Black Widow Spider Found in Grapes

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A Troy woman found a black widow spider in a bag of grapes she bought at a local Walmart Monday.

Ariel Jackson told WWJ/CBS Detroit that she found the spider as she was rinsing the grapes and called 911.

“I told them, ‘This isn’t really an emergency, but I have a black widow spider in my grapes and I don’t really know what to do,” Jackson said.

The dispatcher reportedly told Jackson to kill the spider. “I was like ‘you want me to kill it? You’re not going to send anyone over?’ This is a poisonous spider and he’s like, ‘yeah, just kill it and throw it away,’ ” Jackson told the radio station.

Jackson’s boyfriend and brother-in-law took the grape container outside and sprayed the spider with insect killer.

Walmart reportedly is investigating the allegations and says it takes them seriously

This spring, a White Lake woman found a black widow spider in a bag of grapes she had purchased at Kroger’s in Commerce Township.

Finding venomous arachnids in produce has become more a common experience among consumers as some growers, bowing to pressure reduce chemical use, introduced black widow spiders as natural predators to eat invasive insect species.

Now that the spiders are established, the only way to eradicate them is with pesticides – which defeats the original purpose. So it comes down to being careful, The Consumerist advises.

Grocers say it’s a good idea to closely inspect produce from the southern United States and Mexico, where the black widows are typically found.

The shiny black females are about 1.5 inches long. Males, which are more muted in color, are about half as big as females, and have pink or red spots on their backs.

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Photo by theloushe/Flickr