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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, November 29, 2003

Spider in grapes confirmed as black widow

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

The spider that was found in a bunch of grapes on Thanksgiving Day in Hawai'i Kai was a black widow, state vector control officials confirmed yesterday.

Black widows are common in the Islands, but they are not native creatures.

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State entomologist George Kitaguchi said black widows are common in Hawai'i, and although they are venomous, they don't pose a danger to most healthy adults. He said the mortality rate from a bite is less than 5 percent.

"But if you're one of those people who are sensitive to it, it can become a problem because people have died from honey bee stings," Kitaguchi said.

He said black widows aren't native to Hawai'i and no one knows for sure how they were introduced to the state. If bitten, a person should disinfect the area with alcohol or hydrogen peroxide and see a doctor, he said.

Hawai'i Kai resident Janice Okubo, who found the black widow on Thursday, said she bought the grapes that morning at the Hawai'i Kai Safeway. Okuba said that as she prepared to wash the grapes, she noticed a "black bug."

The "bug" turned out to be a spider, less than a half-inch from leg to leg. After watching a CNN report about people finding black widow spiders in grapes, she and her husband placed the spider in a jar.

Okubo, information specialist at the Department of Health, gave the jar to the vector control division.

Kitaguchi advised people to wash all produce thoroughly. He also said that people shouldn't pick and eat fruits at the supermarket.

"The question is, have those things been washed? Maybe it's been rinsed down slightly, but I don't think it's been washed thoroughly" Kitaguchi said. "But you shouldn't do that because you don't know what's been sprayed on those fruits. It's dangerous."

Reach Curtis Lum at 525-8025 or culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.