Possibly deadly spider found in Tulsa grocery store (Whole Foods)

What could be one of the most lethal spiders in the world made its way to a Tulsa grocery store Sunday, but it was destroyed Wednesday by a University of Tulsa biologist.

The spider was found in a shipment of bananas at Whole Foods, where employees trapped it in a plastic salad container before handing it over to Terry Childs, director of animal facilities at TU.

Childs said Wednesday evening that he decided to destroy the spider at the urging of a TU administrator. “It was just a safety decision that I made,” he said.

He said transporting the spider to another university for study would be difficult and that not much can be determined from one spider.

Native to South America, the Brazilian wandering spider is rarely found as far north as Oklahoma. Its venom can kill a person within half an hour, and the antivenin is unlikely to be available near Tulsa, Childs said.
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More: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090318_11_0_TULSAO471908

I have terrible arachnophobia. It's awful and sometimes can trigger debilitating panic attacks. I'm happy you didn't put a picture up and I will not click on the link.
Lets just say, when tarantulas migrate into Oklahoma, it scares the bejeezus out of me.

So you're all right for now.

:hi:

Or is this a new spider incident? If it is a new one, then I would say this is a problem in the making. Because the Whole food Stores do not use pesicides, you will hear more and more of this type of thing. Perhaps we need to re-think bringing in pesticide free produce into this country. This was the one that they caught, think of how many are coming in and are not getting caught. Kind of frightening . . .

:hi: