruit from a local shop after he put them in a bowl but assumed this was mould.
However, upon closer inspection he realised the fruit was infested with a spider nest and immediately rang pest controllers who advised his family to leave their home immediately.
Jamie and Crystal Roberts with their daughter Georgiana 7 and son Joshua 5, at their home in Hednesford, Staffordshire. The family found a nest of spiders on bananas they bought from a OneStop Store
Upon closer inspection, Mr Roberts realised that the bananas were infested with a spider nest
Mr Roberts a civil servant, who suffers from arachnophobia and his wife Crystal, 30, along with their two children Georgina & Joshua.
Pest controllers spent 24 hours fumigating their home but the family were only allowed back three days later after the toxic vapours used to kill the spiders had cleared. The spiders have not been officially identified but the family believe they could have been the world’s most poisonous Brazilian Wandering Spider.
Mr Roberts said: ‘It was terrifying especially for me because I have a phobia of spiders. We bought the bananas from the local shop and there were in a fruit bowl on the window sill in the kitchen.
‘One day I picked one up because it looked mouldy because it had patches of white on it.
‘I knew something was wrong because then I noticed the white patches were all over the window sill, the curtains and I could see tiny legs and realised they were spiders.
At that point, I wasn’t too concerned because I thought they looked dead. I was freaked out but I started to sweep the patches into the bin but then they all started moving. It was like something out of a horror film because suddenly the window sill was moving with hundreds of these spiders'
‘They said they couldn’t be sure what kind of species of spider they were because you can only do that when they are fully grown but they looked identical to the deadly Brazilian Wandering Spider.
‘We took the kids to stay with my wife’s mother while the house was fumigated.’
Mrs Roberts, who works for HM Revenue & Customs, bought the pack of bananas from the OneStop Store near their home. She said: ‘I unpacked the bananas from the cellophane wrapper and put it in the bin so it’s possible the “queen spider” may have been in there.
‘They said they couldn’t be sure what kind of species of spider they were because you can only do that when they are fully grown but they looked identical to the deadly Brazilian Wandering Spider.
‘We took the kids to stay with my wife’s mother while the house was fumigated.’
Mrs Roberts, who works for HM Revenue & Customs, bought the pack of bananas from the OneStop Store near their home. She said: ‘I unpacked the bananas from the cellophane wrapper and put it in the bin so it’s possible the “queen spider” may have been in there.
She then rang the shop where we bought them and they asked us to drop them round to them. When we did they called pest control and they told us to get out of the house.
A OneStop Stores spokesman said as soon as our customer contacted us about this issue we took all necessary precautions, including organising pest control to visit the house and arranging for our customer and his family to stay in a hotel while the fumigation took place.
‘We’d like to reassure all our customers that such instances are extremely rare and we are carrying out a thorough investigation into how this happened.’
He added that the company wanted to make it clear that the type of spider had not yet been identified - and a sample of the insect had been sent to Natural History Museum experts for tests.
A OneStop Stores spokesman said as soon as our customer contacted us about this issue we took all necessary precautions, including organising pest control to visit the house and arranging for our customer and his family to stay in a hotel while the fumigation took place.
‘We’d like to reassure all our customers that such instances are extremely rare and we are carrying out a thorough investigation into how this happened.’
He added that the company wanted to make it clear that the type of spider had not yet been identified - and a sample of the insect had been sent to Natural History Museum experts for tests.
A file picture of a fully-grown adult Brazilian Wandering Spider. Guinness World Records lists it as the most toxic spider on earth and its venom is said to be 30 times more powerful than that of a rattlesnake. Humans bitten by one can suffer an irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, vomiting and eventual death. Their scientific name is ‘phoneutria nigriventer’ the first word being Greek for ‘murderess’.
‘I looked up different types of spiders online and found they looked identical to Brazilian Wandering Spiders which are the most venomous spiders in the world.’
The family are now waiting for pest controllers to confirm whether the spiders were the deadly species.
‘I looked up different types of spiders online and found they looked identical to Brazilian Wandering Spiders which are the most venomous spiders in the world.’
The family are now waiting for pest controllers to confirm whether the spiders were the deadly species.
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