Transcript:

Hello you and welcome to this fact file! Today we’re going to be looking at the banana spider.

Okay, so let me first explain that when I pick an animal for an episode and don’t just go off suggestions (which you can totally make in the comments below) it’s usually on a complete whim. So when I typed banana spider in the search bar, I had no idea what I was getting into. Apparently there is more than one type of spider dubbed the “banana spider.” Thus, today we will actually be talking about the Brazilian wandering spider because that one sounded the most terrifying of the bunch and since I’m slightly scared of spiders I figured we’d get the biggest baddie out of the way first. Anyway...

The Brazilian wandering spider was originally found in, you guessed it, Russia! No I’m totally kidding, they were found in Australia - because everything deadly lives in Australia, right? The Brazilian wandering spider can truly be found throughout South America and parts of Africa as well, Brazil being their place of discovery. The banana name comes into play when considering that these spiders, on occasion, actually travel to other parts of the world via bananas. Some spiders will spend time in banana trees and end up getting shipped off to places that are banana lackin’. It’s here that people find these spiders and totally freak out.

Let’s set a few things straight, now. 1) It is actually possible for Brazilian wandering spiders to be shipped around the world on bananas although it is HIGHLY rare (as in there’s only ever been one reported case of a person being bitten by one in the UK). 2) ONE of the species of Brazilian wandering spiders has been classified as one of the most toxic spiders in the world. 3) There have been fewer than twenty deaths from Brazilian wandering spiders ever reported (like ever, ever), and that’s because 4) There is an antivenom for them. Also, 5) a lot of times the spiders seen traveling on banana plants are mislabeled as Brazilian wandering spiders and only later discovered to be another, similar looking wandering spider (also called a banana spider *sigh*) who is completely harmless to humans.

If you’re still convinced your banana stowaway might be the big baddie herself (because female spiders are almost always larger than their male counterparts) here’s what you would be looking for to identify it. Brazilian wandering spiders are actually fairly large. Their bodies are about two inches long and their legs can each be up to six inches long. Considering most bananas aren’t much longer than ten inches, that would mean she would take up nearly all of your banana fruit. They’re hairy and usually brown in color, some sporting scarlet colored fangs as a means of warning to predators. When threatened, they’ll raise up their front two legs to help show off their fangs even more. Let’s take into consideration, though, that typically it’s not the spider herself you’ll be seeing but her egg sac.

Something cool about these spiders is that they can actually decide when to fertilize their eggs, holding on to a sperm sac for up to a year before fertilization. Typically she’ll lay her eggs and guard over them until they hatch. Please note, even experts have a difficult time identifying an egg sac without having seen the spider that produced it. Considering the size of this arachnid, unless you find an egg sac that’s half the size of a billiards ball, you’re probably not dealing with a Brazilian wandering spider.

So how about we discuss some of the cool concepts around this spider as opposed to the ridiculous fantasy? There are actually eight species of Brazilian wandering spider and some of them aren’t even venomous. They get their name because they hunt without spinning webs. They’re nocturnal hunters and ambush predators. They eat insects, other spiders, and even small rodents and reptiles. Male Brazilian wandering spiders will actually compete for a female but the females can be extremely picky before selecting a mate. And, yes, if he doesn’t leave her shortly after they mate, she will eat him. She’ll lay up to 1,000 eggs in her egg sac and, as I mentioned earlier, will guard them until they hatch. Most Brazilian wandering spiders will live to be about two years old. It’s also been noted that these spiders don’t live very well in captivity. My guess would be because they like to roam and would need a fairly large enclosure to stay stress-free.

For more information on the banana spider, excuse me, the Brazilian wandering spider, feel free to browse through my citations in the description below. Let me know which animal you’d like to see next in the comment. Thank you for watching and please like and subscribe for more Animal Fact Files!