shoppers have found venomous redback spiders hiding in bags of australian grown green grapes in four separate instances over the past two weeks and grape suppliers admit the spiders are difficult to eliminate because they have the ability to hold their breath when sprayed with insecticide a mother found a spider in a bag of thompson seedless grapes she bought at the woolworths in thornleigh, in sydney's northwest, on thursday this comes after another man found two redbacks in a bag of grapes he bought at a gold coast woolworths on tuesday and a woman in auckland, new zealand found a redback in a bag of imported australian grapes she purchased from the woolworths owned countdown supermarket chain less than two weeks ago scroll down for video  gold coast woman, leigh alexander de jersey, said she was shocked to find a redback amongst grapes she bought from a fruit shop at southport park shopping centre on the gold coast on friday  gold coast man mike o'neill said he found two redbacks in a bag of grapes he bought at the australia fair woolworths at southport on tuesday  a mother found a spider in a bag of thompson seedless grapes she bought at the woolworths in thornleigh, in sydney's northwest, on thursday and another gold coast woman, leigh alexander de jersey, said she was shocked to find a redback amongst grapes she bought from a fruit shop at southport park shopping centre on the gold coast on friday 'it wasn't until i had picked it up by a leg and it started to wriggle around and turn that i realised what it was and dropped it real quick,' ms alexander de jersey told daily mail australia 'i initially thought it was just a part of the grape stem 'it had been in the fridge for a few hours prior to me washing them, we think that has possibly slowed it down a bit and luckily for me it was a bit lethargic' this comes as gold coast man mike o'neill said he found two redbacks in a bag of grapes he bought at the australia fair woolworths at southport a woolworths spokeswoman said they were investigating the thornleigh and southport incidents, but would not reveal the names of the grape suppliers for each supermarket  auckland woman debbie bellingham was forced to call new zealand's biosecurity hotline after finding a redback spider in a bag of imported australian grapes she purchased at woolworths owned countdown  'there was a redback spider crawling on my hand,' mr o'neill told the gold coast bulletin 'i flicked it off – it was a bit comical because i'm absolutely terrified of spiders' and auckland woman debbie bellingham was forced to call new zealand's biosecurity hotline after finding a redback spider in a bag of imported australian grapes she was going feed her three year old daughter, the new zealand herald reported 'my daughter came down to me and goes, 'mummy, there's a funny looking spider in the grapes, it's black and sort of orangey red,'' ms bellingham told the herald an australian grape supplier, who wished to remain anonymous, said redbacks were prevalent in the grape industry but they were very difficult to eliminate 'the redbacks live on the timber, the wood of the vine,' he said 'growers do take every precaution to make sure they're limited by a spraying insecticide, but the unfortunate thing with redbacks is they have the ability to hold their breath for 10 hours an australian grape supplier, who wished to remain anonymous, said redbacks were prevalent in the grape industry but they were very difficult to eliminate  'when they know the insecticide is being sprayed they hold their breath making the insecticide useless' he said the only thing that definitively kills redbacks is keeping the grapes at freezing temperatures for 24 hours 'it's something that can't be eliminated it just needs to be heavily scrutinised,' he said 'every precaution is taken it's just virtually impossible to eliminate 100 per cent' australian table grape association's chief executive jeff scott said it was 'not normal' for redbacks to be found amongst grapes 'that's disappointing and unexpected… that shouldn't happen,' mr scott said australian table grape association's chief executive jeff scott said it was 'not normal' for redbacks to be found amongst grapes shoppers have found venomous redback spiders hiding in bags of australian grown green grapes in four separate instances over the past two weeks  'that's disappointing and unexpected… that shouldn't happen,' mr scott said a woolworths spokeswoman said they were investigating the thornleigh and southport incidents, but would not reveal the names of the grape suppliers for each supermarket 'we are looking into these incidents and will be in touch with our supplier to ensure they are following the correct quality processes,' she said 'we source our grapes from a number of suppliers' a countdown spokeswoman would not release the names of the supermarket's grape suppliers 'we source green grapes from a number of growers in australia and also from the market here in new zealand,' she said 'we generally don't disclose the information of individual suppliers as it's commercially sensitive'
southport new zealand nsw thornleigh woolworths australian second
shoppers have found venomous redbacks in bags of green grapes  a woman found a spider in a grapes from woolworths in thornleigh, nsw  two redbacks were hiding in a bag from woolworths in southport, qld  a second shopper found a redback in grapes from a southport fruit shop  a new zealand woman found a redback in imported australian grapes 