BlinkVib

The family of a Vermont woman says she suffered a bite from a black widow spider, which they believe was hiding in a bag of grapes.

The woman’s mother told NBC affiliate WPTZ that the spider bit the 21-year-old after she stuck her hand into the bag. The woman’s family reportedly brought both the bite victim and the spider to a hospital, and a nurse there later told the station that the spider was, in fact, a black widow.

The grapes were purchased at a Shaw’s in Colchester, Vt., according to WPTZ.

“The health and safety of products we sell, and our customers, is our first concern,” Shaw’s said in a statement, which was sent to The Washington Post on Wednesday. “We have been closely monitoring the situation and been in contact with the family. We replaced product in the customer’s refrigerator as a precaution and took immediate action to inspect the product at the customer’s store.

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“We also are inspecting the product in all of our Shaw’s stores and have been in touch with the supplier, which has an extensive food safety management system in place.”

A spokesman for UVM Medical Center told The Post that a woman came to the hospital Friday night with what was confirmed to be a black-widow bite. She was discharged Saturday, the spokesman said.

Black widow spider bites can cause pain and muscle cramps, though — as the Associated Press notes — they normally aren’t deadly. This 2013 New York Times story can explain more, but it … doesn’t sound like a fun experience, let’s just say that.

And, apparently, the spiders do lurk in bags of grapes from time to time. “Venomous Spiders Are Hiding in Our Grapes,” reads the headline of this Modern Farmer piece, which includes a helpful sidebar that details cases.

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For example, in 2013, Aldi Supermarkets in Wisconsin took grapes from the shelves after a black widow incident; around the same time, a family in Michigan made a similar discovery.

At the time, ABC News reported:

Callum Merry, 20, noticed a web and spider inside the bag purchased recently at a Kroger in Brighton, Mich. “I looked in the grapes and there was a black widow staring right at me,” Merry told ABC News affiliate WXYZ-TV in Detroit.

He wanted to capture the spider and release it into the wild but his brother, Alex Merry, recognized the potential danger.

“I had to physically push him away, take the grapes and put them into a bowl of water to kill it,” said Alex, who was also with his mother and sister, 14.

I’m usually a member of Camp Catch-and-Release when it comes to spiders, but I gotta say, I’m Team Alex on this one.

Read more on things that I personally find to be somewhat unsettling:

Say hello to the dementor wasp. It turns cockroaches into zombies.

This massive stingray might be the largest freshwater fish ever caught

Chickens from hell and crop circles in the sea: Scientists announce top 10 new species of the year

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