World's Deadliest Spider Found In Whole Foods In Tulsa

TULSA, Okla. — One of the most deadly spiders in the world has been found in the produce section of a Tulsa grocery store. An employee of Whole Foods Market found the Brazilian Wandering Spider Sunday in bananas from Honduras and managed to catch it in a container.

The spider was given to University of Tulsa Animal Facilities director Terry Childs who said this type of spider kills more people than any other.

Childs said a bite will kill a person in about 25 minutes and while there is an antidote he doesn't know of any in the Tulsa area.

Spiders often are found in imported produce, and a manager at Whole Foods says the store regularly checks its goods and that's how the spider was found.

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Information from: KOTV-TV, http://www.newson6.com

Comments

[MAragon]

Man, I was just in a Whole Foods the other day getting fresh veggies!!!! I can't let my Mom see this article, if she does, she'll never set foot in one again...and it's bad enough that I'm freaking out paranoid now about that spider. Yikes and double yikes and then look under the bed paranoia time. 'Don't like spiders - and this is someone who grew up in New Mexico and Arizona!

[PlayTOE]

.. just in ... this spider was misidentified. It is not really dangerous at all.

However, it was executed on suspicion of having a weapon of mass disruption ... which turned out to be a weapon of mass deception.

[CarolinaDem]

Since they reject evolution they probably killed it on suspicion of being the devil's stemcell derivative

[Jodi Cecil]

Did you know that the "Grand Daddy Long Leg" is the most dangerous spider on the planet? It has no teeth to bite you. Could you imagine if it did? Still, I wouldn't want one crawling in my mouth as I slept in the fear that I may bite down on my teeth and be poisoned by swallowing...YIKES!

[CarolinaDem]

Holy Shucking FIT!!

[Luca]

Gee, I just read this in the Washington Post, and the headline was "Brazilian spiders found in market." My question, how many is a brazilian? Seems like a lot of spiders. : )

[RubyJackson]

ha ha! That was pretty funny.

[jasjohn128]

Ha ha, good one Luca.

[KCFreedom]

Didn't Dubya say that one time in a verbal gaffe somewhere?

It wasn't even a joke.

[Eyeswideopen1]

This would have never happened if McCain won. Obama is not keeping us safe!

[SecondBase]

The guy's from Hawaii. He's got no experience with spiders! Zip! Zilch! Squat! None, I tell ya.

[MAragon]

Have you seen their sugar cane spiders?! Shudddddderrrr.

[gascelebrations]

Found this on Wiki:

"Aside from causing intense pain, the venom of the spider can also cause priapism - uncomfortable erections that can last for many hours and lead to impotence. The venom may eventually be used in erectile dysfunction treatments."

Ouch. I'd rather die in 20 minutes than have an erection that lasts several hours.

[KCFreedom]

Better contact your doctor if over 4 hours.

[tubette]

geez, that's where i shop....

[TheBlackCat]

This is common. I worked in a grocery store in high school, we'd find frogs and bugs in the produce sometimes. There was another grocery store in my home town (Shaw's) where they found a black widow spider in the grapes. Any little critter can hitch a ride if it holds on tight.

[spartanmom]

I worked in produce for 10 years and never saw anything more interesting than fruit flies. Maybe Hunt's Point was just too tough a neighborhood for the foreign critters

[davidmnc76]

We have lots of black widows and brown recluses here in North Carolina. And if you are bitten by one you will have a scar the rest of your life!

[gascelebrations]

Ouch. I have a buddy who was bitten by a Brown Recluse and it ate a hole in his arm!

[krypton86]

Yep. Those things are nasty critters. I'd prefer a Widow bite any day.

[KCFreedom]

I know someone who got bit on the nose by a brown recluse while asleep, and it destroyed his nose cartilage, and he had to get a nose prosthesis (probably one like Michael Jackson).

[Jim Pivonka - Huffpost Blogger]

We have too much scarring and loss of tissue from "recluse" bites. (Recluse is in quotes, because there is little positive identification of the brown recluse as the culprit, the origin of these "bites" may be unknown.)

But a likely effective treatment for their effects on tissue is neglected - partly because the medics want to know the cause, not just the symptoms, before applying the treatment. I think this is wrong - having lived through this.

Tissue loss in this case is due to a "cascade" of what is known as metal dependant roteollysis that breaks down the extracellular matrix (scaffolding) that hold tissue together - spiders use these proteolysing substances to dissolve the insides of their victims.

But other things can induce the same cascade, which can be self perpetuating - and powerful anti-inflammatory agents seem to help to stop it. So the medics should be implored to administer tetracycline or doxycycline, both of which can help fight both inflammation and infection. Further implore the administration of cortistatin peptides, also powerful anti-inflammatories.

You and your medic may have to be desperate to resort to these treatments - but they are in use in both Brazil and South Asia, where treatment of venom induced proteolysis is more often needed, and may be justified as a treatment in extremis here.

[BlueBoomer]

Yikes! I thought I might want to relocate to Northern NC in a few years, but REGULAR spiders make me unhappy...

As to the Tulsa spider: Double Yikes!... Just another reason to wonder why anyone would want to live there.

[SecondBase]

I wouldn't be too concerned. In NC the copperhead snakes will probably get you before the spiders will.

[leftflank]

Years ago I worked at an printer manufacturing facility (back when we actually made things here in the US) and we received a load of parts from Singapore. I was a line support engineer and I got this frantic call from the line about a tarantula in the parts department. God knows why they called an engineer. I captured the thing and the health and safety people took it to figure out what it was. The point here is that critters ride in on a lot more than just food.

[IamPhenom]

Seems like we (engineers) always get called to solve the problem. :)

[spartanmom]

Yep, that's why I married one.

[wadenelson1]

Dang! I specified that crate get shipped to a certain neighborhood in Dallas...

[mam]

LOL! Excellent!

[Michael Marinsky]

Anita Bryant is from Oklahoma - and that says everything.

[AshleyMarie]

Many of us here are not Anita Bryant and share many of the same views and political opinions as you would yourself.

This spider is TERRIFYING and should not be wished upon a state based on the coo-coos we have running around here...

[MAragon]

No kidding. Imagine if they got loose and found others of their kind that had also sneaked in and STARTED BREEDING!

[justlw]

Apparently wasn't really a Brazilian wandering spider:

http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=10041419&nav=menu682_1

I'd suggest updating this story; journalistic standards and all that.

[Principaldad]

Here is the full article from the AP.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_re_us/deadly_spider

Apparently they will not be able to determine for sure what kind of spider it was because the university destroyed it at the request of a university administrator, which was a really dumb thing to do.

Also in the article is information from an expert stating that the Brazilian wandering spider is not as deadly as originally reported. "Death from the spider's bite is rare, and only victims with compromised immune systems, such as babies or older people, would be at risk".

[CarolinaDem]

Wasn't even a hostile combatant. Probably would like Guantanamo, tho

[MAragon]

Meanwhile, it's too late for all of us arachnophobes. We're freaking big time just at the prospect.

[pamulaD]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jLmKtFU_MaxXfHnkoC5zwE2lEQagD971O03O0

[Jimisaint]

It tastes just like chicken.

[PhilipB]

LOL

[MTNG]

Glue boards near inside house entrances work great to help catch those pesky little biters. Glue boards in basements, too, catch lots of spiders.