Black widow spiders found in grapes in Leamington Spa

[dutchman]

A shopper has found a nest of black widow spiders inside a bunch of grapes from a Warwickshire supermarket.



The man, who purchased the fruit in Asda, Leamington Spa, on Tuesday, alerted police to the venomous find at around 19:00 BST.

The police contacted a wildlife sanctuary to rescue the spiders, as they had found a number of baby spiders "crawling around" the grapes.

Asda said it had launched an investigation.

Geoff Grewcock, from the Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife sanctuary, said: "The chap had picked up some grapes in Asda and he was about to eat one when he noticed something crawling in them.

"He shoved the whole punnet in a wheelie bin and called the police, who contacted us.

"When we got there, the man was very frightened.

"We found a complete nest inside. One of the spiders had given birth and there were lots of baby spiders running around.

"The police have notified Asda."

Mr Grewcock said the grapes had come from Mexico. He said the spiders were "very" venomous.

They are currently being stored at the sanctuary in a sealed box and will be passed to a specialist, Mr Grewcock said.

Asda said: "We take these matters very seriously and have launched an investigation to determine how this particular spider got through our checks.

"We are in contact with the customer and would like to reassure all our customers that these types of incidents are extremely rare and that we have robust processes in place for identifying pests, including spiders.

"All our grapes are fumigated and cold-stored but very occasionally a spider hangs around. We sincerely apologise for any distress caused."