Featured Image Credit: Vlad Serbanescu via Getty Images
Topics: Health
Rachael Davis
Bananas rarely look ideal. Either they’re too green or they look like they’ve done a few rounds with Mike Tyson – that pristine yellow phase in the middle is short-lived and all too easily missed.
But besides avoiding the most minging one available, most of us just get on with it. After all, it’s just a banana!
If you’re partial to a banana at any phase pre-decomposition, then take note: there’s a telltale sign of something nasty that you should watch out for.
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Consider this your arachnophobia trigger warning.
One shopper who found the offending spots on her banana bunch saw fit to ask what they were via a Facebook group. Where else would one go to find some sanity and wisdom?
"Anybody have any idea what this white spot is on my banana?" they asked.
The white-spotted banana drew plenty of comments, with many a wild theory getting posited.
Despite it coming from a Facebook group, one seemingly bonkers idea had merit.
One user said: “Definitely a spider in there.”
They weren’t alone: “That looks like a spider’s egg sack. Put in a bag and tie it. I would take it back.”
“This happened to me last year,” chimed a third. “Bought some bananas and got a free spider’s nest with wee tiny spiders coming out of it.”
Scientific confirmation being unavailable in the moment, the afflicted banana owner wasted no time in reacting to the idea.
“I can confirm said banana, well the bunch of them (put me off for life) are in the bin outside!” they said in a returning message.
"I may pour boiling water over them in case they hatch inside the bin and wander into the house because I do NOT do spiders at the best of times! Let alone venomous ones!"
The legions of spiders living secretly and unmolested in her house must have been in stitches.
"May even burn my bin if I’m honest might be the best option,” she added, before disclaiming: “(I am of course joking)."
Bananas, grown outdoors in tropical climates, can indeed pick up some stowaways.
Spare a thought for this woman who discovered her banana harboured spiders while she was midway through eating one.
Another man once found a Brazilian wandering spider in his bunch, and those monsters are among some of the world’s most venomous.
These are very rare occurrences, of course, but it’s no less unsettling to see what our friendly-looking bananas might bring to the party.
Buying them loose should help prevent any live beasties being attached but, as for the eggs, best to just keep an eye out.