Arachnophobes, look away now! Thousands of TARANTULAS are ready to crawl across Colorado as the spiders begin their annual breeding season
- Between late August and early October, male tarantulas take a courtship trek in southeastern Colorado
- Mature male spiders are looking for mature females with which they can mate before dying before winter
- Every year, enthusiasts come to watch the spiders on their journey through parts of the Colorado prairies.
In a few weeks, hordes of tarantulas will begin their annual exploration across southeastern Colorado for their breeding season.
Tarantulas are typically found in the southwestern United States, including southern Colorado, where some enthusiasts show up each year to view mature adult male tarantulas on the mating trek or ‘mate-gration’ .
Although the annual episode is sometimes colloquially referred to as a migration, what tarantulas actually do is seek out mates.
When the male tarantulas, about five inches in size, reach the age of maturity, which occurs between eight and ten years old, they begin to search for a mate. The trek usually takes place between late August and early October.
Males sometimes travel up to 20 miles in search of a mature female to mate with. Often, males travel in groups when searching.
Each year in late summer, male tarantulas embark on their mating quest, which involves traveling up to 20 miles in search of a female tarantula to mate with.
The trek takes place in parts of the American Southwest, including a small corner of Southeast Colorado Territory
When a male finds an ideal female spider to mate with, he performs a courtship dance which involves tapping his legs on a female’s web.
If she’s receptive, she might return the favor to the drum.
Once fertilization is successful in a female tarantula, she constructs a golf ball-sized egg sac, into which she will lay her eggs.
She then protects the egg sac from predators until potentially hundreds of spiderlings hatch.
After mating, the males usually die fairly quickly. Threats include predators, cars, and a general lack of interest in eating anything. In some cases, the female spider may eat the male.
Female tarantulas have a typical lifespan closer to 20-25 years.
In some cases, tarantulas – the largest wasp in the United States – inject spiders with paralyzing venom and drag them back to a burrow.
The wasp, still a female ready to lay eggs, then pushes the paralyzed tarantula down the burrow hole and lays her eggs on the paralyzed spider.
When the eggs hatch several days later, the larvae feed on the still-living tarantula.
Enthusiasts come every year to observe the male tarantulas during their nuptial trek
Male tarantulas usually die shortly after mating
Tarantulas are most active in the afternoon, especially the last hour before sunset
A director of the Butterfly Pavilion in Colorado – America’s first non-profit insect zoo – Sara Stevens told a local output where she thinks people can go to watch the tarantulas while hiking.
Stevens said Highway 109 on the Comanche Nation prairie is a good vantage point, as are parts of La Junta, which hosts the La Junta Tarantula Fest.
The mate-gration has clearly become an integral part of La Junta’s municipal identity, as the festival includes a parade, vendors and tarantula visits, among other things.
The Comanche National Grassland, just at the southeast tip of the state, is state grassland, where Stevens says there is usually a higher concentration of tarantulas.
Tarantulas are most active in the afternoon, especially the last hour before sunset.
They are not poisonous to humans, although bites can be painful.
