Brazilian Wandering Spider: A deadly venomous spider.

 We often write about creepy and dangerous animals for humans. But only a few of us will meet them in person. Few readers of this text will be lucky enough to walk through the central regions of Mongolia, eat Arctic snow, or hang out with aborigines in the remote South American jungle. But this doesn't bother the Brazilian wandering spider. One of the most venomous arthropods on the planet will get to you by itself.

This predator managed to collect a complete set of unpleasant qualities for humans. First of all, it is simply huge: the body length of the average female is close to 5 centimeters, and the leg span can reach all 18! And at the same time, the animal remains invisible: the arthropod is dressed in brown camouflage and sticks out of hiding places only at night.

And the wandering spider is very fond of wandering. So much so that he is able to move from his native Brazilian forests to another continent. Usually eight-legged crawls in the rainforest. But it feels great in cities and on farmland. Especially strongly the spider for some reason chose banana plantations.

The spider does not eat fruits, but its diet includes insects, amphibians and reptiles. But crates of bananas, according to the arthropod, are a great place for a day's rest. Together with the harvest, his journey begins: spiders are loaded onto ships and sent to other countries, including Russia.

In itself, this is not terrible — thousands of spider species prefer to live on the move and regularly find themselves in human dwellings or products. But none of them carry such a terrible poison. The glands of our hero store 6 neurotoxins and more than 150 excipients, a third of which are not really studied.

Outside of hunting, spiders use their poison only for protection. But our hero believes that the best defense is an attack. He is very aggressive and prefers to attack before the likely enemy has time to harm him. The power of the poison is enough to send even an adult and strong man to the next world.

If the victim manages to survive, she will not be happy about it. Severe pain, spasms, shortness of breath and arrhythmia await her. In men, one more consequence is added to the above — uncontrolled blood flow to the genitals, which lasts for several hours. And all this can come to you in a bag with bananas.

Tense up? Then it's time for some good news. Meeting a spider outside its home region is extremely rare. Most of them will not be able to survive climate change. In addition, for 2021, Brazil's share in banana exports to Russia is less than 0.1%. This means that a rendezvous with an arthropod in a convenience store is less likely than a big lottery win.

And even if you are doubly lucky, and a malicious animal bites you, you have a very decent chance of survival. A wandering spider bites 1,300-1,400 people a year, but the dead don't appear every year. Of course, in a Russian hospital you will not be injected with an antidote, but competent symptomatic treatment guarantees your survival. So don't rush to be afraid of bananas. The chances of a sudden encounter with an eight-legged Brazilian are so low that an attack by a flock of aggressive frogs seems no less likely.