US / tarantula 5-Inch Tarantula Escapes on Mass. Campus But don't worry, he's not dangerous ... though he does bite By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff Posted Sep 4, 2015 6:01 PM CDT Copied Idlewild Elementary second grader Nathanial Ivy holds Legs, a tarantula, at the Memphis, Tenn., school, Friday, March 1, 2013, in Memphis. (AP Photo/The Commercial Appeal, Kyle Kurlick) A tiger was recently roaming the streets of a California neighborhood, there's a deadly king cobra on the loose in Florida, and on the UMass Lowell campus, there's a tarantula missing. But don't worry: While perhaps scary (it's 4 to 5 inches long), the spider is not dangerous, according to "missing" posters put up by Dr. Rick Hochberg, an associate professor of biology at the school. Oh, but he does bite. The posters promise a reward for the live capture of the tarantula, CBS Boston reports. (More tarantula stories.) Report an error