A Garden Spider
A 43-year-old housewife opened on Wednesday a bag of bananas that her husband bought at Tesco and was horrified to find the yellow fruit imported from Costa Rica with some eggs from the Brazilian Wandering Spider on the skin. The cocoon was beginning to hatch, so Maria Layton placed the bananas in a sealed container. She then placed the container inside the freezer and informed Tesco customer services of her discovery, reports Telegraph. Layton made those moves because the moment she saw the spider web, she recalled reading an article about the spider.(IN PHOTO) A Garden Spider. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

A 43-year-old housewife opened on Wednesday a bag of bananas that her husband bought at Tesco and was horrified to find the yellow fruit imported from Costa Rica with some eggs from the Brazilian Wandering Spider on the skin. The cocoon was beginning to hatch, so Maria Layton placed the bananas in a sealed container.

She then placed the container inside the freezer and informed Tesco customer services of her discovery, reports Telegraph. Layton made those moves because the moment she saw the spider web, she recalled reading an article about the spider.

The Brazilian Wandering Spider is known for its fatal bite. However, the insect could also give a man four-hour erection. Scientists are studying the spider’s venom as possible treatment for erectile dysfunction.

She recalled that the best way to kill the cocoon was to place it in a container and freeze it, which is what Layton did. She discovered the web when her eldest child, six-year-old Siri, asked for a banana.

“I’m glad it was me rather than Siri that opened the bananas. I think the spiders are more likely to bite small children rather than older people,” she said. Layton has another daughter, three-year-old Phoebe.

When Layton called Tesco customer service, she was asked to return the bananas and the British supermarket giant would refund her. However, she wanted more than her money back since she was looking for advice in case some of the spider eggs escaped when she ripped open the bag.

The mum of two said she was shocked by Tesco’s response because “they failed to see the potential threat to me and my family and thought I was only interested in having a pound or so back.” Calls to Food Standards and Trading Standards proved useless because the agency has nothing to do with the problem or the other agency was close.

Tesco insisted that customers must bring their items for refund to the store. “We don’t have a service whereby someone can go out to the home,” Tesco stated.

The Brazilian Wandering Spider are known to be active at night and walk across the jungle floor. But during daytime, it hides inside banana plants.

According to Genetic Literacy Project, in case studies of 422 Brazilian men bitten by the spider, the victims suffered from pain, sweating and elevated heart rate. A few of them suffered from priapism or prolonged erection.

Priapism is not a man’s heaven as what “four-hour erection” sounds like. It’s because the penis is not supposed to have blood inside it for a long time. Otherwise, if blood remains too long, blood circulation would stop and blood would coagulate and clot, and doctors are needed to fix the problem.

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au