Spiders are often found lurking in grocery shipments and while some are totally harmless, others can be lethal.
Brazilian wandering spiders are known to be one of the most venomous spiders on the planet. Their venom targets the nervous system, causing symptoms such as pain, sweating, cardiac issues and, interestingly, priapism–the scientific term for a prolonged, painful erection.
These deadly spiders are an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare, growing to have a leg span of up to seven inches. They are native to South America, where they often lay their eggs on banana trees. As a result, they sometimes get wrapped up in banana shipments and exported to North America and Europe. This has earned them the nickname “banana spider.”
In 2021 a customer in the U.K. found one of these deadly arachnids in a bag of bananas from her local grocery store, and similar sightings have been reported in U.S. supermarkets too.
The spider found in Bavaria was large enough to be a Brazilian wandering spider, and the fire brigade was not going to take any chances. It was captured, placed in a plastic box and whisked away for identification.
The fire department shared the photos of the hairy hitchhiker on their Facebook page.
“Wow scary,” commented one user. “I would have escaped immediately.”
After examination, the manager of a local reptile farm, Andreas Bandorf, deduced that it was not a deadly specimen after all. Rather, it was a giant crab spider, also known as a pantropical huntsman, which is relatively harmless to humans.
The University of Florida said that the pantropical huntsman spider can be found across subtropical areas of Florida, Texas and California, and in coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina. While it is not dangerous, its bite can still be very painful.
“There was no danger to consumers,” the Wertingen fire department said in a Facebook post. “The spider was taken to the reptile farm in Bobingen where it will now get a new home.”
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