A transit garage in Cape Breton had to be fumigated after the discovery of western black widow spiders on a bus from California.
In a series of tweets Wednesday evening, Cape Breton Regional Municipality said the venomous arachnids arrived on a new bus that was being delivered from California, which travelled through Ontario before arriving in Sydney.
The municipality said the discovery was made while the bus was being prepared for use in Transit Cape Breton’s main garage on Welton Street in Sydney.
“As a precautionary measure, the facility was closed and pest control brought in to fumigate the building,” the municipality said on Twitter.
“There is currently no service disruption to transit services. At this time, the issue is being addressed at the transit facility.”
The western black widow spider is a species of venomous spider with a painful bite found in western North America.
According to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, the western black widow can be found in parts of B.C. through to Manitoba, mostly in areas close to the southern Canada-U.S. border.
The northern black widow spider, meanwhile, can be found in southern and eastern Ontario.
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