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Mating season lures Texas tarantula from burrows
Valley Morning Star ^ | May 22, 2005 | FERNANDO DEL VALLE

Posted on 05/22/2005 7:17:50 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch

HARLINGEN, May 22, 2005 — As the sun sets on the Rio Grande Valley, car headlights splash shadows that crawl like black hands across the road.

When spring blooms in South Texas, it’s mating season for tarantulas.

From his front door, Bryant Williams sees the fat, furry spiders creep into the night.

“I see them mostly late at night, like around midnight under the street light, scurrying around,” said Williams, a U.S. Border Patrol agent who lives near the Arroyo Colorado, a nesting ground for the native Texas tan tarantula.

“A lot of people don’t like them because they look scary,” he said. “But they don’t bother me. I grew up in South Texas. We used to play with them as kids — catch them and keep them in aquariums. You’d keep them two or three days and turn them loose if you got a bigger one. Like a goldfish, we’d look at them and see what they do.”

In South Texas, mating season lures the Texas tan tarantula out of its winter burrow for about six weeks, said Genaro Lopez, an entomologist at the University of Texas at Brownsville.

“The males and females will come out of their tunnels and they’ll look for each other,” he said.

About eight years ago, Jacob Taylor’s grandmother gave him a tarantula that she captured in her garage.

Ever since, he’s kept tarantulas as pets.

“It took a little time to get used to the idea of handling them — you hope they don’t bite you,” said Taylor, 20, a computer science major who works at a Brownsville pet store. “Everybody’s afraid of them. It’s something that’s interesting — that people are afraid of them, but you don’t have to be.”

Like many tarantula species, the Texas tan spider is “docile,” Lopez said.

“When people try to mess with them, they’ll try to bite as a last resort,” he said.

While its fangs can leave “a little puncture wound,” the tarantula’s bite packs as much venom as a honeybee’s sting, he said.

Still, the 4-inch tarantula preys on man’s primal fears, Lopez said.

“It’s an arachnophobic type of stereotype,” he said of the spider’s mystique. “Instead of seeing them as creations with intrinsic beauty, tarantulas are taking it on the chin, with people driving over them or spraying them.”

When Brownsville’s resacas crawl with the spiders during mating season, about one in 10 of his customers in the area want him to kill tarantulas, said Sergio Cordova, field supervisor with Esparza Pest Control in Edinburg.

“Around this time, it’s the worst,” he said. “They climb up the walls and get into cracks or vents. Some people will see one and think they’re everywhere — and most of the time they’re right. Anybody who lives near the arroyo or a resaca — be prepared.”

While the tarantula strikes its share of terror, Lopez sees its beauty.

“I love them,” he said. “They’re part of creation. What would you rather have in your house — roaches or a tarantula?”


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: tarantulas
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"What would you rather have in your house — roaches or a tarantula?”

I think I'd take the roaches, Jacob!

1 posted on 05/22/2005 7:17:50 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
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To: SwinneySwitch

That was a scary bed-time story...


2 posted on 05/22/2005 7:20:14 PM PDT by blueberry12
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To: SwinneySwitch

yeeeuch!


3 posted on 05/22/2005 7:23:37 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: SwinneySwitch

Send a few my way. I'll sneak them into the girl's dormatory. ;)


4 posted on 05/22/2005 7:25:56 PM PDT by explodingspleen (http://mish-mash.info/)
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To: SwinneySwitch
While its fangs can leave “a little puncture wound,” the tarantula’s bite packs as much venom as a honeybee’s sting, he said.

Nope. The honeybee sting hurts a lot more. I speak from experience.

5 posted on 05/22/2005 7:26:01 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (This Tagline for sale. (Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: SwinneySwitch

Speaking of tarantulas...my brows need a trim.


6 posted on 05/22/2005 7:26:59 PM PDT by cyborg (Serving fresh, hot Anti-opus since 18 April 2005)
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To: SwinneySwitch
Here is a pic.........


7 posted on 05/22/2005 7:28:54 PM PDT by cmsgop
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To: cmsgop
Here's another.


8 posted on 05/22/2005 7:32:22 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Andrew Heyward's got to go!)
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To: cmsgop; Sweet_Sunflower29; TLI; TX Bluebonnet; evilgringo; rocksblues; conservativecorner; ...

Texas Tarantula Ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.


9 posted on 05/22/2005 7:39:43 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch (Remember, this is only a temporary exile!)
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To: SwinneySwitch
Tarantulas also come out in droves near Henrietta, Texas, in the Spring. Henrietta is in North Texas. They search out warm places like roads in the sun when they come out. I love blowing by them driving fast and watching them in my rear view mirror tumble like paper.
10 posted on 05/22/2005 7:42:56 PM PDT by vetvetdoug (Shiloh, Corinth, Iuka, Brices Crossroads, Harrisburg, Britton Lane, Holly Springs, Hatchie Bridge,)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Come here, my little snugglebunny...

11 posted on 05/22/2005 7:43:40 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: vetvetdoug

I love blowing by them driving fast and watching them in my rear view mirror tumble like paper.

** You,sir, are a barbarian. I must inform PETA.


12 posted on 05/22/2005 7:44:35 PM PDT by cyborg (Serving fresh, hot Anti-opus since 18 April 2005)
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To: SwinneySwitch

I guess these beat the Palmetto bugs we used to get every full moon in Honolulu... swarms of them... their tenatacles are as long as their bodies... and their bodies are about 3 inches long...


13 posted on 05/22/2005 7:45:04 PM PDT by Conservatrix ("He who stands for nothing will fall for anything.")
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To: cyborg

Odd thing. this thread make me think of you. and there you are.


14 posted on 05/22/2005 7:47:15 PM PDT by patton ("Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write.")
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To: SwinneySwitch

Is your ping to me here your way of telling me a chilling beddy time story???


15 posted on 05/22/2005 7:47:49 PM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: SwinneySwitch

They are great deep fried. Dip them in some egg and roll them in corn meal/chili powder and toss them into hot peanut oil. Tastes great with 2 quarts of Jim Beam (before you eat them).


16 posted on 05/22/2005 7:49:09 PM PDT by Blue Screen of Death (/i)
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To: patton

Yeah :D


17 posted on 05/22/2005 7:54:24 PM PDT by cyborg (Serving fresh, hot Anti-opus since 18 April 2005)
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To: SwinneySwitch

I'll take spiders over roaches any day.


18 posted on 05/22/2005 7:55:40 PM PDT by cajungirl ({no})
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To: cajungirl

Amen!


19 posted on 05/22/2005 7:56:09 PM PDT by cyborg (Serving fresh, hot Anti-opus since 18 April 2005)
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To: Calpernia

No, but the pics of Maw Richards and Molly Ivins will keep me up half the night


20 posted on 05/22/2005 7:57:12 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch (Remember, this is only a temporary exile!)
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