A TikTok video has gone viral after a shopper found cobwebs — and then a straight-up black widow spider — on a clothing rack at Lululemon.
The situation was resolved without incident, but the way it unfolded will have you glued to your screen.
It went down at a Lululemon location.
I punched ‘where do black widows live?’ into a search engine and got some illuminating results. I mean, spiders are interesting. I didn’t find any source that named Lululemon clothing racks as the spider’s natural habitat, though.
TikToker Ellen Danz posted the videos.
Ellen, who you can find on TikTok @els22022 , was innocently perusing the clothing rack at Lululemon when things went down. When she noticed that the yoga wear appeared to have some stray cobwebs on it, she took out her camera and started shooting.
The cobwebs got worse.
It’s kind of gross to find cobwebs on a clothing rack, because it means those clothes have been there long enough for a spider to set up shop. It’s also gross because most of us don’t think to check for spiders before we take clothes into the changing room.
Then, it happened.
It played out like a low-key horror movie, as Ellen browsed through the clothes rack, finding more and more cobwebs. Then, once she exposed the fourth or fifth garment on the rack, she exposed something else: a black widow spider, just casually chilling on its web.
First, a lesson.
While we can’t be sure of what species this particular black widow was, it’s worth noting that black widows aren’t as dangerous as their reputation suggests.
They may be one of the most famous families of venomous spiders, but their bites generally aren’t fatal. That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t take them seriously though, as their bites can cause severe pain or worse.
Interestingly, most black widow species don’t range too far north, and the video showed snow outside. The spider may have been unwittingly transferred in a shipment of clothes.
Back to the TikToks.
Ellen’s first video ended after she saw the black widow and (understandably) recoiled. Naturally, her TikTok followers were desperate for an update.
Her second video begins with a Lululemon employee very carefully inspecting the rack where the spider was found.
Black widow, confirmed.
As the employee gingerly held the garment, Ellen got close enough to show another angle of the spider. It’s definitely a black widow! The employee quickly moved things outside as Ellen held the door open for her.
It was worth a picture.
After the spider was safely on the ground (black widows can’t jump, I hope), the employee bent down to take a pic of the spider. It’s always good to document the weird things that happen at work.
Here it is.
I feel bad for the little spider, as it’s been booted from its cozy home inside Lululemon and now has to start fresh on the sidewalk. Then again, Lululemon is in business as a place to buy yoga pants, not a sanctuary for venomous spiders.
I’m still not over it.
The visceral horror of turning over items of clothing and finding a venomous spider will stay with me for awhile, I think. It’s also made me think twice about trying on clothes without checking them first.
Let us know what you think of this saga in the comments section!
