Lin wrote:
> 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.

Identifying spiders of certain species must be difficult. Anyway, the
news that this was a false alarm is a good turn of events. Hopefully, we
will never hear of this arachnid again.

>
> 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.