Family says they found a living black widow spider in bag of grapes bought at Walmart
Black widow spiders are no joke. According to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), a bite from one of these little guys can cause things like, “…nausea, profuse perspiration, tremors, labored breathing, restlessness, increased blood pressure and fever.” It’s for reasons like that,that it's not...great... that a family in Chatham, Michigan found one in a bag of grapes they bought at a Walmart in Marquette, as WLUC and UpperMichigansSource.com report.
11-year-old Gloria Johnson, speaking on behalf of the family, told WLUC that her mother had bought the grapes, along with other groceries, on her way home from work. Gloria’s three-year-old sister wanted some of those grapes and so, “…Mom put some in a bowl, and like, probably 45 minutes later, Mom went to go get something from the sink, and there she saw a spider in the grapes.”
Mom Johnson’s reaction was hardly that of terror, though. According to Gloria, “…she thought it would be cool to show us, so she put it in a cup with a plate over it so we could look at it and then we just kind of forgot about it.” Later, Gloria and her cousin took to the internet, that good ol’ trusty internet, and saw that it was a black widow spider. After learning what they were dealing with, they put it in a jar of alcohol to kill it and preserve it, so that Gloria could bring it to school to show her friends. We admire Gloria for her fascination with the spider when we here at Odd News know it would cause us to hyperventilate.
WLUC’s reporter asked if the family was any bit nervous over what had been discovered in their groceries. Gloria told them that after learning the spider was female, “we were scared that my sister had ate the eggs if had laid any eggs…but we found out that she hadn’t ate any eggs.”
Walmart released a statement, saying:
“We would like to apologize to the customer. Walmart is supplied by a distribution center and has confirmed there are not any other issues we are aware of…Our Marquette branch has looked through the other merchandise in the store and did not find any other spiders."
This isn’t the first time that a Michigan family has bought grapes, only to find a black widow spider. Heck, it isn’t the first time this month. In early November, WXYZ introduced us to the Merry family, who had found the venomous creature in grapes they bought at a Kroeger. Kroeger apologized and wound up giving them a $25 gift certificate.
As for the Johnsons, they plan on skipping grapes for the next little while.
More info: WLUC
