Black widow spider in grapes

[dyscjocki]

I thought this may be a good place to explain what happened to me today. My assistant manager was prepping grapes at the restaurant I manage and she sceams. She yells to me to get the spider she saw in a box she was working out of. I tell her to just kill the spider but she says no way. So I went over to look in the box and see a black spider, what appears to be dead, sitting there. I roll it over with a paper towel and it was a black widow. I took a few pictures to show my produce company, but these grapes come from Mexico and you just never can be too careful of what can come in your back door. I am in Michigan and we can have them here but I have never seen one in person. This had to be the oddest thing I ever seen out of 20 years in food service.

 

[archiduc]

I thought this may be a good place to explain what happened to me today. My assistant manager was prepping grapes at the restaurant I manage and she sceams. She yells to me to get the spider she saw in a box she was working out of. I tell her to just kill the spider but she says no way. So I went over to look in the box and see a black spider, what appears to be dead, sitting there. I roll it over with a paper towel and it was a black widow. I took a few pictures to show my produce company, but these grapes come from Mexico and you just never can be too careful of what can come in your back door. I am in Michigan and we can have them here but I have never seen one in person. This had to be the oddest thing I ever seen out of 20 years in food service.

Hi Dyscocki,

I live in the UK and Black Widow Spiders are a rare. However, if you believe that you have seen a black widow spider in package of food then I would urge you to contact your local Environmental Health?/Community Health organisation, ASAP, and I repeat, ASAP. The reason for this is that until you know that, first it is a black widow spider you don`t know what it is. Second, female black widow spiders may have laid eggs which are yet to hatch!!!

I apologise, but I`m not trying to scare you but you need to alert the authorities and get them to check it out for you, ASAP!

TRUE STORY - a well known and respected retailer in the UK sold a plant to a customer who noticed a spider climbing out of the plant. The customers did not recognise the beast, killed the spider and called in the local environmental health department. They identified the spider as a female black widow. The family were ordered to leave their home whilst the house was checked to ensure that no little babies were about, IIRC, lifting floorboards was the least of their worries! The retailer paid for the cost of the familys`s stay in an hotel and for the complete redecoration of their home. Marks out of ten - surely 20!

Contact your local health authority/environmental health agency ASAP and expaline the issue to them.

I have no wish to be a harbinger of doom but you do need to get this checked out ASAP.

All the best and keep us posted,
Archiduc

 

[dyscjocki]

Our procedure for handling raw fruits and vegetables that are ready to be served is to wash them in a solution that in a sence sanitizes the skins. We do this for all ready to eat foods before serving. Anything on the fruits will be washed and sanitized before anyone else gets in touch with it. I am certain of the species of the spider due to the black in color and the redw hourglass on the underside on the hind end. The spider was not in the package but outside in the box. There are 12 bags of grapes in a flat box and it was not in the bag just between bags in the box. The produce was delieved today and appears dead at the time I moved it because it did not move at all.

 

[Michael in FtW]

I have a DIL who is, well, a little strange .... some of her pets include things my son has found when opening boxes of fruits/produce. I remember there was a tarantula he found in a box of bananas from somewhere in South America, a couple of different kinds of scorpions (one really nasty looking big one I remember was in a box of avocados from Mexico) - a lizard in a box of something from South America, and a baby rattle snake in a box of peaches from the county just west of us.

You just never know where these little "hitch hikers" grab a ride ....

It doesn't happen often - but sometimes you get more than you thought you were getting!

 

[Anau]

My friend found a baby tarantula in a bag of salad I bought him from a local farm. The kicker is he didn't find it until he was in the middle of eating the salad! I was disappointed he didn't save it for me, after all I payed for it.

 

[Maverick2272]

Jeez, thanks guys.. I will never open a box of produce again.....

 

[GrillingFool]

My mom's kitchen window, between the window and the storm window, was a
Spider Refuge. Very creepy; probably about 12 spiders lived in there. In the
upper left corner, the Black Widow lived. I spent a lot of time watching them
do their thing... pity the bugs that entered...
What was cool was when the spiders' eggs started to hatch! Mrs. Widow's never
did, darn it.
Somewhere I have some pictures I think... if I can dig them up I'll make an album
for the more spider tolerant of us, LOL!

edit to add: Nope, not on this computer... must have been on the Lost the Hard Drive one, darn it.

 

[jkath]

dh's good buddy was working at a local supermarket, unloading a crate of bananas.
Long story short, a brown recluse (sp?) crawled up his pant leg and bit him. He spent a VERY long time in ICU. After many skin grafts, he still has a large chunk out of his leg, but thankfully, has a good range of motion.
Unfortunately, even though he had a very good lawyer (only wanted his medical expenses paid), the supermarket refused, saying there was no way to prove it was from their produce.

 

[sabixatzil1]

Wow, this made me lose my appetite, and go lock all the windows

 

[pdswife]

David found a Black Widow once while working in the produce department at Safeway. Silly kid put it in a jar and kept it alive for over a year.

 

[suziquzie]

I'm feeling all crawly all of a sudden.....
I think I need another shower.

 

[LadyCook61]

Shudders... I hate spiders.

 

[Constance]

I had black widows in the greenhouse around my work bench. I don't care for spiders, but I didn't bother them and they didn't bother me. They're poisonous, but not particularly aggressive, and I figured they were eating mites and such.
We live in the woods, and I've also had brown recluse spiders around. They ARE aggresive.
From what I understand, tarantulas aren't usually dangerous to humans.

What I hate are wolf spiders...they're big and hairy and they'll jump on you! They're not poisonous, but they bite and leave a heckuva welt.

 

[JGDean]

We have Wolf Spiders here - they slightly resemble the Brown Recluse. I leave them alone if they leave me alone. I was sweeping the garage one day and sweeped one out the door. My friendly patio lizard was all over it in a second. He seems to watch me now when I go outside. Perhaps expecting another unexpected treat!

 

[Billdolfski]

dh's good buddy was working at a local supermarket, unloading a crate of bananas.
Long story short, a brown recluse (sp?) crawled up his pant leg and bit him. He spent a VERY long time in ICU. After many skin grafts, he still has a large chunk out of his leg, but thankfully, has a good range of motion.
Unfortunately, even though he had a very good lawyer (only wanted his medical expenses paid), the supermarket refused, saying there was no way to prove it was from their produce.

A lot of doctors blame any kind of necrotic lesion on the dreaded brown recluse.

The unfortunately part of this is, hardly any of these cases bring the spider with them, to have it positively IDed by a professional. I think this kind of adds to ppl thinking that poisonous spiders are a real threat in the US, which they most certainly are not.

Somebody tells me they saw a black widow in some grapes... I believe that, they are unmistakable. I just happened to know ppl who had family members with necrotic lesions, that were blamed on Loxosceles bites in a state that never had the spider once positively IDed. Not saying that this didn't happen to your friend, cause getting bitten by a recluse is a nasty thing... but it gets commonly misdiagnosed.

 

[B'sgirl]

I found a black widow inside a bag of grapes when I was a checker at a grocery store. I weighed it and passed it on to the bagger when the customer screamed, "What is that!?!" We examined the bag and sure enough, there was a black widow in there. I was terrified to touch the grapes for a long time, and I still inspect them thoroughly before I buy them. We didn't report it though because black widows are really common here so we didn't think it was that unusual. We just tied it up in a plastic bag and threw it in the trash compactor.

 

[sparrowgrass]

I live in SE Missouri, heart of brown recluse territory, and most of the spiders in houses around here (including mine) are brown recluses. They don't bite often, most folks have no reaction or a very mild reaction (like a mosquito bite) if they are bitten. I have a large family here--mom had 11 brothers and sisters--and none of them has ever had complications from a spider bite.

I am a bit careful if I pull something out of the cellar or the back of a dusty closet, but I don't worry a bit about them otherwise. I have never noticed any "aggression". I do know that they can only bite humans if they are pressed up against your skin, like if they are inside an article of clothing.

 

[babetoo]

i really don't like spiders. i leave them alone for the most part. i don't see many here in town, but my daughter that lives in the boons has lots .

babe

 

[archiduc]

David found a Black Widow once while working in the produce department at Safeway. Silly kid put it in a jar and kept it alive for over a year.

So, it was a male or a non-pregnant female.




Regards,
Archiduc