'I looked at my apple and there was a black widow'
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VANCOUVER, Wash. – Lee Bertheau’s late-night snack was much more dangerous than he thought.
“I went to the refrigerator, saw that we had a bag of grapes and those looked pretty good,” said Bertheau.
He washed the grapes, put them on a plate with an apple and took his snack upstairs.
“When I got upstairs, I looked at my apple and there was a black widow, well it was a black spider,” he said. “At the time I didn’t realize it was a black widow.”
When he got the spider into a jar and took a closer look, Bertheau noticed the spider’s red hourglass marking, which is an easily distinguishable feature of black widows.
"I also, later, looked inside the grapes and sure enough I could see a little bit of webbing inside the grapes.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture calls the black widow the most harmful spider species in the state, but says they are rare in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Bertheau called the store that he bought the grapes from. He got a refund and the store promised to contact the grower and tell them about the black widow discovery.
He said his experience is a good reminder for everyone to check fruits and vegetables before serving them.
“Keep your eye out for something like this, especially if it’s black stay away from it ‘cause it could be a black widow.”
I found a spider as well on my green grapes one time in between the branches. Luckily it was not a black widow but do stay aware, wash clean and take 'em off the stems asap.Â
You haven't lived until you wake up in the middle of the night to have one crawling up your arm... only to fling it across the room and wonder where it went or if it is still alive. In the dark.
Big deal. He found a spider that is common.
To clarify the hobo spider is rampant in the Seattle area, in fact they were introduced to Seattle in the 1920's on a cargo ship from Europe. The big, huge GIANT brown spiders that you find inside that crawl up your walls are Giant House Spiders which are in fact, the natural predator of the hobo. The hobo spiders are smaller, the size of a quarter normally and cannot crawl more than 2-3 feet up your wall before they fall. The reason they are coming into our houses this time of year is because it is mating season. They are not aggressive, but they have bad eye sight and will run towards shadow to hide (normally a human). I buy Demon-X and spray the perimeter of my house with it in early August and I have not had one hobo in my house. I was bit by a hobo 3 years ago and I came down with a high fever and was sick for a few days and had an open lesion for a month on my shoulder. They are nasty spiders.
 @Chipwrecked Ahhhh.... reading all this makes me feel like I've got spiders crawling up my legs!!! But this article reminds me of the time we found a live scorpion in a box of bananas at the store where I work... that was pretty freaky
 @Chipwrecked I have never seen Demon-X spray before.  Is it available locally?
Good advice and a good reminder! Thanks Chip.
I grew up in the desert of Arizona - in our old house, out in an attached shed that led up to the attic of the house, we had a long time black widow in one corner as you opened the outside door - the wicked looking web and the dead 'spouses' before she ate them and the massive amounts of dead bugs. Quite amazing - she lived there for years, we tried to get her out of her nook with brooms, raid, windex, she always found a way back up and laid low then back at it. One day I finally stomped her butt out of existence with the cowboy boots I had on - pure luck - she must have been getting on in years (so to speak) and couldn't move as fast. Or else the heavy dose of raid my Dad had sprayed in there a few days earlier had slowed her down.Â
"I looked at my apple and there was a black widow..." Â ahhh, nostalgia... Â it reminds me of one of the one night stands i've had...
This reminds me of when I caught my BBQ on fire. When I called 911 dispatch actually said "Isn't that what your supposed to do?" Wasn't funny at the time, it was fully engulfed on my deck, no stairs to the deck. The fire dept. showed up, all except one fireman went through the front door, the other guy ran around the side of the house then he stopped dead in his tracks and yelled for help. I ran up behind him and he was not even an inch from a giant orb web with the spider in the middle right at his face! I grabbed him by the shoulders and had to lead him to the door..they were upstairs yelling "Where's Jeff?" or whatever his name was, bless his heart. I told them I saved him from a spider they were all laughing, he was sweating and breathing hard, poor thing. A real phobia..they didn't let him live that one down for a while. He said "Oh my god, how many of them are out there?" Luckily the fire was already out!
Much more risk from a brown recluse. Those things cause very nasty necrosis at the bite site and it can grow quite large.
When I worked in grocery I saw some nasty looking spiders from God know where -especially in Banana boxes. They typically come from Central America. Â
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Black widows however I believe live in this state, not just the south. I could be wrong but I believe that is correct.Â
@HallandOates They are all over the southwest; used to see them all the time when I lived in Arizona. The egg sacks they create in their webs are pretty erie
 @northwestsurfer  @HallandOates When I went to visit my friend in AZ is where I became educated about the black widow. There were so many in her yard. The webs actually make a crinkly noise when you touch them.
@Yeah_and @HallandOates yeah I remember this. Other spiders make a pretty cool looking web, but the black widow's web isnt anything nice to look at
 @HallandOates You are correct. I know someone who had a real problem with black widows. There were literally hundreds of them infesting the areas surrounding his small house. They also worked their way in when he opened windows, etc. It became such a problem that a group of his friends suited up in trash bags and duct tape over their clothes, armed themselves with raid, and cleaned up the property with him one day. They burned all the firewood and stuff like that because it appeared to be a spider nursery. FYI- far north of Seattle, but still on the West side of the cascades.
 @HallandOates We do have widows, the Western Black Widow and I read there was a "colony" of black widows in Snohomish County I think? It was on here, KOMO, not too long ago.
 @HallandOates OH GOD! Banana Spiders? Could have been the Brazilian wandering spider..VERY BAD NEWS..those one's will actually kill an adult in hours. Scary. I used to LOVE catching bugs, spiders, anything and I'm over 35, until recently...I actually hope I lose the fear and get back to trying to figure the species out. There's this cool website called Spiderzrule.com, check it out you''ll find your spider in a few minutes!Â
 @Yeah_and  @HallandOates Not only are the wandering spiders really poisonous they have a really bad temper. They actually go after people. Bad news all around.
Black widows are found in Eastern Washington. A friend of mine who lives in that area just found one in her bathtub.
 @responsible adult? We also have cockroaches although I think they're typically found more in urban areas.Â
 @HallandOates  @responsible adult? They are smaller than in other states too. I've only seen one cockroach in this state and it was floating in the soup I ordered in a restaurant. I had no idea what it was until the person I was with told me..never went there again.
Spiders are our friends - they're not looking for people to bite so ignore them and they'll ignore you and just eat up lots of pesty bugs in your garden. Â
 @fyrefawx I just killed a hobo in my bathroom this morning. They are NOT your friends. Their bites are as bad as brown recluse bites and they are aggressive and will come right at you. My policy is that anything with more than four legs that comes into my house is toast.
 @NorthEnd Are you sure it was a Hobo? They are notoriously difficult to identify as they bear a strong resemblance to several spiders, including big house spiders that as a matter of fact, EAT Hobos. Hobos do like to build their funnel webs sometimes at the base of houses on the outside wall in order to catch unsuspecting bugs. They also have very bad eyesight which is why some people think they are aggressive.  They just can't see what they're attacking. Hobos' sticky funnel shaped webs are very distinguishable from regular spider webs so that's why I wonder if that was really a Hobo. They shun people, as does the Brown Recluse.  I do know that people can have very bad reactions to the Hobo bite as my son got bit by one and it took over a year for the spot to heal.
 @fyrefawx most often that is the case - it was a freak situation that I describe in my previous post. I have a catch and release policy inside my own home and have not seen any species of spider near my house that is to be worried about.
 @two loons I like to hear that - we are losing so many garden helpers we really need. It's up to us to protect them all.
 @fyrefawx EXCEPT for the black widow, or should I say Western Black Widow at my neighbors a few days ago. We moved on of her tables and a screw cam loose from the leg, so we flipped the table over and I was trying to screw the screw in (lol)..and I see this THING running toward my hand, it's front legs touched my finger. I screamed like the girl I am, told her to come help me, sure enough it was a widow! The second I have found in her home. They look a bit different, the hourglass wasn't as defined, she had a nest. HAD is the key word here.
The rest I leave alone, well except for those aggressive house spiders..those die too.
@Yeah_and @fyrefawx I hate the big brown house spiders! If I find one, it's dead meat. However, if I find a misplaced garden spider in the house, I'll catch it and bring it outside. Like fyrefawx said, spiders are our friends, I'll amend that to most spiders are our friends.
 @Yeah_and  @Horse Lady Oh I know what you mean. I had to read "Green Eggs and Ham" so many times I think I finally memorized it - took a strong dislike to Dr. Seuss for awhile!
 @Horse Lady  @Yeah_and  @fyrefawx Me too! I just got a giant house spider. I got a JAR and the diameter of the dang spider was larger than the diameter of the jar! Different than the aggressive house spider, but HUGE and dead meat also..after I look at it for a bit..my kid thinks I'm nuts, I used to read her bug books at night when she was little, then she told me "Mom, I don't want to hear about bugs anymore" I said "But you LIKE bugs baby!" she said "No mom, YOU like bugs..I like unicorns." It was so funny, yet sad because I didn't want to read about unicorns..but it wasn't about me now was it..
 @fyrefawx*one not on..wish there was an edit button.
 @fyrefawx HA HA..tangled..you made me laugh..thanks. Yeah, there used to be one, but I was typing fast because I just "relived" the trauma..lol :)
 @Yeah_and Didn't there used to be an edit button before they changed the system?  Oh well, I think most people can figure out what was meant. All of us get our fingers tangled up from time to time.
I'm wondering why he didn't rinse them off before he went to eat them. Â
 @Sovereign The article said he washed the grapes. But that won't necessarily wash off an insect or arachnid that is holding on for dear life.
 @jcman It will if you actually examine them properly so you can actually see the spider and its web.  I don't know about you, but I tend to actually examine my produce before I buy it and again before I rinse it.
I saw one in Lake Stevens last year, but haven't seen any since. Hopefully they died off in the winter. Looked it up and the UW website said they are not uncommon in western Washington and there is even a number of them in the San Juan islands.
 @therunner Just found one..like I posted above, I'm above Redondo. Second one at her house in 2 yrs. The first one was outside by the chimney. My parents had one in the basement 3yrs ago, we thought it came with my grandma's stuff when we moved her in from Idaho. IDK now, that one the other day was a very healthy female, and she was guarding her egg sack. I almost passed out.
Despite their reputation, unless your allergic they're not that dangerous. Â The bite is unpleasant, but unlikely to need medical attention.
When I worked at Safeway in Canada, these types of spiders would come in to the stores in the banana boxes. It's not as uncommon as people think.Â
Lol .. I had really long dark hair and thought I had a piece of red lint in it. Shook my hair out and bam! A black spider went scuttling across the table ... yuppers ... was in Cali at the time ... got my hair cut after that, haha!Â
Funny...the one thing I notice in that picture above...how nice the manicure is...hmmmmmmmmmmmm
 @takncarabizniz ooohhhh, GOOD EYE!
In the past 8 months we have found 5 black widows in and around our home on Fort Lewis... Whats the big deal? Why does this make head lines?
 @Davis327 We don't really have them here, but we do have the Western Black Widow. It isn't as large and the markings are a bit different than your average shiny black with a large red hourglass. The bite isn't fun and is usually dangerous to children and the elderly, but you really should be careful if you have found that many.Â
The Hobo spiders we have around here are a much greater concern if one is bitten! Here is a link if anyone is interested? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_spider
 @middleman I would post a pic of my sister's leg, but I don't know how. She was bit in the grass, we got the spider, it was a funnel web spider. I think the hobo and funnel web and the aggressive house spiders are part of the same brown spider family. The bite was vicious, it didn't turn black though, she healed well but slow and there is a scar. It just so happens we don't have the anti venom not only in Washington but also North America! We were like WTH? The spider's are HERE, why no treatment? Turned out fine, but my days of catching them and looking at them flew right out the window after her bite.Â
 @Yeah_and  @middlemanÂ
There have been no scientific evidence that the hobo bite is even dangerous. I know that it is, because I was bit on my shoulder when I put my robe on, and we caught the spider. I immediately came down with a fever and flu like symptoms and the lesion took over a month to heal and I am still scarred.The reason is that most doctors cannot identify a hobo and most people who are bit never see the spider. There is not much research on the hobo. There needs to be though. They have a really good study on them at WSU.Â
My wife had the same thing happen on her leg. It took well over a year to heal and she has a scar larger then a half a dollar! First person I saw with a bite was on his fore head and he was the skipper of a crab boat I was working on. He had several spots that it had spread. The doctor he happened to use made a proper evaluation and they searched his house and actually found a nest behind the head board of his bed
 @middleman OMG, that is a nightmare! My skin is crawling just thinking about both! Excellent work on the Dr's part. Your wife is lucky, scary thing to have happen.
 @Yeah_and It's only recently -- in the last few years -- that the hobo was even acknowledged as a species. The big experts refused to believe that there was a species of spider they hadn't already identified.