Amelia Jones
A Tesco shopper got the ‘fright of his life’ when he found a huntsman spider and its large egg sac on his bunch of bananas.
The huge spider and its sac, full of a possible 200 babies, is thought to have travelled more than 4,000 miles from the Dominican Republic without being noticed, before crawling out of the customer's bag of fruit.
Craig Harrison, 35, said he ‘doesn’t think he’s ever had a shock horror reaction like it before’.
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Harrison had to encourage the eight-legged creature into a Tupperware box at his Windsor home, before sending it off to Tesco's own pest control service.
The supermarket giant has apologised for the frightening and potentially painful incident and offered the shopper £100 in compensation for the shock - but Harrison is still considering whether he’ll accept it.
In case you don't know your venomous arachnids: by leg span, huntsman spiders are known as the world’s largest venomous spiders and can grow up to 12 inches across.
They have a venomous bite that can be painful and cause swelling - though they aren't considered to be harmful to humans.
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The unwitting IT worker had already peeled and eaten a banana from the pre-packed bunch, oblivious to what his fruit had come into contact with.
He finally saw the eight-legged stowaway when the bag moved and the huntsman crawled out clutching its sac of babies.
"I don’t think I’ve ever had a shock horror reaction like it before, I was completely gobsmacked to discover it," Harrison explained.
"I had no idea the package I picked up in store had a Huntsman spider hidden inside, the spider had been nestled between the bananas out of sight, clutching onto its egg sac. The bag wasn’t fully transparent, which obscured any view of it.
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"I opened the bag at home, ripped off and ate a banana oblivious to the spider being right there in the bag.
"It was only afterwards, when the bag was moved, that it crawled down the bananas and gave me the fright of my life."
He explained that he isn't easily spooked and said: "I don’t consider myself to have a spider phobia, generally. This one was in a completely different league though!
"My friends and family couldn’t believe it. They were just stunned.
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"I kept the spider, clutching its egg sac, in a Tupperware container and took it in to Tesco the following morning."
When buying pre-packaged fruit and vegetables, Harrison has cautioned other shoppers to ‘be vigilant’.
He warned: "It’s not impossible for creatures to work their way into our homes in this way.
"I’ll be checking all my pre-packaged fruit from now on, or preferably buy loose goods."
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We were sorry to hear about Mr Harrison’s experience. We have robust processes in places to prevent spiders travelling with our fruit but on very rare occasions they can sometimes sneak through our suppliers’ checks."