Tarantulas Are 'Looking For Love' As CA Mating Season Gets Underway

CALIFORNIA — Residents new to California, or who don’t often venture into the wilderness, might not be aware that tarantula "lovemaking" is going on around them.

Late summer/early fall is tarantula mating season. This week in La Cresta, a rural Riverside County community located just west of Murrieta, the hairy spiders were putting on a show of sorts. Mature male tarantulas are out looking for females, making the big arachnids far more visible in the environment than at any other time of year.

Dr. Doug Yanega, senior museum scientist for U.C. Riverside’s Entomology Research Museum, knows his spiders. I interviewed him several years back to learn more about tarantula mating season.

“Males are now out and about,” Yanega told me that September day. “These are good conditions for them to do their thing.”

Once a male tarantula is sexually mature, he leads a straying, wandering lifestyle, and milder temperatures in late summer and early fall set the mood for tarantula romance.

“If it’s too hot or too cold, they just hunker down,” Yanega said of the arachnids.

Tarantula mating season in Southern California can last for up to two months, depending on weather and food supply, Yanega said.

“If a male is lucky, the first female he finds will be receptive and she won’t eat him,” he explained. “It all depends on how hungry she is.”

Some male tarantulas meet with that same poetic fate after "the act" is over.

“Once she’s been fertilized, she needs the energy,” Yanega explained. “It’s survival.”

A tragic ending?

“What nobler thing than to be giving your life for your offspring,” Yanega said.

And if that’s not “Alien-esque” enough, consider this: The infamous “tarantula hawk” — that big black creature with red wings that any Inland Valley SoCal kid can wax on about in detail — really does exist and it really does prey on tarantulas.

The “hawk” is actually a parasitic wasp. Its modus operandi is this: Step 1: Sting a tarantula to paralyze it. Step 2: Drag the now-zombified spider to your underground nest and lay eggs on it. Step: 3: When the eggs become larvae, they snack away on the still-living but immobile tarantula. Step. 4: Polish off the tarantula while it’s still tasty, before it starts to decay.

“The predator must have something fresh and edible too,” Yanega said with a laugh.

Tarantulas also have an interesting way of obtaining their sustenance.

“They eat anything they can pounce on and sink their fangs into,” Yanega said, noting that crickets and grasshoppers are likely mainstays, but the occasional baby mouse or lizard is probably palatable tarantula fare too.

That said, local tarantulas don’t pose much risk to humans.

“All spiders have venom, but very, very few have venom that’s toxic to humans,” Yanega said. “Tarantula venom is not particularly harmful.”

A tarantula’s “bristles” are far more irritating to humans. When threatened, Yanega said a tarantula pulls its bristles from its body with its legs and “throws” them at predators.

“You don’t want to get a face full of bristles,” he said.

For those thinking about "domesticating" a wild tarantula, Yanega advised against it. Although the spiders can live in captivity for more than 20 years, they require experienced handlers, he said.

“Taking one of out the wild is not something you just casually do,” he said. “It can be unpleasant for you and it's definitely unpleasant for the tarantula.”