LA PAZ, Bolivia — Three Bolivian boys tending to goats in their small town wound up in the hospital earlier this month after letting a black widow spider bite them, believing it would give them superpowers like Spider-Man.
The boys, aged 12, 10 and 8, from the village of Chayanta, found the black widow while they grazed their goats. They goaded the spider into biting them after poking at it with a stick, Virgilio Pietro, chief epidemiologist at the Bolivian ministry of health, told Telemundo.
The boys’ mother, gathering firewood nearby, rushed them to a local clinic after they started showing symptoms. When their symptoms didn’t improve, officials took them to a nearby hospital and then eventually to the Children’s Hospital in La Paz. They were treated for the bites and later released.
A bite from a black widow can cause muscle cramps, severe abdominal pain, and weakness.
Bolivian brothers hoped black widow would turn them into Spider-Man