A Plymouth family was amazed to find this exotic bug still alive in their Tesco broccoli – after more than two weeks in the fridge.
The hardy insect, thought to be a red palm weevil, crawled inside the wrapping when the vegetable was packaged in Spain.
Dad-of-two Scott Wisdom said his partner Maria Barlow was going to throw the out-of-date broccoli away when she spotted the brightly-coloured bug.
He added: “It is crazy. My partner Maria went through the fridge this morning to throw out some of the old stuff before we did another shop.
“She noticed it in there and brought it up to show me and it started moving, which was quite surprising.”
The family, from Manadon, had bought the broccoli for about 70p from the Tesco in Transit Way more than two weeks ago around May 10.
Scott, a clerk of works at Devonport Dockyard, said: “Maria’s first instinct was to let it loose but I thought we had better find out what it was first.”
A quick search on Google and a share with Facebook friends indicate that it seems to be a red palm weevil or rhynchophorus ferrugineus.
Scott contacted the Government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and now an official is coming to have a look at the creature.
The agency has appealed for shops and importers to keep an eye out for the weevil as it is a threat to palm trees.
Scott and Maria, who have sons Thomas, aged 18, and 16-year-old Sam at home, are not too worried about how the creature got into their house.
Scott said: “It is one of those things. It has crawled into the vegetable while it was being packed. You cannot expect everything to be checked.”
He added that some of his friends had come up with a novel idea to dispose of the insect.
Scott said: “They suggested that we stage a Bush Tucker Trial and I eat it to raise money for the NHS! But I am not doing that.”
The Government’s official website says the weevil was first identified in the UK in October 2016. It was found in Essex inside a round-leaf fountain palm imported from Italy, which had been purchased in Essex. The infested plant was destroyed.
Such is the danger the creatures pose that inspectors surveyed palm trees within 10 kilometres but found no further traces.
The weevil does not pose any risk to people, pets or livestock but is known to attack and kill a large range of palm species popular in the UK.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency said: “The pest is native to Asia but was accidentally introduced to Spain in 1994 and since then it has spread widely in the Mediterranean region.”
Plymouth Live contacted Tesco but has not yet received a response.
