That wriggled and tickled and wiggled inside her......

The name of the retail outlet has not been included because, even though the post is not deflamatory in any way, I feel it only fair that they be given a chance to correct the mistake.

You may be interested to know some more information about the Sac Spider. See my mother's comment below:

"I have subsequently investigated the species of the offending spider and discovered that it is a Cheiracanthium fulcatum, commonly known as the sac spider. These spiders have cytotoxic venom, which affects the cellular tissue usually restricted to the area of the bite but can spread. The bite is at first painless with symptoms developing about 2-8 hours after the bite. It starts by resembling a mosquito sting, becoming more painful and swollen. Eventually it ulcerates into a large surface lesion (up to 10 centimetres) that will require medical attention. Treatment with antibiotics might be required to treat secondary infections. The wound may take between two and 4 weeks to heal but the lesion might take months to improve. In some cases ugly scarring might occur that might require plastic surgery. This is one of the nastiest spiders in South Africa and more people are hospitalised because of bites from this species than any other spider in SA."

We've recently had a few scares in South Africa with regards to this particular spider and it would be interesting to find out what responses there are (could be) to the possibility of finding a clutter of spiders in a bunch of grapes. How often does this happen?

The writer of the following page also seems to have found them in a bunch of grapes.
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/arachnids/spiders/miturgidae/cheiracanthium.htm

A Clutter of Sac Spiders & a Big Bunch of Grapes

Grapes bought at an upmarket store contained a suprising discovery inside - A nest of Sac Spiders

My mother had an experience yesterday that would have caused most people to have an accident in their car if the same thing had happened to them. Thank goodness my mum's not arachnophobic!

"I bought them yesterday morning (23rd February 2009) at about 12h30 at ----------, Dainfern (Gauteng, South Africa).

As you can see by the pics, I had already (blindly) eaten some of them from my passenger seat, whilst I was driving. Then I saw a white fluffy bit on the grape that was about to be popped into my mouth!!!"

Have a look at the photographs - you can clearly see the sac that was nestled within the grapes. This sac was filled with hundreds of baby spiders. The mother spider can be seen in one of the other photos.

The retail company is listed on www.hellopeter.com as a company who doesn't care or respond, which I find quite surpising, especially considering that their staff seem to know about the www.hellopeter.com website.

It's going to be interesting to see how they respond to this incident....

You can find out more about the sac spider on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheiracanthium_inclusum

or see photo's of the effects of the bites:
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/arachnids/spiders/bites.htm

also:
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/arachnids/spiders/miturgidae/cheiracanthium.htm

There seems to be a bit of a debate going on in South Africa on how poisonous this spider actually is....

Another reference to the sac spider can be found at:

http://www.scienceray.com/Biology/Zoology/Deadly-Spiders-of-the-World.152047#

Sac Spider

There are many kinds of Sac Spiders through out Europe. More than 200 species of yellow sac spiders throughout parts of the world. There's ongoing research into the effects of this spider's bite; in South Africa it is felt they are responsible for 90% of deaths concerning spider bites.