Poisonous Snake Found In New England Supermarket’s Bananas

Here's a "What If...?" question for my fellow Massachusetts residents: What if you reached for a banana at breakfast to get your daily dose of good old potassium and you found a venomous snake staring back at you?

I don't know about you, but I would probably RUN INCREDIBLY FAST IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION! And, you know, worry about where to get my potassium after I was a safe distance away from the reptile. But that's just me.

An incident remarkedly similar to what I described above happened recently with produce from a Market Basket grocery store. An employee of the supermarket giant found the snake in a shipment of bananas over the weekend.

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According to MassLive, the employee, after discovering the snake at a Manchester, New Hampshire Market Basket, put in a call to the authorities at New Hampshire Fish and Game, who later identified the reptile as a Ornate Cat-eyed Snake.

Officials from New Hampshire Fish and Game wrote in a Facebook post that the snake was healthy and unharmed. They also said that the species is native to Ecuador and it's only "mildly" venomous.

Some cat-eyed snakes have venom that is relatively low toxicity and is only enough to subdue small prey such as small frogs, lizards, salamanders, mice, tadpoles, small fish, and toads.

According to New Hampshire Fish and Game, the snake has been rehomed with Rainforest Reptile Shows Inc. of Beverly, Massachusetts. A thought just occurred to me. I may never buy bananas again...

For the full story, please visit MassLive's website here.