It’s enough to make your skin crawl. Imagine cutting off the seal to your container and then opening the doors, only to find a huge venomous spider.
This happened twice last week in Hawaii last week. Two shipping containers, unloaded at separate times, with both containing spiders.
The spider poses for a photo..
The shipping containers, one of granite the other of flagstone, were shipped from the same supplier in Brazil to Hawaii.
The first container was unloaded with a spider being captured. It had a 8.9cm long legspan. The container doors were then closed, and the spider was turned over to entomologists with the State Agriculture Department. The container was placed in quarantine.
Here’s a close up of the spider that was found…
The second spider did not fare so well. This insect met an unfortunate end when the worker that made the discovery destroyed it beyond recognition. The spider could not be identified. This container was also sealed and quarantined. One of the workers later identified the spider, by photo, as the Brazilian Wandering spider, which is found in most areas of Brazil.
The Brazilian Wandering spider can grow to have a possible legspan of 12.7cms and they are considered to be one of the venomous spiders in the world. If you are bitten you can expect delightful symptoms such as increased blood pressure and heart rate, vomiting, blurred vision and intense pain where the bite has occurred.
According to a press release, Hawaii Quarantine are working on shipping both containers back to Brazil.As long as they don’t end up here!
Want to read another spider and shipping story? Head here.
