Alaska girl finds wandering spider in banana bunch

KETCHIKAN, Alaska — Nobody is quite sure where the wandering spider came from, but its travels ended Monday in a pool of alcohol.

All 6-year-old Isabelle Tavares wanted Sunday night was a snack. Instead, what she found was a spider belonging to Ctenidae family, which includes the widely feared Brazilian wandering spider, rated deadliest on Earth by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2010.

To Isabelle, it was just “Venomous Red-Fanged Jake.”

“I like my spider,” the Houghtaling student said Wednesday, as she held the deceased spider in a Petri dish. Still, she preferred it when it was alive and kicking. Her mother, Jennifer Tavares, felt differently. She said she was still in shock from finding the spider.

“I thought that there was absolutely no way this was real,” she said.

Tavares said Isabelle went to grab a banana from the fruit bowl when she came running back to her mother, screaming.

Isabelle wasn’t the only one shocked.

“(The spider) was pretty upset at first,” Tavares said. When she saw the spider, which measured a few inches wide, she said she could barely muster the courage to capture it. “And usually spiders don’t scare me.”

She did capture it, in a plastic container, which was wrapped with copious amounts of tape. Tavares’ brother-in-law, Roman Davis, looked the spider up online and, with the assistance of Tavares’ other children — Trevin and Natalie — tentatively identified it as the deadly Brazilian wandering spider.

Such spiders are known to infiltrate shipments of fruit, most often bananas, from time to time, ending up in grocery stores across the world.

Tavares said she’d purchased the bunch of bananas in which the spider was found Sunday morning. She said she was disturbed by the fact that family members had plucked bananas from the bunch a couple times during the day without disturbing the hidden arachnid.

She refused to say where she purchased the bananas, but said she did alert the store and the Ketchikan Medical Center.

The spider spent the night in its plastic jail, but Tavares said that did little for her family getting much sleep. She took the spider to the Daily News Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, it was in the hands of Scott Walker, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Walker’s no specialist, but he said he’s looked at enough spiders in his time on the job to be able to identify most kinds.

“I get people coming in about four or five times a year,” he said.

The vast majority of spiders brought in are just abnormally large common house spiders. Sometimes people bring in spiders they’ve crushed beyond recognition. Others simply provide him with grainy photographs.

“Venomous Red-Fanged Jake” was a special case. The spider was alive and reasonably healthy when Jake unwrapped the tape from the container and took a first look at it. As light reached it, the spider began to rapidly move around.

Walker euthanized the spider by squirting isopropyl alcohol into the container. The spider took several minutes to die. Once he was reasonably sure of its death, Walker examined the spider with a microscope.

“It has six eyes,” he said. The number of eyes, and the way they are arranged, can be an effective way to tell a spider’s family. Walker had a number of graphic aids to help with his search, but the spider was uncommon enough that it still took him a day to determine with confidence that yes, it was a wandering spider.

“But not a Brazilian (Genus Phoneutria),” he wrote in an email Wednesday. Walker said there were roughly 200 members of the wandering, or Ctenidae, spider family. Some are venomous to humans, others aren’t. He couldn’t say which category “Venomous Red-Fanged Jake” fell in. Other details that remained unknown included “Jake’s” sex and age.

Most importantly, Walker stressed, there’s no telling where the spider came from or how it got to Ketchikan. It could have come from South America, or any number of port cities that ships pass on the way to Ketchikan. It’s even possible the spider hatched in Ketchikan, though Walker said this was the first such sighting of the spider he’d seen.

Walker presented the dead spider, suspended in a vial filled with alcohol, to Isabelle and her family Wednesday. Jennifer Tavares said the spider had a spot reserved on her shelf. Even two days later, she said she was creeped out. She said she still can’t eat bananas.

“I’m going to rip apart every single banana before I put them in my cart from now on,” she said.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.