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.
