Black widow found in bag of grapes

SEATTLE, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- A Seattle family said a black widow spider they found in a bag of red grapes has found a new home at the city's Woodland Park Zoo.

Iris Hagemann, 34, said she was washing grapes for her 7-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter when she spotted the spider, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Monday.

Hagemann said her son, Timothy, was the first to recognize the spider as a black widow but it was not until her husband, Stuart Rabin, 44, examined the arachnid that they believed the young boy.

Sue Andersen, a keeper at Woodland Park Zoo's Bug World exhibit, said the spider is the fifth black widow to be donated by local families in recent months. She said that while it is not uncommon for the spiders to be found in bags of grapes from Southern California, the venomous spiders rarely bite humans.

"They typically lay low," Andersen said. "They don't try to bite you."