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Black Widow Spiders Thrive with Reduced Pesticide Use

“Are There Spiders Lurking In Your Food?” by Lindsey Jahn.
Occurrences of shoppers discovering spiders lurking in grocery-store grapes have been reported throughout the Midwest over the past month — and the issue isn’t limited to one retail chain. Budget supermarket chain Aldi pulled all grapes from its Milwaukee locations after a consumer found a black widow spider in a package of grapes from an Aldi store in Wauwatosa, Wis….The prevalence of black widows being found in grapes has increased since the mid-1990s, when growers began to cut back on pesticide use. Grapes are commonly associated with heavy pesticide use, and the fruit still remains No. 3 on the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Dirty Dozen list of produce with the most pesticide residue. In the EWG’s latest Dirty Dozen study, a single grape tested positive for 15 pesticides. Read more at Manufacturing.net.