Black Widow Spider Found in Grapes in Two Supermarkets This Week
A black widow spider was found in the grapes of a Rhode Island family Thursday morning while they were rinsing the fruits in preparation for a snack.
James Sylvia found the unwanted visitor while his wife and 1-year-old son were cleaning bunches of grapes in their kitchen sink, the local NBC channel, WHDH.com, reported. His wife had bought the grapes from the local Stop & Shop supermarket.
"Next time you wash your grapes there may be a black widow spider, so you may want to be careful," Sylvia warned, WHDH.com reported. "They're more common than you'd think but they're not often encountered because of their secretive habits. They're probably the most venous spider in this region."
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The black widow spider is easily identifiable because it has distinctive features: dark black body and a red hourglass mark on its abdomen. The female black widow is dangerous and has a poisonous bite, but it's usually not fatal with medical treatment. One of the best known facts about the black widow is that it eats the male after mating
Stop & Shop has released a statement in response to the black widow incident: "Due to consumer concerns around pesticides, they have been used less over the years which makes the fruit more attractive to insects … and that (Stop & Shop) works closely with its suppliers to ensure proper inspection and trains its (workers) to check grapes when stocking shelves."
Surprising, just a day earlier, a woman named Laurie Kaiser from Massachusetts also found a black widow spider in her grapes that she bought at the local Shaw's supermarket. The Associated Press reported that the Cape Code resident discovered the spider on Wednesday when she went to her refrigerator to grab some grapes. She realized that it was a black widow spider by the red hourglass shape on its body.
Shaw's supermarket has given Kaiser a refund and said it will notify the distributor.
