WHEN Gargrave's Jean Hallam noticed one of the green grapes she bought from a supermarket was black and had eight legs, she didn't panic - even though she suspected it was a potentially deadly black widow spider.

Mrs Hallam had hand-picked the grapes on Monday from Sainsbury's in Keighley, transported them home in the back of a taxi and then put them in the fridge.

"Normally I would have put them straight into a bowl, but for some reason I decided not to," she told the Herald.

The following evening she picked off a few grapes from the bunch and because they were very cold, put them in a bowl in the kitchen to eat later.

Mrs Hallam then went out to take part in a quiz, returned home at 11pm, and as intended, decided to have a few more of the grapes. It was then she noticed the gatecrasher sitting among them.

Luckily for Mrs Hallam, alarm bells began to ring as she remembered reading about someone a few months ago who had found a black widow among grapes bought from another supermarket.

"It's funny that for ages after reading that I kept thinking about spiders whenever I saw grapes. Eventually I stopped bothering and started buying them again thinking the chances of getting a black widow in the bunch would be one-in-million."

Mrs Hallam, of Neville Road, managed to coax the cross- continent stowaway into a plastic bowl and put the lid on before checking in a book to see if she was right.

The red hourglass marking on the belly of the inch-and-a-half long shiny black spider coincided exactly with the picture and description in her encyclopaedia. It said its bite could cause death to the very young or very old.

Mrs Hallam said she was not normally bothered about spiders and under normal circumstances may well have picked it out of the bowl by hand, had she not heard about the previous potentially deadly find.

She feels she was lucky too that it hadn't escaped from the bowl, but put that down to the fact that it must have been rendered sluggish with being in the fridge for several hours.

After phoning the police on Wednesday for advice, she telephoned Sainsbury's who sent a representative out to collect it.

"The woman said to me 'I understand I have to collect something you don't want' and then gave me a bunch of flowers and a gift voucher for £10.

"I told her that it wouldn't stop me from shopping at Sainsbury's, but that I probably wouldn't buy grapes for a while."

Theresa Smith, Sainsbury's store manager at Keighley, said she had been in the job for 10 years and it was the first time she had heard of anyone finding something like this.

She confirmed that the grapes had come in a consignment from Mexico - black widows originate from that part of the continent as well as further north - but was unable to comment on its species until it had been examined at their base in London.

Lindsey Quinn of Craven District Council's environmental health department said: "If you are concerned about a spider or insect, do not touch it, but try to contain it in a sealed container and contact Craven District Council's environmental health on 01756 706342.

"If you think you have been bitten by a dangerous spider or insect then go straight to hospital and if possible take the spider or insect in a sealed container, this will help with identification and any necessary medical treatment."