Shoppers have discovered deadly red-back spiders hidden in bags of grapes purchased at two different supermarkets in Australia.
The purchase took place on Wednesday at Coles supermarket in Runaway Bay, Queensland, and at other stores of the retail chain in Tweed Heads, New South Wales, 9News reported.
Retired police officer Andrew Bell said his daughter spotted a spider “alive” when she was buying fruit. “The last thing you would expect is a red spider in the grapes,” Bell said.
Another unlucky customer, Tony Marshall, said the spider “wasn’t huge, but it might have been big enough to bite”.
“I was very concerned that mothers would put grapes in their children’s lunchboxes and that this could be very bad,” Marshall told 9News.
A Coles spokesperson described spiders hiding in crops as an “industry-wide problem” and said the retailer was doing everything it could to eliminate “any presence of pests”.
Bites from female redbacks, which are relatives of the black widow spider, can bring serious illness and death, albeit rarely, according to the Australian Museum. A sting can produce a wide range of unpleasant symptoms, from severe pain to nausea and headaches.