Spiders are NOT Hatching in Your Beanie Babies
TL;DR: No, the beans used in Beanie Babies are not spider eggs. No they were never going to hatch inside your Beanie Babies. No that has never happened. No that never will.
On November 5, 2014, the popular satire website ClickHole posted an article titled, “’90s Kids Rejoice! The Spider Eggs They Used To Fill Beanie Babies Are Finally Hatching!” This article claimed that the beans in Beanie Babies were, in fact, brown recluse baby spider eggs that were now hatching. It stated “Manufacturer Ty Inc confirmed that each Beanie is stuffed with approximately 6,000 spider eggs, though unless you’ve been storing them in a secure, low-humidity environment, you should realistically only expect between 800 to 1,000 spiders to spawn through your Beanies’ fabric” (“’90s Kids Rejoice!”) These eggs, though dormant for around twenty years, were estimated to hatch, by the article’s judgement, very soon. This article, written in an obviously satirical tone, set off a social media frenzy that had many running to check their bins of old Beanie Babies and caused household panic.
Hoax-spotting websites jumped on the fake news immediately, but the damage had been done. A link to the article was shared on Facebook over 58,000 times and sparked countless comments, asking whether or not this was real. It was also shared across Twitter, with many stating that they threw out all their Beanie Babies after reading the headline. (Canedo) Despite it being shared so much over all social media, not many bothered to click the article. If they had, they would have realized that it is obviously not true.
So, is there any truth to these statements?
First off, according to pest control specialists, there is no way for brown recluse spider eggs to just go dormant like that, and would have hatched a month after being laid, not 20+ years. (Canedo) ClickHole is actually owned by the same people that make The Onion, a more well-known satirical site. TY Inc. used both PVC (polyvinylchloride) and PE (polyethylene) to make the pellets in their stuffed animals. While PVC pellets are less environmentally friendly than PE pellets, neither are spider eggs waiting to hatch.
“’90s Kids Rejoice! The Spider Eggs They Used To Fill Beanie Babies Are Finally Hatching!” ClickHole, 5 Nov 2014, https://news.clickhole.com/90s-kids-rejoice-the-spider-eggs-they-used-to-fill-be-1825123339.
Canedo, Nick. “Beanie Babies hoax: Spider eggs not hatching through plush toys’ fabric.” Syracuse. 6 Nov 2014, https://www.syracuse.com/news/2014/11/beanie_babies_hoax_spider_eggs_not_hatching_through_plush_toys_fabric.html.
“PVC v. PE Pellets in Beanie Babies.” AboutBeanies, http://www.aboutbeanies.com/articles/pvc.shtml.