A mother was forced to evacuate her home after hundreds of deadly spiders crawled out of a banana she had bought from Asda.
Exterminators took three days to rid Gemma Price's house in Stanley, County Durham, of the insects.
Ms Price, 30, said the creatures got into her seven-month-old sonson’s cot and onto her clothes.
“As I peeled the banana a white egg sac, which I hadn’t noticed before, broke and hundreds of little spiders were crawling on my hands and arms and down my pyjamas,” Ms Price told the Northern Echo.
“I threw the banana down on the bed and they spread everywhere. I was freaking out and screaming and trying to kill as many as I could. Some got into my baby Leo’s cot. I quickly picked him and called 999."
She added: “The operator asked if we had been bitten and when I said no, I was told to evacuate the property with my baby immediately and not to go back.”
The creatures were reportedly Brazilian wandering spiders, venomous insects whose poison can kill a human in two hours.
However, Asda has disputed this claim. A spokesperson said it would not be possible to determine the specie through pictures and further tests would be needed before a conclusion could be drawn.
“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," they said.
“Incidents like these are extremely rare, but we understand how upsetting it must have been for Ms Price and we are in contact with her to find a resolution. We'd like to reassure all our customers that the chance of finding a spider is incredibly low and it’s even less likely that a tropical spider could survive outside of their warm climate."
