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Tarantula Missing On UMass Lowell Campus

LOWELL (CBS) – A professor at UMass Lowell is asking the campus community to help him find a lost item. That item, however, is something not everyone would be thrilled to come across.

A poster was shared around the campus offering a reward for the live capture of a missing tarantula.

The poster asks anyone who finds to the spider to contact Dr. Rick Hochberg, an associate professor of biology at the school.

Missing Tarantula
A flyer for a missing tarantula at UMass-Lowell. (Image Credit: Lowell Sun)

The spider is 4-5 inches long and not dangerous, according to the poster.

Anyone who finds the spider should only pick up the tarantula if they are experienced, since it can bite.

"His name is Aragog (after the Harry Potter films), but unlike the fictional spider, he doesn't respond when called," the poster says.

Aragog was last seen in a wall vent in a campus building.

Hochberg can be contacted at (978) 934-2885 if the spider is spotted.

"It's harmless and it's probably not going to go up to anyone," one of Hochberg's students told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens. "We're not really sure if the spider's still alive or not. No one's really worried we just think the whole situation's super funny."

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports

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