Benoit Sanscartier had bought groceries from the Costco location in Boisbriand, just west of Laval, when the shocking incident occurred.
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“I removed the paper around the bananas and I got stung by the scorpion,” Sanscartier told TVA Nouvelles.
He added that the sting hurt badly, describing it as “twice the pain of a wasp sting.”
University of Montreal entomologist Etienne Normandin told the outlet that these scorpions “are imported from the southern United States or Central America and are frequently found on bananas or grapes.”
The scorpion found in Sanscartier’s Costco bananas are believed to have come from Guatemala.
Sanscartier called 811 immediately after he was bitten but after more than an hour of waiting, he went to the hospital.
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When Sanscartier reached out to Costco, they told him they only had a protocol in place for employees.
“It’s the first time they’ve seen that for a client,” he said.
Sanscartier now keeps the scorpion in a jar.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has launched an investigation into how the scorpion got all the way to Canada.
However, Normandin explained that in some South American countries, the items are placed in carts or in large warehouses where scorpions “can sneak in and be transported here.”
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