Black widows found in tire shipment

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NORFOLK, England, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- A British business said a shipment of tires from Arizona was found to be infested with venomous black widow spiders.

Mark Cook, health and safety boss at Fendercare in Norfolk, England, said the shipment marked the second time black widow spiders were found at the business within the space of five weeks, The Sun reported Monday.

"It is not something you expect to see, especially in the outback of Norfolk," Cook said. "It is quite rare and not something we get on a regular basis, but we are a global operator so it is one of those things."

"We take containers from all over the place, and our guys are used to checking for wildlife, so when they opened the doors they spotted the spiders and shut the doors to keep them trapped in," he said. "The poor little creatures have got a bad reputation with people thinking that their bite is immediately fatal, but generally people are just fairly sick."

A pest control company was called and used fumigation to kill the spiders.