The move came after a customer in Limerick was concerned that a bunch of bananas that they bought had been infected by a lethal arachnid.
There have been several publicised cases of the Brazilian Wandering Spider, one of the world's most lethal posionous spiders, getting accidentally transported to the UK after getting inside a consignment of bananas, so after seeing a strange looking mark on a bunch of bananas purchased in a tesco in Limerick, one worried man contacted The Limerick Post paper to let them know about it.
The customer, who bought them from the Crescent Shopping Centre, stated that he saw what appeared to be an infestation of eggs and webbing, and decided that the matter should be investigated further.
The bananas came from Costa Rica, which is home to the Brazilian Wandering Spider, whose bite can give a man "a painful four-hour erection before imminent death", but thankfully a statement from Tesco confirmed that testing had revealed that there was a spider in the banana, but that it was harmless.
In a statement, they apologised and added that "we can reassure all our customers that we have a rigorous testing system in place for all fruit. We have recently introduced additional treatments at source and we now wash all bananas twice using a higher pressure hose before reaching the shelf".
Andre, the man who bought the bananas, said that it was his wife who spotted the eggs and "had read about a similar case in England and felt straight away that it might be the same thing". Concerned about the spider being inside the banana, neither he nor his wife wanted to throw them out, so the father of two stated that "I put it in a pyrex dish and stuck it in the oven for an hour and a half at 250 degrees", before contacting The Limerick Post to warn people to be extra vigilant when buying their fruit and veg.
Via Independent.ie
