What was in the grapes?

J Town Girl · ‎06-13-2011

My local news ran a story last night about a lady who purchased a large box of grapes from one of the membership stores in our area.

As she was getting them ready to put away her young daughter saw something moving in the plastic clamshell packaging. When they interviewed the mom she said when she looked and saw black legs moving she lost it and yelled for her husband. He recognized it as a black widow spider. He sprayed it with bug spray and then killed it. They showed the dead spider on TV and you could see the red hourglass shape on it.

She said the store apologized and they said that they would make sure that their produce people check more carefully before placing food on the shelf.

The reporter said that many times this happens with bulk organic food because no pesticides are ever used on it.

I try to buy organic, but from now on I'm definitely going to be checking all the produce I buy. I also think I'll stay away from grapes for a while.

I can handle the few small bugs that I'll occasionally find in my lettuce, but a black widow spider is a whole different ball game.

LIndaMJ · ‎11-02-2014

@J Town Girl, thank you for this. We buy produce every week from a membership store. Gosh, who would have thought.

MickD · ‎03-10-2010

I found a cute ladybug on my celery last week.....my son said - gross! I let her into the wild to kill the aphids.....a black widow would freak me out ...our next door neighbor's house and yard is infested with them...Bleckhhh.....

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.... ~ S & G

Foggy morning · ‎03-10-2010

I once had a black widow spider fall right in front of me at the grocery store. I could see it's red hour glass as it fell by. Once it hit the floor, it scurried under the shelves. It's not just big box stores. I called the grocery store and they didn't seem too surprised.

butterfly123 · ‎06-27-2013

Black widow spiders are able to hide in red grapes, black grapes and any dark grape. Unfortunately the spiders are hard to see at any given point from picking, shipping, warehousing, trucking and finally to the store's produce department.

If you are uncomfortable with the grape selecting process, ask for the produce manager to thoroughly inspect the grapes before purchasing. HTH

chickenbutt · ‎03-09-2010

I'm not, nor have I ever been, one of those drama girls with the 'eek - a mouse - we're all going to die' bit. But a black widow spider will freak me out a fair amount, especially if it ends up in my house, or somehow in my close environment.

Last time I saw one was in my garage. I got this spray I have and practically emptied the can. Then I let my husband know that when he comes home from work he might want to clean up that. I just couldn't.

Ever since growing up in CA, black widow spiders just always seemed so scary! I'm terrified of bees, but that's a whole other thing.

SilleeMee · ‎05-22-2016

Fact: There is a spider within six feet of every human on earth.

FastDogWalker2 · ‎03-10-2010

My dad told a story of his aunt who bought a large cluster of bananas and put it out on her cold storage porch. She heard a commotion from her two small dogs and came to see what had them stirred up. It was a tarantula spider crawling across the floor - yikes! This happened when he was a child back in the "30's.

J Town Girl · ‎06-13-2011

@FastDogWalker2 wrote:
My dad told a story of his aunt who bought a large cluster of bananas and put it out on her cold storage porch. She heard a commotion from her two small dogs and came to see what had them stirred up. It was a tarantula spider crawling across the floor - yikes! This happened when he was a child back in the "30's.

My mother also had that happen with bananas. It was when she was first married in the early 50's. She and my Dad had bought a bunch of bananas from a small local grocer. Unbeknown to them the bananas had small, almost pinpoint sized tarantula babies in them. My mother said they had a heck of a time getting rid of the baby tarantulas.

That story freaked me out so much that even today I still search every bunch of bananas that I buy.