I was hoping to have something new to share, but all that is coming to mind is a very creepy find in a bunch of red grapes purchased from our local supermarket a few weeks ago. (For those in New England, it was not Hannaford. Their produce tends to be pretty reliable.) Although this is not a fun new thing, still it occurs to me that it might serve as a warning to other consumers.
The grapes were imported from Peru. I always wash any produce pretty carefully, and while doing so I came upon some sticky web-like material. Of course I immediately thought of spiders, but my next thought was of some type of cocoon. So I was investigating carefully as I sprayed veggie wash and ran water throughout the grapes.
What I found was quite surprising. It looked somewhat like the photo below, but was a much brighter yellow. It looks huge here in this photo, but was about the size of a dime. Whatever it was, I knew I didn't want to keep it around. After showing it to my hubby, who was as shocked as I was, I took a fork and gently detached it from the grapes, then plopped it into my container of frozen trash*. (More on that later.) This seemed to me the safest course of action. Tossing it into the trash can, or into the fire (my hubby's suggestion) seemed to increase the possibility that whatever was inside would hatch.
Maybe you know what it is. I didn't, but as I was describing the object to my daughter, she was looking it up on her phone and found that it's a brown widow spider's egg sac. She even read me an account of a woman in Britain who found one (complete with spider) in "a punnet of grapes."
Ever since, I've been wondering just how many spider eggs might have been in there. Research indicates anywhere from 100 to 250. Yikes!
So just a friendly reminder. Wash those grapes thoroughly.
* Oh, and about that frozen trash. This probably won't be a new thing for anyone, but I keep a covered plastic container in the freezer that's atop our fridge. Anything that might smell bad if tossed in the regular trash goes in that container until trash day. As someone who has been annoyed for years by trash can odors from meat or chicken scraps or spoiled vegetables, this trick has been a real life-saver.
Oh my! And I have been purchasing grapes lately, too. Guess we have to watch and wash all produce carefully. I once had a pet praying mantis that arrived on a bunch of bananas. ☺️
ReplyDeleteI use the very same trick. My son always asks why the trash doesn't smell like most trash. I use the frozen method and I save all old baggies and the like to double bag offending items. I also wash out egg shells and tin cans and messy stuff. I may have OCD. 🤣
YIKES!! That is quite a egg sack! To think it could have been venomous spiders hatching is really something to be aware of...wow!! Thank you for sharing that with us. I will certainly be more watchful when buying grapes, which I haven't done much of lately as they have been so expensive. (like everything else, it seems!). Were you still able to eat the grapes after that discovery? Not sure if I could. LOL. Wow. Oh, thanks for the reminder...I need to go empty our trash can in the kitchen. I "noticed" it when I walked by it a few minutes ago, and realized I needed to take care of it. Yes, we often freeze items like chicken scraps, etc. as well, because we only have trash pick up once a week. Have a blessed and beautiful week.
ReplyDeleteMajor Gross!
ReplyDeleteThat is awful for you to find. Good you took action so it won't hatch.
Oh wow! I wouldn't have thought of finding something like that in grapes. Good you got that taking care of Yikes! Great idea about the freezer to keep trash from getting stinky .
ReplyDeleteAck! Thank you for showing this - I've never considered such a thing would come into the house on grapes.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me so glad I noticed some spider egg sacs hanging on a chair in the sunroom recently and vacuumed them up and they went right out with the weekly trash to be picked up the next morning. Perhaps I should have been even more careful. I've learned from past experience to never break these - the numbers that come out of one little sack are startling.