Honey Roast Ham and a Dead Spider - should I be Worried?

[some bloke]

TL;DR Summary

I had lunch and dropped a small piece of ham. a spider (Barry) appeared to eat it. Shortly afterwards, he died. Is it poison?

At lunch I had Honey Roast Ham. A small piece, about 1/2" x 1", dropped on the floor. a few minutes later, I observed "Barry" having a good munch on the ham.

Barry and his ham were moved out of the way and I went back to work. About an hour later, I looked down and, coincidentally, observed what I now know to be Barry dying. His legs arched back against his back, and he "collapsed".

Now, several hours later, he's clearly dead.

Barry appeared to be healthy, he moved ok when we repositioned him. but now, after chowing down on what I had for lunch, he is dead.

Should I be worried? Is there something in Honey Roast Ham which might be an insecticide (arachnicide?), or was it just Barry's time? Am I happily scoffing something toxic for my lunch, but in such low quantities it doesn't affect me?

I'm in the UK, if that has any bearing on ingredients and spider types.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Ham is very high in sodium, perhaps the spider couldn't handle that.

 

[Bystander]

Nitrites/nitrates, other preservatives?

 

[jedishrfu]

Are you sure it wasn’t spam?

 

[Borg]

Ham is very high in sodium, perhaps the spider couldn't handle that.

Beat me to it Greg. AFAIK, spiders suck the juices from their prey. I would think that high sodium ham would be to the spider like people drinking ocean water.

 

[BillTre]

Summary: I had lunch and dropped a small piece of ham. a spider (Barry) appeared to eat it. Shortly afterwards, he died. Is it poison?

Is there something in Honey Roast Ham which might be an insecticide (arachnicide?), or was it just Barry's time?

I would repeat the experiment with another spider of the same species if possible.

Presumably the meat was juicy because as @Borg said, they can only suck in juices. They don't take bites of things.
You could also try washing and squeezing out the juices, replace them with some water, and see if the spider is interested and whether it dies.

 

[tech99]

Nitrites and other salts used in ham and are dangerous to humans as well as other animals. The World Cancer Research Fund advised the avoidance of processed meats some years ago
(also to restrict but not eliminate red meats).
https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/recommendations/limit-red-processed-meatBut no doubt the salt killed the poor arachnid.

 

[some bloke]

Yes, it was quite juicy ham.

Not sure about repeating it, I'm not a fan of killing any animals on purpose (unless I was going to eat it!).

As for the cancer side of things, from what I gathered on that front when the news told me to stop eating bacon was that their ranking system isn't based on how much it increases your risk, but on how conclusively they can prove that it increases your risk. IIRC Bacon was ranked the same as smoking, but conclusively proved that it increased the risk of a cancer you already had a very low risk of by less than half a percent of that original risk, whereas smoking was a much higher risk of affecting you. Though that may be a quantity thing - few people are on 30-40 rashers of bacon per day!

Thanks for the replies guys, it's been interesting!

 

[pinball1970]

Summary: I had lunch and dropped a small piece of ham. a spider (Barry) appeared to eat it. Shortly afterwards, he died. Is it poison?

Should I be worried? Is there something in Honey Roast Ham which might be an insecticide (arachnicide?), or was it just Barry's time? Am I happily scoffing something toxic for my lunch, but in such low quantities it doesn't affect me?

I'm in the UK, if that has any bearing on ingredients and spider types.

That's a big one for the UK.