Thats what happens when fruit is shipped from all over the world, bet it was organic too.

I could see how something that small could get through the process, maybe they need to start sending fruits shipped like that through a car wash like process before putting them on boats or trucks and sending it out.

@APFPilot: haha i was going to say...where they organic bananas?

I wouldn't be amused about finding a scorpion either. Now, who can I blame for the giant spiders in my back yard?

Could be worse, at least it wasn't one of them huge carnivorous spiders from Arachnophobia. It's been almost 20 years and I'm still not over that movie. *shudder*

@rockasocky: I don't think there are herbivorous spiders.

@rockasocky: I think those were loosely based on the Brazilian wandering spiders:

Now everyone is going to want to find a scorpian in their bananas.

DOUBLE REFUND!!!

@no.no.notorious: I'm pretty sure these were synthetic bananas.

Thanks, I'll be here all weekend. Try the veal.

@no.no.notorious: Non-organic fruits (and veggies) sometimes have little travellers on them also - I think the standard practice for imported fruits is to gas/fumigate the crates and then shake off any stowaways. Doesn't always work 100%. No matter how many pesticides you treated the fruit with while it was growing, when it's crated up, something is going to want to travel with it.

Call me old-fashioned, but when I buy something that comes from a tree, I'm fully prepared to see other stuff from that tree.

I doubt the drive/trip/walk back to the store was worth the piddly refund, but she got some publicity!

They should have found that when they checked her receipt at the door.

Now lets hope this scorpion was either taken to a university or a lab, or killed. Last thing we need is a non-native species of animal around, unless it was adorable bunnies or something.

I hate bugs, and arachnids. I hate them all.

Why do people hate on Wal-Mart? Because someone was human and tried to laugh off an insect that hitched a ride on some banana's? Sorry if not all humans act like an insect in your fruit isn't the most deadliest thing they have ever been exposed to.

I feel the same sentiment as samurailynn wondering who he can blame for the spiders in his yard.

But yeah Ben, this kinda stuff only happens to Wal-mart which coincidently is the only place of employment for jackasses. You would never have an employee handle a customer complaint wrong at any where else. And actually just because he wasn't sympathetic doesn't mean he handled wrong as the woman did get a refund didn't they? Actually they did, twice. But how dare anyone joke about how scorpions are cool. I mean they don't sell them as pets in stores or anything.

Awe, he's so tiny. Looks friendly.

@The Name's Ash78, Housewares: Or, we could start irradiating our food. It would kill invasive species and would even do something about our E. coli problem.

Not to nit-pick, but please allow me to nit-pick: That would be a 6 month old baby or infant. Toddlers are aged 1 - 2 years.

BFD. tiny scorpion in your bananas. You know they just brushed him off and put them back on the shelf. It's not like the time they found that viper or whatever that bit someone in the watermellon box. I'd love to get a scorpion on my bunch of bananas. Saves me the trouble of going out and buying a scorpion. Ya know, to mount into a jack-in-the-box. So when the music stops.... BAM! Scorpion in the face.

Shhhhhhhh...double refund or everyone will want a free scorpion with their bananas.

Note; My husband has a friend who worked in the produce department at a supermarket at one time in his life and he explained that bananas come in green and get sprayed with ethylene gas to ripen them and prolong their shelf life.

@tmed: whoops you said the same thing earlier. oh well......it IS Monday after a long holiday of eating and drinking.

this is a regular occurrence with bananas - their packaging is designed so that they ripen during the trip to their destination. the gas given off by the bananas actually heats the contents of the box, allowing critters to survive the trip.

i used to pull all kinds of interesting things out of those boxes - even a (dead) black widow once. word to the wise: inspect your produce before purchasing it. especially bananas.

@IHaveAFreezeRay: But it's all by itself. Perhaps it's the scorpion version of me looking for a lady to settle down with, and will never find one.

@mac-phisto: Now I wouldn't have took this post to be a Wal-Mart bashing one if maybe Ben would have said a little of what you said. this was no PSA. This was a way to hate on Wal-Mart as if other grocers are immune to this type of occurance.

Or that's how I took it anyway. I may be a little defensive, but I've read this site enough to know how the editors feel about certain companies. It's like they just can't wait to bash em.

The Consumerist headline isn't actually reporting what the newspaper article claims. The lady found the scorpion in the jeans she was ironing, not in the bananas. Why she's decided it's from the bananas before that is never explained, but the store says that the scorpion isn't even native to the part of the world where its bananas are sourced.

I join the above posters in finding it less than alarming that somebody may suffer a boo-boo anyway, but we may have a bit of urban legendry being propagated here.

@rockasocky: that movie resulted in me freaking out whenever i see a spider, especially if I'm about to go to sleep. And a little while ago I saw a dark spider about 1" in size in the bathtub, and I screamed bloody murder. Yeah, seeing that movie at the tender age of 7 was not a good thing for me.

I would've mashed that scorpions head in so fast it wouldn't be funny. The photo op would've been a lot less ideal than the one from the article.

@IHaveAFreezeRay: Bunnies infact are a BAD idea. They breed like... well, bunnies and before you know it, they have overrun the place.

Is this about the refund or the lawsuit. I am sure there is a lawyer who is out of breath from chasing (insert joke here) that will jump at the chance to setle for a quick buck.

@snoop-blog: You know, if it was a small spider, or a caterpillar, or a ladybug, I don't think people would mind. A scorpion though? Not like everybody knows which ones are or are not that deadly. I'm sure you know of someone in your life that would freak out if that happened to them...I know I would. And at the very least, going back to that store and notifying management can possibly result in a thorough inspection of the bananas so that more of the little things didn't get through.

@FoxBearDog: They do - it works 99.99% of the time. This one is part of the 0.01% that it doesn't.

@mac-phisto: Isn't that what expendable produce clerks are for?

freaky thing is, she didn't find them in the bananas...but in her JEANS! I can see why she would be so bothered. Thank goodness it didn't crawl into her shoes. Or the baby's shoes/clothes.

@bilups: I saw a Caranguejeira up close near my house in Brazil, and found a Wandering Spider in my laundry once. Not fun days. I also saw a Goliath Tarantula (aka Bird Spider).

They are huge.

I've found the molted shells of Tarantulas in banana boxes back in the late 90's when I worked at a local supermarket chain. Where the spider went, I do not know, but it's scary as hell to find it's mere shell staring at you.

For those who have never seen a Tarantula molt before, it's usually intact and looks like a carbon copy of the spider that created it, and in low light, indistinguishable from a real living spider.

@IHaveAFreezeRay: Didn't Australia have trouble with "adorable bunnies" being "imported?"

@Lucifer_Cat: Well, then we can get free dinner in these harsh economic times!

Let the bunnies breed freely!

@katiat325: So are you suggesting the common person knows which spiders are or are not poisonous? I sure as hell wouldn't be able to tell ya.

Anyhow, you missed my point. Complaining to Wal-Mart is fine and dandy. It's where Ben writes this thing to sound as if Wal-Mart is to blame for an insect on some frikin fruit is utterly rediculous. But hey maybe it's because all their other editors are gone and they are just trying to get by. Sorry Ben, It is just that I know you are so much better than that, and I think you know it too.

@snoop-blog:

While I believe that Wal-Mart is a terrible company, a terrible employer, and a terrible drain on local communities, and the US government's coffers both, and a huge receiver of governmental and local welfare, this is a case where they did nothing wrong.

@floraposte: I would be much more alarmed if I found a bug in my jeans, regardless of what kind it was rather than find one on bananas. I hate bugs just as much as any other girl but finding one in clothing would be so much more creepy than finding one on bananas.

Where's the scorpion? You told me there'd be a scorpions, Eggman.

Jesus Christ, are you blind? It's right there!

You...you...DOUBLE REFUND.

About 12 years ago, maybe more, we bought a bunch of bananas from our local Safeway. We got home and I put them on the counter, they literally exploded. With spiders. Just exploded.

Traumatic experience indeed.

This is just another sign that the end is near.

my grocery store's produce manager explained to me that scorpions can occasionally be found in bananas...they spray to try and kill them, but now and then a few slip through.

@samurailynn: Do they make the zigzag patterned webs? If so, they're totally harmless, and actually help cut down the mosquito population.

They're called orb-weavers. Please don't kill them :(

@oneandone:

Also, aren't arachnids not susceptible to a lot of the pesticides used to kill insects?

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★: Only if they're wearing a red shirt.

DAY OH!

@undefined: If the spiders are bigger than you are, I'd guess you can blame the guy who sold you the brown acid.

I found out in my teen years that my parents found my little brother in the bananas they brought home.

Never did learn where he is really from.

I was told to never tell him, to let him think he is a real part of the family.

I will wait until the folks are dead and the will is read.

I will laugh and laugh when he learns he gets nothing, that he is just an infiltrator temporarily accepted into the family.