A MONKTON mum fled from her home, after a bunch of bananas burst open, releasing “hundreds, if not thousands” of spiders.

Holly Cray, from Gwillam Court, bought the bananas with other shopping, home-delivery ordered from Asda.

When the shopping arrived on Wednesday, January 8, her four-year-old son picked up the bunch of bananas, only for them to burst open releasing “hundreds, if not thousands” of tiny spiders into Holly’s home.

Holly, aged 21, fears the eight-legged beasties may be the highly-toxic Brazilian Wandering Spiders.

“My little boy brought the bananas to me and then they just spilt. They were very small, but there was a fresh sac of them; what if there is a mother spider in the house?

“They don’t look ‘innocent,’ I can tell by the look of them.

“There were a few inside a little sac, but there’s a fresh sac on there too, the mother must’ve been around in the last few days.

“If they are that type of spider, one bite is very serious, I was too afraid to Google; they could kill an adult in two hours.

“I never thought it would be a thing in my life; I would never believe it.”

Holly, who also has a five-month-old baby, has been too frightened to return home, staying in the local Travelodge, and later at her nan’s.

Holly said she had very little luck when she contacted Asda’s call centre, describing them as “washing their hands of me”.

Holly added: “I’m hoping it can be resolved pretty quickly, but nobody is taking it seriously.

“There’ll be people having their heating on at this time of year, which could draw them in.”

A Pembrokeshire County Council spokesman said: “The incident was reported to the county council yesterday (Wednesday) and we are sympathetic to Miss Cray’s concerns.

“The report was initially dealt with by the food safety team who have taken swift action, liaising with the customer and Asda head office and our Pest Control team.

“Environmental health officers are of the opinion that the best option is to complete an insect control treatment of the property (sometimes known as fumigation).

“If the tenant is happy with this suggestion, this will be carried out by council pest control officers as soon as possible.”

A spokesman for Asda said, after talking to spider specialists,

It was “almost impossible” that these spiders could be tropical, let alone harmful to humans, and would not fit the description of Brazilian Wandering Spiders.

He added: “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.

"We are in contact with Ms Cray to look into the matter in detail and to find a resolution.

"We'd also like to reassure all our customers at our Pembroke store 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."

Speaking on Monday, Holly said she was still staying with a friend after her home was fumigated by the county council on Friday, January 10.
"I'm hopefully going back soon but they still haven't identified the species yet; they've collected a sample but there'll be a few days' wait.
"I'm obviously still a bit concerned but want to be home as quickly as possible; I'm hoping they can identify them."