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Video report: Deadly spider causes a banana drama

17:00, 04 September 2008

updated: 15:59, 02 May 2019

Sorry, this video asset has been removed.

It looks nasty – and it is. Deadly, in fact.

Staff at the Co-op store in Wayfield, Chatham, got a real shock when a Brazilian Wandering Spider, said to be the most venomous in the world, popped out from a bunch of bananas.

Assistant Kate Whitmore was stacking a fresh delivery of the fruit when she felt something furry and then saw black, hairy legs.

She didn’t realise it at the time but she’d had a lucky escape. The unwelcome visitor can inject a potentially lethal dose of venom.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Medway is also “home” to colonies of another spider species which can also bite.

One feature of the Segastria Florentina, is it's iridescent greenfangs. Arachnophobes might be reassured to learn the critters prefer to hide not munch.

*We wanted to take our own picture of the Chatham spider but the RSPCA warned us it was too dangerous to take the lid off the box, or even risk being in the same room with it.

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