Tarantula Season Is Back on the Central Coast

KDBW ^ | Sep 23, 2022 | Josh Copitch

[nickcarraway]

Every autumn the male tarantula wanders in search of a female to mate with which is why you're more likely to see the usually docile creature out and about, even here on the Central Coast.

Tarantulas are generally shy creatures and will retreat to their burrow if disturbed, said Garland Ranch Regional Park, but they don't recommend that you handle them.

"Handled, they may bite with their fangs or rub the hairs of their abdomen with their back legs, creating a cloud of stinging hairs that settle in the skin," the park wrote on Facebook.

[M Kehoe]

TTIWWP

5.56mm

[where's_the_Outrage?]

I didn’t know the Central Coast meant California, I thought maybe Texas.

[M Kehoe]

Heck, I was thinking Belize.

5.56mm

[HartleyMBaldwin]

I’ve slept on the ground without a tent during the southern Arizona tarantula migration (it’s not really a migration, but people call it that). If any crawled on me, it didn’t wake me up.

[Larry Lucido]

Is this another future food?

[SuperLuminal]

Had hoped it meant the Central Coast of the Potomac river running through DC...

[Boomer]

Location?

[neverevergiveup]

I’ve seen many Tarantulas while hiking in California. They just kind of walk across the trail from time to time. Cute fuzzy little guys/girls - though not so little (as spiders go).

[Arlis]

I had a pet tarantula in Southern CAL in the late ‘60’s and as I never threatened him (her?) it never bothered me, but stayed fairly calm in my hand and on my arm.

Was kinda fun.......

[dragnet2]

I’ve seen many Tarantulas while hiking in California.

We were going to go hiking in a S. CA mountain area, but were told we needed a "Forest adventure pass". No joke. We passed..☺

[neverevergiveup]

That's such b*lls**t. I'm glad you passed on it. I lived there for a fairly long time, and had lots of wonderful times in national parks, forests, shorelines, and in the ocean, but the spirit of the West has been replaced with the moronic worldview of the East coast. Stupid, as it turns out, is metastatic.

[Reddy]

Last fall, I found a tarantula about the size of a saucer walking toward me on a hiking path in Zion NP, Utah.

I made a wide birth around it.

[entropy12]

Deep fried tarantula does not taste like chicken.

[Larry Lucido]

I’ll take your word for it. :-)

[crz]

Yes and the tarantula hawks will be out in full force.

BTW..dont ever get stung by one of those.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Seen it in New Mexico, they’re few and far between.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

...rub the hairs of their abdomen with their back legs, creating a cloud of stinging hairs

Biden is a tarantula. Figures.

[rxh4n1]

I was thinking this was about the chick that used to be on Fox News, the one Rush called Tarantula.

[Churchjack]

I was working in the desert near Toiyabe back in '90's. My partner and I were waiting on some heavy equipment to be dropped off at our location. Drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes....

"Look, the desert floor is moving," I told her. "Look, for real, the sand is....moving like it's liquid." I got out of the truck, and there were thousands, thousands, of tarantulas all headed west, northwest. Eerie.

As far as I could see the valley floor, there were tarantulas covering every square foot heeding the call.