A tarantula from Chile survived a 7,500-mile journey to terrify a granmother in Newark when she went to prepare some grapes.
The eight-centimetre creepy crawly appeared in a box of grapes Gillian Chivers had bought in Morrisons.
The 63-year-old said it was like “the stuff of nightmares” when the arachnid appeared.
Hearing her screams, her lorry driver husband Tony killed the creature with boiling water and sealed it in a plastic tub for good measure, the Daily Record reports.
As well as having a fearsome set of tiny teeth, tarantulas also have the ability to shoot spiky hairs from their abdomens as a defence mechanism.
Helen Mathers, the couple's daughter, then took the spider, along with the £2 box of grapes, back to Morrisons and an investigation is now under way.
Helen, 34, said: "She got the shock of her life - that's for sure.
“She said it was the stuff of nightmares.
"My mum usually buys the grapes and washes them before giving them to my kids but as she went to do so it just crawled out towards her from the centre of the bunch.
"These things can shoot spikes and are venomous. It may not be able to kill people but it could give a nasty bite so her first concern was for her grandchildren.
"She screamed for my dad and he came down and poured boiling water on it. People have criticised us for killing it - but imagine being faced with a live tarantula in your grapes.
"They say they are only aggressive if threatened but I think it probably would have felt pretty threatened after being hauled up in a box of grapes for God knows how many days and travelling that far.”
The spider was identified as a baby mygalomorph spider of the tarantula variety, usually native to Chile, by Dr Sara Goodacre, a professor at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham.
Helen said: "It was amazing that it survived the journey - it would have been in fridges between zero and five degrees. Apparently they don't hang around fruit either, so its pretty unusual.
"I took it back to the store and at first they didn't seem that bothered, they just said 'oh we get spiders in fruit such as bananas all the time'.
"I said 'but this is a bloody tarantula'. They have now taken the spider back and launched an investigation.
"It’s not something you see every day and certainly gave my mum a shock to say the least."
Morrisons has confirmed staff are speaking to Mrs Chivers and her family about the reported spider.
A spokesperson for the supermarket said: "We are in touch with the customer and they have returned the product to us so that we can investigate further."
The RSPCA said it was always important to be cautious around unusual animals.
A spokesperson said: "The RSPCA receives a number of calls every year after members of the public return home from holiday or buy fruit from the shops to find a stowaway spider, lizard or scorpion.
"While they are concerned for the welfare of these animals, as they're not native to this country and may well have faced an extremely long and arduous journey, the RSPCA would always advise people to treat any unidentified animal with caution until identified accurately, and not to handle an animal that has been discovered as accidentally imported."
