This story spinning around the web, like many fake posts, is based in some truth, but inaccurately distorted to make it odd enough for you to click on. It's about a British woman who found a spider and its eggs attached to a bunch of bananas and she feared it could be the deadly Brazilian Wandering spider. That much is true.
This report -- and others repeated in British tabloids -- states that a man bitten by this side would suffer a four-hour penis erection and then immediately die. The spider's venom is the subject of scientific study in the search for a cure for male erectile dysfunction, these stories report.
While you may think that this would put a smile on any woman's face as they tell their hubby that bananas will be served for dessert tonight, these spiders unfortunately end up killing a man after the prolonged erection occurs.
Interestingly, this part of the story is based in fact. Lead Stories found this summary of the research in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, titled "Erectile Function Is Improved in Aged Rats by PnTx2-6, a Toxin fromPhoneutria nigriventer Spider Venom."
PnTx2-6 toxin improves erectile function in aged rats via NO/cGMP. We investigated the effect of PnTx2-6 in the erectile function of aged rats.
PnTx2-6 is the chemical drawn from the spider's venom.
But these stories fail to mention that experts examined the suspicious banana and determined the spider was not of the Brazilian Wandering variety.
"Following concerns from a customer in Limerick about a banana they bought last week, we tested the banana and can confirm that lab results show that the skin of the banana contained a harmless spider," a Tesco statement read.
