Woman Bitten By Black Widow Spider Hiding in Grapes
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Black Widow spiders are dangerous. Fortunately their celebrity makes them readily identifiable, with their blood red hourglass marking making them easy to avoid. Unfortunately, however, they are very good at hiding from humans.
It was a simple thing to do, and doubtless something we have all done at one time or another: reaching into a bag of grapes, ended up landing a Vermont woman in the hospital. That’s because a black widow spider was lurking inside the bag, says the 21-year-old’s mother. She went on to say the spider made its way up her daughter’s arm and bit her.
A nurse tells WPTZ it was indeed a black spider, and the hospital apparently had more than bite marks as evidence: The women captured the spider and brought it with them to the ER. The grapes were purchased from a Shaw’s in Colchester. It’s a bit of deja vu for the grocer, however, as WPTZ reports a shopper at a Williston, Vermont store, also inadvertently picked up a black widow in 2004.
How Shaw’s is responding: with a thorough inspection of the grapes in all its stores. It has also replaced all the food in the family’s fridge. As for the woman, WCAX reports she was given a series of shots and is “OK,” though she’ll be monitored for months.
WPTZ spoke with a biologist at the University of Vermont who had something less-than-reassuring to say about the spiders: “There are areas that have black widows very commonly inside houses but they very rarely bite.”National Geographic seems to back that up, describing the spiders as “nonagressive” and resorting to biting only as a means of defense, “such as when someone accidentally sits on them.” (Scientists recently figured out how black widows became so deadly.)
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