Weatherman finds scorpion in bag of bananas bought at Halifax Costco

HALIFAX • A Halifax-based weatherman says he got more than he bargained for during a recent Costco trip — a live scorpion in his bag of bananas.

Nathan Coleman, a reporter for The Weather Network, says he was unloading groceries Friday when his 11-year-old daughter spotted something squirming in a plastic bag.

Coleman says he dismissed the rustling until his mother put the bananas away and saw the scorpion.

“It was as scary as it was shocking,” Coleman said. “It’s just such a strange bug.”

He says he double-bagged the scorpion and drove to the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, where it was placed in alcohol and kept alongside other creatures who have arrived from tropical locations.

Andrew Hebda, the museum’s zoologist, said it’s the first such arrival he knows of where the museum received a specimen from a banana shipment, but other scorpions have come into the province in fruit. He said it’s likely a few of the potentially dangerous arachnid arrive in the city each year.

“We call them hitchhikers ... everything from snakes to frogs to spiders,” he said.

Hebda said so far he’s been able to classify the migrant from Guatemala as belonging to the general class of Buthids, a large family of scorpions that have a fat tail.

Though chances are slim the average shopper will run into similar creatures, the zoologist suggests running produce under a tap.

“If you get fruit from tropical areas, wash it off, as it can take off any insects and generally puts them into cold shock,” he said.

Hebda said the scorpion delivered to the museum was capable of delivering a fairly nasty sting, though he doesn’t think it would be lethal.

“Most of these invertebrates are quite shy and tend to avoid the big, hairy, screamy things like us,” he added.

Hebda said “on the positive side,” the arrival of the occasional scorpion is a sign of fewer chemicals being used on the fruit.

A spokesman for Costco says the chain is looking into the matter.