Katherine BiekWe must be celebrating Halloween early this year, because an insect heavily tied to the holiday seems to be making the rounds in the news. Yep, we’re talking about spiders. Apparently, people just can’t get enough of these eight-legged creatures.
First up, a British family found a Brazilian wandering spider crawling in a sack of groceries they had delivered to their house.
The spider was found hidden in a bushel of bananas.
The Independent says these types of spiders often like to hide in the fruit and will end up being sent along with bushels of bananas from South America and Central America when shipped to other countries.
Waitrose, the company who delivered the groceries, ended up sending a pest expert out to remove the spider.
The father told the Daily Mail, “We were terrified. We got ourselves and our kids out of the house right away.”
Which was a pretty good idea since Brazilian wandering spiders are the most venomous spiders in the world according to Guinness World Records.
They are also known to be very aggressive, often standing up on their hind legs when they’re preparing to attack.
Waitrose gave the family a gift card for about $240 worth of groceries and have offered to pay for a day-out for the family. We’re thinking they won’t be buying bananas anytime soon, though.
Next up, black widow spiders are invading Northern Utah.
KSL-TV spoke with a woman who counted more than 20 of the spiders on just one of her window sills.
KELLI EUDIS VIA KSL-TV: “I came down into the basement and was just counting all the ones that were there. The bigger that they were, you could actually see the bright red hourglass.”
A pest control specialist told KTVX that a warm climate combined with a steady diet of tiny bugs are what’s causing the increase in black widows.
BRIAN FULLEN VIA KTVX: “They’re actually surviving a lot longer. Usually they can survive a few months without eating, but now, they’re just having a hay day.”
The reason the Black Widow spider problem is worrisome is because LiveScience reports the bite from a black widow is 15 times more venomous than a rattlesnake bite.
Not scary at all. Nope! Pest control specialists advised KSL-TV viewers to keep their homes free of clutter to keep the spiders away.
And finally, BBC is creating an educational reality show all around spiders.
In what’s being described as "Big Brother" for spiders, Metro says the show involves a team filling a house with hundreds of spiders and then filming them for days.
Spider released onto counter
FLASH
“Ooh! Ooh!”
“He’s not sure.”
FLASH
“He’s looking right at me!”
“He is looking right at you.”
“Wow, I can see his two little beady, black eyes.”
OK, definitely not the most riveting stuff but we did tell you the show was going to be educational.
In fact, the Daily Star says viewers will learn “a spider date can end in tragedy as males run the risk of being eaten at the end of the night.”
And we thought “Dating Naked” had all the dating show drama we could hope for. We’re not sure whether to be in awe of these spiders, or just run away in fear. … We’re going to go with fear.
This video contains images by Andreas Kay / CC BY NC SA 2.0, Graham Duggan / CC BY NC ND 2.0, Scott Kinmartin / CC BY NC ND 2.0,
