Jemma Davies, a 34-year-old resident of Runcorn, firmly believed that these were spider eggs, but the supermarket had a different perspective.
Jemma Davies, 34, from Runcorn, was shocked when she found unfamiliar eggs on a bunch of Asda bananas. She tried using Google to identify the eggs but couldn't find a definitive answer.
Her horror unfolded while she was preparing soft meals for her daughter, who has learning disabilities and came across the cluster of eggs on the Asda bananas.
Picking a banana from the bunch, she was taken aback when she noticed these peculiar eggs."
She said: “She’s got learning disabilities and she’s got a poor swallow so she can only have soft things.
“As I was getting her porridge ready, I picked up the bunch of bananas and snapped one-off - and that’s when I spotted it.”
The eggs resembled a collection of small, spherical objects concealed within a delicate, web-like material, according to Jemma.
Her curiosity led her to search for information online, which only intensified her anxiety as she stumbled upon results suggesting that they might be Brazilian killer spider eggs.
She added: “I made the mistake of googling spider eggs on bananas and it came up with Brazilian killer spider eggs. That was it then.”
Subsequently, she contacted Asda and shared an image of the eggs found in the bananas, seeking guidance.
She expressed her fear that the eggs might be from the deadly Brazilian Wandering Spider, but Asda strongly denied this notion, insisting that they originated from a benign insect known as the mealybug.
The product quality team responded via email, expressing their regret that Jemma had encountered an "unpleasant surprise" on her bananas. They assured her that they would launch an investigation into the banana supply chain.
The following day, Asda sent another email, stating that “they were unable to trace the fruit back to its country of origin”. Nonetheless, they were confident that the egg "nest" was associated with the mealybug, a harmless insect.
They added: “These creatures are harmless but as with other insects and spiders, [they] like to make themselves at home in between banana fingers which provide a nice protective habitat for them to live.”
Asda also indicated that despite their stringent fruit-washing processes designed to eliminate pests, "very few instances of infestation" manage to slip through.
The supermarket expressed its regret to Jemma for her encounter and extended a goodwill gesture in the form of a £15 gift card.
However, Jemma remains unconvinced that the eggs belong to mealybugs. She maintains that they might still be the eggs of the Brazilian Wandering Spider, which is known for its highly venomous bite capable of causing a "four-hour erection" before eventual fatality for those unfortunate enough to be bitten.
She has shared the images she captured of the eggs on a spider identification forum. Numerous users suggested that they were spiders, not mealybug eggs.
One person said: They are just like a huntsman spider - minus the venomous part
A second wrote: I never ever buy bananas without checking for this very reason!! They are tropical fruits that have tropical spiders! It's bound to happen occasionally with the best pest control in the world they slip through sometimes.
A third commented: Surely the eggs were laid before the bananas were picked and shipped...
Someone else said: You wanna see what comes out of my egg sack? Far scarier than a little spider..
