North of Toulouse. Exotic spider found among bananas in supermarket
By Maxence Dourlen
Published on
There are discoveries more surprising than others… Monday, August 29, 2022in the north of Toulousea store employee lidl of Castelnau-d’Estrétefonds came face to face with a exotic spider about ten centimeters in the middle of bananas from Ghana.
A big surprise and a small fright in the middle of the afternoon for this employee who had the good reflex to “capture” the arachnid before calling the fire department of Upper Garonne.
Intervention of firefighters
As soon as the report was received, the emergency services were sent to the scene by a unit specializing in animal risk. Five firefighters intervened to secure the spider and then the carrier in a box towards the Toulouse veterinary school.
“It was not very complicated because the store employee had the right reflex,” explains Lieutenant-Colonel Théron.
According to specialists, this specimen would be of the species Heteropoda Venatoria, also called “babouk”. A spider particularly practiced on the island of Reunion, Guadeloupe or Guyana. It sometimes happens to see these specimens end up in shipments of bananas to the four parts of Europe.
A first in Haute-Garonne
Of course, this intervention is not common for the department’s firefighters. Each year, they intervene about ten times in a similar context, mainly in relation to NAC (new pets).
According to the lieutenant-colonel, this would be the first time that firefighters from Haut-Garonne have intervened to “exfiltrate” a spider of this type.
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