Black Widow In Grapes: Massachusetts Woman Discovers Venomous Spider In Grapes

Yarmouth, MA – A Massachusetts woman got quite a scare last week when opened up a bag of grapes she bought from a local supermarket and found a black widow spider hiding inside.

According to CBS Boston, Laurie Kaiser found the deadly arachnid with the characteristic red hour glass mark on its abdomen in a bag of Sunview organic red seedless grapes from California.

Kaiser told reporters the black widow managed to survive five days in the refrigerator — during which time she and her husband had been eating the fruit — before it was discovered.

“I’d been opening the bag, snipping off a clump and closing the bag back up,” Kaiser said. “I washed each clump before we ate it. In fact, it was as I was getting ready to rinse off a clump when I saw the spider.”

After discovering the venomous spider, Laurie says she captured the insect in a plastic container and brought it back to the grocery store along with the grapes.

“I figured they’d want to know. It’s good to get the word out to remind people to inspect and wash their grapes before eating,” Kaiser told the Cape Cod Times. “I woke up thinking about some child reaching into a bag of unwashed grapes and getting bit by a spider.”

Fox News reports Shaw’s supermarket gave Kaiser a refund and said they would notify the distributor about the spider.

“We can confirm that a customer did return the grapes that may have contained a spider,” Steve Sylven of Shaws said in a statement. “Per our protocols, we refunded her money and will be notifying our supplier of the situation. At Shaw’s, the safety of our customers is of utmost importance to us. We use reputable suppliers and while rare, occasionally these situations occur, which is why we encourage our customers to always wash and inspect their produce.”

Surprisingly, Laurie Kaiser wasn’t the only person who found a deadly arachnid hiding in a bunch of grapes in recent days.

According to the Christian Post, James Sylvia of Rhode Island also found a black widow while his wife and 1-year-old son were washing grapes in the kitchen sink on Thursday, November 15.

More on Sylvia’s black widow incident in the video below: