A Bumblebee in my Starkist tuna?

On February 12th, Taylor Preus, an employee of Mark’s Guitar Exchange in Point Loma, got more than he expected with his lunch.

“I was just going about my daily routine — selling guitars — and got hungry, so decided to eat my snack, one of those to-go lunch sets with crackers and stuff, and when I opened the to-go tuna package that came with it, this thing fell out.”

The Point Loma Nazarene student said he almost ate it.

“I thought about it because at first I thought it was a burnt piece of something, then looked at it closely and, yeah, no. Upon closer inspection I knew it shouldn’t be in there. You can see eyes and a mouth, wings, a big stinger, and it’s a little hairy.”

“We thought maybe it’s a wasp,” said general manager Jeff Lazzarini, “and Starkist didn’t really say much when we called them.”

After Preus contacted Starkist, they followed up with a generic email apologizing, in part, and offering him free replacement vouchers.

“No way," he said. "I’m done with them for a while."

The Starkist Lunch To-Go kit was recently purchased at the Costco on Morena Boulevard.

“We’ve named it ‘Little Hairy’ right now because we don’t know what it is,” added Preus.

After consulting with an entomologist friend in the Bay Area, the insect was ID’ed as a "regular fly," possibly a blue bottle-fly whose characteristics include body and legs covered with bristle-like hair.