Citizen Scandal: Black Widow Spider Found In Grapes
A woman in Seattle was recently surprised to find a black widow spider—the deadliest of American arachnids—at the bottom of a Costco container of California grapes. “I got to the bottom of it and all of a sudden…a spider came out! When I went online, it told me what it was—a black widow spider in my house.”
If the story sounds familiar, that’s because cases of spiders found nestled among California grapes have been growing more prevalent as farmers increasingly use the eight-legged freaks instead of pesticides to keep insects off of crops. “Some place in the U.S., almost every day of the year, somebody finds a black widow in a package of California grapes,” says spider expert Rod Crawford. Like those odds, organic produce fans?
The good news is that, despite their potential lethality, no one has actually died from a Black Widow bite in America since 1960. Those who would rather not encounter a venomous visitor from Cali should keep an eye out for suspicious webs when purchasing the fruit. Make sure you wash your produce in warm water—spider webs are poisonous, too!
This post was not brought to you by the grape industry.
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November 20th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Give me a break. What are the odds? I’d rather find a spider than have pesticides on my food any day. This isn’t even worthy of a story.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Ah, I take it you haven’t found one yet..lol..shut up!
November 20th, 2008 at 11:36 am
For me it would be pesticides all the way, I can’t believe that they’re allowed to do that without telling people, what if someone died ?
November 20th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Ahhhh…….
They’re so cute too.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Deadliest spider? I think not. The Brown Recluse is much more troublesome. I grew up in Arizona and used to keep black widows as pets in a mayo jar (I always let them go). They are SO afraid of humans, you would REALLY have to go out of your way to be bitten, and then would have oodles of time to go to the doctor to be treated. Only geezers and babies need worry, and the spider usually runs away before such weaklings get to them.
Pesticides will definitely take time off your life, indiscriminantly kill large swaths of ecosystems…so if you prefer that because you want to munch some grapes, maybe you should find a new fruit to munch?
November 20th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
My husband is a manager at Costco - formerly the foods (produce) manager and all fruits and vegetables are checked throughly. Something like this would not be allowed to happen, I guarantee it.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
this crap was originally published July 2007, check out your info before you publish!
November 20th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I found a black widow in some organic grapes about 10 years ago- of course that’s going to happen! Workers cannot go through every bunch of grapes to insure it doesn’t happen- mine was in a bunch of dark grapes and was not obvoius at all.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I work in a produce department at a grocery store in the greater Seattle area and we see about one black widow per year in the grapes. nothing new.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Oddly enough, this same thing happened to me today in NC. My 9 year old yelled, there’s a black widow in the fridge. I didn’t believe him of course. To my surpise, there was!!! Nested in my grapes. Luckily, he looked as he reached in. I couldn’t believe it. What are the odds. Apparently this isn’t as odd as I thought…I’ve found several news stories of people running into the same thing. Better be sure and wash those grapes REALLY good folks.