Tarantulas typically remain in the burrows throughout most of the year, and only come out at night, according to the National Park Service. But come mating season, adult male tarantulas throw caution to the wind for the sake of finding a female.
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In the hilly range land of eastern Stanislaus County about a half hour east of my shack were my favorite dirt roads, miles of dusty roads that I'd drive down just to unwind after a hard day at work, take in the scenery, and enjoy a cold six pack or two.
There was one stretch where there was a dirt road for a couple three miles, then a 50 yard stretch of paved road, then a couple more miles of dirt road.
Why the county felt a need to pave only that 50 yards, I have never figured out, but for about 2 weeks during the spring and fall of the year, it would be just covered in tarantulas, I'm talking so thick you were hard put to see the road. There were so many you could hear them crunching and crackling under your tires,
I always figured they were attracted to the blacktop in the spring because of the heat it radiated, but the fall gathering always threw me.
One day I pulled up and stopped and started thinking, "Do all these damned spiders travel any distance to come to this part of the road or are they this thick everywhere around here and I just don't see them?" For a good long while after that, I wouldn't get out of the truck without my eyes on the ground.
The ones leaving the burrows are the males. Searching for poon is always risky.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this occurs in other places but in Va the snakes liked the heat of the black top at night. You would see quite a few squashed snakes in the morn. I liked walking country roads in the evening and never walked real close to the shoulders.
ReplyDeleteI was out in northern Nevada last June and got to see the Mormon cricket migration. You can't imagine unless you've seen it, it was like a biblical plague, a solid carpet of big brown crickets marching across the ground. I can't adequately describe it.
ReplyDeleteWhat males do to get laid....
ReplyDeleteJD
my girlfriend's daughter is at a friends wedding in Moab today. I'm not going to ruin her weekend by telling her to watch out for spiders. I wondered why someone would have a wedding in Moab at this time of year, and then realized that there was a annular eclipse of the sun this morning...
ReplyDeleteI've been around tarantulas all my life and never had a problem with them. Those giant red headed Texas centipededes are the ones that freak me out. If you've never seen one google it.
ReplyDeleteWith me, it's those vicious little brown Mexican scorpions.
DeleteSome time ago a friend of mine was working a widening project where they added temporary lanes and barrier walls to move traffic to allow the work. A squirrel migration started and they would pop up over the shoulder and make it to the barrier then freak out and get run over.
ReplyDeleteIt got so bad at times they brought out the snowplows to scrape off the remains.
Neck