There was a running myth for a long time that Beanie Babies plush animals are a great home for spiders to hatch their eggs. Happily it is a myth that has been busted, syracuse reports.
Beanie Babies were a popular line of stuffies back in the 90s. Unsurprisingly their stuffing was mostly beans / pellets. The toys were offered in many colors and desings and many people had and still have big collections of them.
So the story that they are home to spider eggs that then hatch and craw out between the seams was enough to scare many people. So some Beanie Babies collections were actually destroyed. Other were stored away.
The running story was that the manufacturer of Beanie Babies actually had confirmed that this is the case. It’s not. The company, which is Ty Warner Inc, supposedly said that each Beanie is home to approximately 6000 spider eggs unles it had been stored properly in low humidity. In reality the firm has never said anything like that.
The story has actually been posted on a satirical website. It’s similar to The Onion and pokes fun and random stuff with the idea to go viral. Well it did, but it put a lot of stuffies in jeopardy with that. So it is a case of always read the fine print and double check with another source.
The guys at Snopes though have some facts that give some info on the subject. The most common types of spider eggs found living along with humans in populated areas usually have a hatching period of their eggs of about a month. So it’s would be impossible for them to stay in the toys for so many years. Plus there would have been documented cases of spiders coming out of the toys and there haven’t been any for all these years.
Secondly, Ty Warner uses plastic pellets which are not ideal home for living organisms, spider eggs included. So don’t worry. Your Beanie Babies plush animals are safe from spiders and will continue to be your stuffed friends for years to come.
