To be a bit freaked out by this banana ....

[SunshineHQ]

.... was just about to peel it, and then saw this weird cocoon thing growing on it.

Wider family all here, and opinions vary as to what it is ....

Lots of baby spiders? (100s)
Just one big spider?
Something else?

And what should we do? Dad (who lived for a year in Africa) thinks they will very likely be poisonous, and microwave or boiling water?

What happens to the boiled banana now then?
Do you feel confident putting in with the household rubbish

And are you going to keep the rest of the bunch?

So many questions

We will now be able to identify fellow mumsnetters at the school gate based on how fast they run away from bananas.

I'm one of the 'mean to boil them' brigade, but I'm fine, thanks. Just to clarify though, I am not angry, I just can't get over how stupidly this banana was dealt with
Is probably the funniest thing I've read on the internet

I haven't eaten a banana since that thread a MNer had about a bulging black bit on a banana. Pulsating, wasn't it?
Put me right off!

Also haven't bought bananas since. No-one's missed them.

WHY AM I READING THIS THREAD JUST BEFORE GOING TO BED? Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh.

So now this is a debate about spider abortion vs spider murder?

OP YANBU. This is why I don't trust sealed bags OR online ordered bananas. I inspect my bananas very closely.

And now, apparently, grapes too :(

DH went into our loft today and said he saw things hanging down from the rafters like onion bulbs. I made him get out and close the loft lid very carefully! No. I don't have photos.

Well then, get back in that loft and take some fucking pictures! Jesus, don't you know anything about Mumsnet?!

You also need to draw a handy diagram of where they are positioned.

On spiders: I luffs them. But not bitey poison ones I don't. Firebomb, microwave, boil, whatever.

On bananas: who the fuck buys and eats these. Vile things?? They aren't fruit? Slimy, smudgy insect harbouring vile mushy pieces of weird yellow mank tasting shit.

You'll be telling me to LTB next because he didn't take photos

😱😱😱 Vanilla noooooooo - you'll have to burn the house down immediately.

Or call a man. That would probably be more sensible.

I work in a supermarket, if you came in waffling on about poisonous spiders and tracing them anywhere I'd smile, refund you and fling them in the bin.
There's absolutely no way I'd be looking at batch numbers on packaging and pissing around . Also I'd be annoyed you didn't just boil them at home, incase they hatch and scurry out of our bin

You boiled it? Op why didn't you call 101 and log it?

You'll be telling me to LTB next because he didn't take photos

No, but seriously, did you call 101 to log it

I just this weekend got over the last banana spider thread enough to buy some bananas. Think I might go burn them now.

We live quite near a zoo so if I ever come across a cocoon on my banana, then I'll seal it in a plastic box and take it there. They can hatch the things and find out what they are.

Have boiled it, because that was advice from Grandpa (my dad) who is here for supper, and spent a year in rural Tanzania once (on VSO back in the '60s).

at student Grandpa being any kind of banana/spider expert after a year of VSO.
OP, I lived in Italy as a student. Doesn't mean I can sing opera or make my own pasta you know.

I can't believe how shocked and angry people are about boiling the banana

To all the you cant kill spiders people, what about if you had a bed bug infestation, or fleas? Would you not kill them? Would you just carry on casually sleeping with bed bugs because killing is wrong. Do you carefully comb the nits out of your children's hair and set them free? I don't think we should kill bugs for the sake of it but there are times when killing is justified and I think a potentially deadly, foreign spider is not a thing I would want in my house! Plus the spiders hadn't hatched yet, your only really killing a spider foetus, if there were even any spiders! Sainsburies wouldn't carefully trace the origin they would probably refund and chuck in the bim

For those people who are so angry at OP for boiling her banana (a euphemism if ever I heard one) can you just answer me one question?
What exactly do you see as being the endgame here? OP hates spiders so even if they weren't poisonous (and we don't know that they aren't) what exactly is she supposed to do with 100s of infant aracnids? Is she supposed to release them into the outside world where they'll die anyway in the cold, allow them to colonise her house or rehome each baby one by one to loving spider foster families?

a 'Dark Store' or something like that ... basically like a normal store, but not open to normal customers

I can't shift the idea that there might be secret Tescos and Waitroses concealed about the countryside, full of people doing .com shopping (possibly against their will). I was looking at google maps recently and there's a huge bunker-like building near me which I have never been aware of before, despite living here for 25 years. I now think it may be a dark store.........

Bananas give me a stomach ache. I don’t eat them. I’m quite glad about that now.

Years ago I had a summer job packing apples. They came in boxes from Australia. Sometimes when we were unpacking them to sort the ripe ones you’d get an enormous black spider crawl out from the box. Everyone would shriek and jump in the opposite direction. I don’t know where the spiders went.

My DH is now woken by my snorting and cross with me

sonkey Tesco have loads of them

when there's no risk to themselves

No risk? OP is at great risk now, with all the spiders in the neighborhood getting ready to exact their revenge. She'll never be able to dry her washing outside again