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Woman finds black widow spider in grapes
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[July 20, 2007]
ANDOVER, Minn. (AP) -- Judy Reardon found something unexpected in the four-pound box of grapes she brought home from Costco in Coon Rapids last week. Something dangerous. As she washed off the grapes and put them in plastic bags last week, she saw something move
-- a spider. With the help of her husband, she captured it alive in a jar.
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 "I wanted to destroy her but my husband has been keeping her -- 'cause I don't know why," Reardon said.
The Reardons thought the spider was a black widow but they weren't sure. They let WCCO-TV take it to the University of Minnesota's insect museum.
"There's red markings on the underside of the abdomen," professor Phil Clausen said as he confirmed it was indeed a black widow.
Reardon said she contacted the supplier of the grapes in California, and was told this happens about once a year with its grapes. But Clausen said there's a chance the spider got into the carton in Minnesota because the climate is getting warmer and black widows are turning up here more often.
"This is a very, very abnormal situation," Craig Wilson, assistant vice president for food safety for Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco Wholesale Corp., told the station. "You could use more dangerous pesticides but that causes bigger problems."
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 Reardon returned the grapes. She said she has no interest in suing Costco
-- she just wants everyone to be careful when they bring grapes home, wash them well and check them over.
The spider's new home will be at the university's insect museum.
The black widow got its name because the females eat the males right after they mate. A black widow bite can cause people severe pain, cramping and illness, but deaths are relatively rare.
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Information from: Esme Murphy/WCCO-TV, http://www.wcco.com/
[Associated Press] |
