Nature & Environment
Deadly Black Widow Spiders Found in Packaged Grapes
Nupur Jha
First Posted: Nov 25, 2013 10:18 AM EST
Packaged red grapes sold in local supermarkets of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Wisconsin were found to be carrying the venomous black widow spiders in them.
Yvonne Duckhorn noticed the creepy crawly in a container of grapes in the Aldi grocery store in Milwaukee. The spider, a black widow, is the most poisonous in North America. Similar spiders were found in grapes sold in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
"I saw the legs moving frantically," Duckhorn said, according to Medical Daily. "I've seen bugs on fruit before, and I thought, 'That is a very big spider.' Nothing I'd ever seen before."
All the grapes were taken off the shelves after the discovery. Similar cases were reported in other grocery stores located in Minnesota and Michigan
Yvonne Whelan, a Pennsylvanian customer who bought a bag of grapes from the Giant Food Store noticed the deadly crawler while she was washing the grapes. Another dead spider was discovered in a bunch of grapes she had kept in her fridge.
"The next thing I know, there was this leg coming up over a grape and needless to say I dropped by grapes in the sink," Whalen said, reported ABC27.
The spider was later classified by a bug expert Ryan Bridge as a female black widow, who said finding these crawlers in a bunch of grapes is nothing extraordinary.
"A customer alerted us today that she found a black widow spider in grapes she had purchased from our Dillsburg store," Giant said in a statement, ABC27 reported.
"We regret that this incident has occurred and are taking immediate steps to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future. We will continue to diligently inspect product both at our perishable distribution center and at the store while thoroughly investigating this serious matter with our suppliers."
In England, a woman recently found a swarm of hatching Brazilian venomous spiders in a banana.
The reason behind the presence of these creepy crawlies in fruits is because cultivators are trying to reduce the usage of pesticides. These poisonous creatures exist all over the U.S. and their population is greater in the West and South. These spiders can prove deadly for young children and old people, if not treated on time. The bite leads to muscle pain which spreads all over the body.
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First Posted: Nov 25, 2013 10:18 AM EST
Packaged red grapes sold in local supermarkets of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Wisconsin were found to be carrying the venomous black widow spiders in them.
Yvonne Duckhorn noticed the creepy crawly in a container of grapes in the Aldi grocery store in Milwaukee. The spider, a black widow, is the most poisonous in North America. Similar spiders were found in grapes sold in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
"I saw the legs moving frantically," Duckhorn said, according to Medical Daily. "I've seen bugs on fruit before, and I thought, 'That is a very big spider.' Nothing I'd ever seen before."
All the grapes were taken off the shelves after the discovery. Similar cases were reported in other grocery stores located in Minnesota and Michigan
Yvonne Whelan, a Pennsylvanian customer who bought a bag of grapes from the Giant Food Store noticed the deadly crawler while she was washing the grapes. Another dead spider was discovered in a bunch of grapes she had kept in her fridge.
"The next thing I know, there was this leg coming up over a grape and needless to say I dropped by grapes in the sink," Whalen said, reported ABC27.
The spider was later classified by a bug expert Ryan Bridge as a female black widow, who said finding these crawlers in a bunch of grapes is nothing extraordinary.
"A customer alerted us today that she found a black widow spider in grapes she had purchased from our Dillsburg store," Giant said in a statement, ABC27 reported.
"We regret that this incident has occurred and are taking immediate steps to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future. We will continue to diligently inspect product both at our perishable distribution center and at the store while thoroughly investigating this serious matter with our suppliers."
In England, a woman recently found a swarm of hatching Brazilian venomous spiders in a banana.
The reason behind the presence of these creepy crawlies in fruits is because cultivators are trying to reduce the usage of pesticides. These poisonous creatures exist all over the U.S. and their population is greater in the West and South. These spiders can prove deadly for young children and old people, if not treated on time. The bite leads to muscle pain which spreads all over the body.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone