ramanth
11-26-2003, 02:25 PM
or a black widow spider? :eek:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/998332.asp?vts=112620031214
http://a799.g.akamai.net/3/799/388/e1a01fbee30273/www.msnbc.com/news/2079780.jpg
Arachnids found in produce in 3 Mass. supermarkets
BOSTON, Nov. 26 — It may make sense for Massachusetts residents to pay extra attention when shopping for fruit over the holiday weekend after reports of black widow spiders hidden among bunches of red grapes in three supermarkets.
THE UNFORTUNATE shoppers included a Boylston woman, who found a black widow spider in some red seedless grapes she was feeding to her one-year-old daughter.
Heide Waite didn’t panic. She put the deadly spider into her children’s bug jar and has kept it there since. “I couldn’t come to terms with killing it,” she said on Wednesday.
Another couple reported they were washing some red grapes in their kitchen sink when they were startled by the arachnid. They bought the fruit at a store in Milford.
“‘It was not very nice looking, creepy in fact,” Terry Muccini told the Boston Herald. “It scared the you-know-what out of me. I said to (my husband), ‘It’s a good a thing I didn’t open (the grapes) because you would have had to pick me up off the floor.’”
And a Maynard woman reported finding a spider in some grapes last week.
All the grapes were bought at Shaw’s supermarkets. The chain said it will increase inspections and start selling grapes loose, instead of in plastic bags.
Muccini told the Herald she holds no grudge against Shaw’s but remains wary of its produce section. “I’m afraid I’m going to find a tarantula in my bananas now,” she said. “Probably not, but you never know.”
Officials says the occasional spider may be due to farmers using less pesticides on their fruit.
Black spiders are among the most venomous in North America, though their bite is generally not fatal to humans.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/998332.asp?vts=112620031214
http://a799.g.akamai.net/3/799/388/e1a01fbee30273/www.msnbc.com/news/2079780.jpg
Arachnids found in produce in 3 Mass. supermarkets
BOSTON, Nov. 26 — It may make sense for Massachusetts residents to pay extra attention when shopping for fruit over the holiday weekend after reports of black widow spiders hidden among bunches of red grapes in three supermarkets.
THE UNFORTUNATE shoppers included a Boylston woman, who found a black widow spider in some red seedless grapes she was feeding to her one-year-old daughter.
Heide Waite didn’t panic. She put the deadly spider into her children’s bug jar and has kept it there since. “I couldn’t come to terms with killing it,” she said on Wednesday.
Another couple reported they were washing some red grapes in their kitchen sink when they were startled by the arachnid. They bought the fruit at a store in Milford.
“‘It was not very nice looking, creepy in fact,” Terry Muccini told the Boston Herald. “It scared the you-know-what out of me. I said to (my husband), ‘It’s a good a thing I didn’t open (the grapes) because you would have had to pick me up off the floor.’”
And a Maynard woman reported finding a spider in some grapes last week.
All the grapes were bought at Shaw’s supermarkets. The chain said it will increase inspections and start selling grapes loose, instead of in plastic bags.
Muccini told the Herald she holds no grudge against Shaw’s but remains wary of its produce section. “I’m afraid I’m going to find a tarantula in my bananas now,” she said. “Probably not, but you never know.”
Officials says the occasional spider may be due to farmers using less pesticides on their fruit.
Black spiders are among the most venomous in North America, though their bite is generally not fatal to humans.