Welcome to your worst nightmare: A woman in the U.K. was about to bite into a banana when she discovered a swarm of the world's most venomous spiders crawling out of it!
The young mom said she thought she was seeing mold, "[B]ut when I had a closer look I saw some funny looking spots... and was horrified to see they were spiders,” she told The Sun. "They were hatching out on the table, scurrying around on my carpet.”
The mass of creepy crawlies were Brazilian wandering spiders (also known as, yup, banana spiders), which are classified as the most toxic in the world by Guinness World Records, and indigenous to South and Central America.
The family was forced to flee its London home until after it could be exterminated. The grocery store from which the bananas were purchased eventually agreed to cover the associated costs of the terrifying infestation.
In addition to the discovery across the pond, an Alaska girl found one in a bunch of bananas earlier this year. And there may have been one in the produce section of an upscale Oklahoma Whole Foods a few years back, plus a couple thinks they found one in a Duluth-area Walmart as well.
According to the U.K.'s The Daily Mirror, out of 7,000 cases, only 10 people have died from the spider's bite. If bitten, the victim may experience extreme pain and inflammation, loss of muscle control and breathing problems, which can result in paralysis and eventual asphyxiation.
But the killer creature may actually turn out to be man's best friend; scientists are studying its toxin as a possible treatment for erectile dysfunction, reports The Huffington Post. The reason? Priapism—a persistent, painful erection—is also a symptom of the venom.
Check out this video from Today.com:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Alesandra Dubin is a Los Angeles-based writer and the founder of home and travel blog Homebody in Motion. Follow her on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
A version of this story originally appeared on iVillage.