GRANDMOTHER Lesley Bench could hardly believe her eyes when she spotted a tropical spider on her kitchen table.
Lesley found the infant tarantula when her pack of bananas from the weekly shop started moving.
Fortunately, her three-year-old granddaughter Ellamay, who usually helps her nan unpack the shopping, didn't reach for the fruit.
Lesley, 47, phoned Iceland in Eastleigh High Street and was asked to return the bananas, which had been imported from Cameroon, and their contents.
The tarantula, which was the size of a 10p piece and has subsequently died, has been sent to the Natural History Museum in London by Eastleigh Council's environmental health department.
Although unlikely to be life-threatening tarantula bites can be painful.
Lesley, of Drum Road, Eastleigh, said: "I don't mind spiders - a number of my friends keep them as pets - it was just the shock of my shopping moving and not knowing what it was. I was more concerned about my granddaughter as she always helps me unpack the shopping and I was worried that as a toddler she may have come to some harm if the spider had bitten her."
A statement from Iceland said: "We are currently working with the Eastleigh environmental health department and until we have further results of that analysis we are unable to comment." Eastleigh Council environmental health officer David Ralph said: "We have sent the spider to the entomology department at the Natural History Museum in London where we hope to find out which particular species the tarantula was."
