A Bucks County woman found a not-so-pleasant surprise in a batch of grapes she bought from a local BJ's store.
Amy Reed bought organic grapes from BJ’s Wholesale Club in Langhorne Monday evening, but did not open the grapes until Tuesday. When she did open them, she found a black widow spider crawling around the fruit.
"I was just like, 'what is that?'" Reed said. "We got pliers and we picked it up and it kind of fell over. Then we could see the red hour glass on its stomach and I was like, 'You've got to be kidding me.'"
Reed and her husband Hooman Noorchashm contacted the store Wednesday morning and said they were “very cooperative." They also said an official with BJ’s called the family, and even referred them to the grower in California that the grapes came from, who apologized and said that black widows are a problem out there.
"I guess the issue is especially with the organic, there's less pesticide and there are more bugs," Reed said. "More bugs means more spiders come and eat the bugs."
Noorchashm, who is a physician along with his wife, told NBC10 they are solely concerned with keeping the public safe.
"Everything we're doing is for public health," he said. "We have no secondary motive."
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A spokesperson from BJ's sent NBC10 the following statement:
The safety and well being of our Members is the top priority at BJ's Wholesale Club. All of our clubs follow very strict food safety procedures. We have zero tolerance for products that do not adhere to our strict guidelines for fresh, high quality foods. We are aware of the black widow spider a Member found in a pack of organic grapes at our Langhorne, PA location. We have inspected all other grapes and discovered no spiders or other insects. We are taking this matter extremely seriously and working with our vendor to take appropriate measures.
Black Widows are usually dark with a reddish hourglass shape on their abdomen. The spiders are venomous and their bites can be harmful to humans though rarely fatal. Bites from the spiders can cause severe muscle pain, abdominal cramps and muscle spasms.
"I wouldn't even think if I had chest pain or if one of the children had collapsed, I would have never thought toxic spider bite," said Reed who is an anesthesiologist in the intensive care unit at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. "I just wouldn't have."
