dsi1 wrote:

> It just seems to be such an unusual thing to do. Oddly enough, I've done
> that when my daughter thought she may have been bitten by a spider. I
> thought it might have been a black widow. Instead it was probably some
> type of brown recluse spider but the experts weren't sure.

This just in:

Spider scare in Tulsa spins web of confusion
BY SHANNON MUCHMORE - Tulsa World
Published: March 20, 2009

TULSA — A spider that was found in a Tulsa grocery store and originally
was thought to be deadly was probably of a harmless species, two experts
said.The spider was taken to the University of Tulsa on Sunday, where
animal facilities manager Terry Childs identified it as a Brazilian
wandering spider, one of the most lethal.

After the spider gained media attention Wednesday, Barry Downer, the
curator of aquariums and herpetology at the Tulsa Zoo, said video and
photos he had seen of the spider led him to believe it was a huntsman
spider, which is harmless to humans.

Childs said he destroyed the spider for safety.

Downer said the spider should have been preserved for study, but he was
told the body would not be made available.

A TU spokesman said the university is looking into how and why the
spider was destroyed.

The spider was found in a shipment of bananas at Whole Foods, 1401 E 41.

Richard Grantham, director of the plant disease and insect diagnostics
lab at Oklahoma State University, said the spider should not have been
destroyed.

"We preserve it,” he said. "We don’t destroy it.”

After looking at pictures of the spider, he does not believe it to be a
Brazilian wandering spider.

Downer and Grantham disputed Childs’ characterization of a Brazilian
wandering spider’s danger.

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, they said.