An Asda shopper was left stunned after discovering an unwelcome guest in her pack of bananas.
Ashlea took to TikTok to share a video of the shocking moment she found a cockroach nestled among the fruit. In the footage, she can be heard saying: “I’ve just opened my bananas” before zooming in on the creepy-crawly.
Startled, shopper Ashlea then exclaims, “What do I do with it?” as the insect burrows further into the Asda banana bunch. She pleads with someone off-camera to remove the bug, asking, “can you get it? Please get it” However, the other person, equally taken aback, responds with, “What do you mean get it?”
The video, captioned ‘Got a surprise gift with my bananas! Thanks @Asda’, has racking up 968,400 views, 51,500 likes and over 1,500 comments at the time of writing. One viewer expressed their horror, commenting: “Oh my God I would actually pass out. Seeing THEM in THIS COUNTRY? ! No. No. Nope!”
Another shared their own precautionary measure, stating: “I never ever take bananas into the house..I’ll buy one and eat it in the carpark….worked in retail and seen stuff ower the years.” When asked about their experiences, they revealed they had encountered “spiders and frogs occasionally.”
Another retail worker recounted a hair-raising experience from their time in a supermarket, involving an unexpected tropical arachnid: “I used to work in a supermarket and one time there was a tropical spider in a batch and had to quarantine the entire roller of stock lol. I always buy loose bananas now, never in plastic.”
The tale sparked reactions from other users who were equally alarmed by Ashlea’s find, with comments such as: “Girl that does actually look like a cockroach and that’s terrifying because if it is, they fly” and “oh absolutely not!! I don’t think I will be buying bananas again and I’m being serious.”
Another user shared their own creepy-crawly encounter, saying: “We found one in our bathroom. It got a free holiday via my son’s suitcase. Had to put sticky traps down to catch it then put it in a jar. Took 3 days for it to die and that was after losing its legs!”.
In response to concerns, an Asda spokesperson reassured customers: “We make every effort to ensure our fresh produce is washed and any tag-along is removed before it is packed. If any customer spots something that doesn’t seem right with a product, we would encourage them to let us know so that it can be looked into.”
Amidst the buzz, some TikTok users were sceptical about the presence of cockroaches in the UK, often associated with warmer climates. However, Prokill, a pest prevention firm, confirms that cockroaches do indeed inhabit the UK.
It also mentioned that “we even have a couple of species which are native to the UK so although you probably are less likely to see them here, there are certain behaviours which can encourage cockroaches.” Prokill pointed out that in the UK, cockroaches are “typically found living indoors” and can survive “100 days without food but they can’t survive more than a couple days without water”.
This implies that they’re “more likely to be hiding out somewhere they can easily gain access to a source of water.” As such, bathrooms and kitchens are common places to find these pests. Prokill suggests checking behind cabinets, sinks, baths, toilets, dishwashers, washing machines, and any dark, sheltered areas.