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<\/p>\nThese misunderstood, wandering arachnids are often simply young males in search of love. Here’s where you might see them in fall 2025.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tarantula mating season hits California, Texas, New Mexico and more<\/p>\n
Tarantulas are on the move in California, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas as mating season begins.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re hiking or camping in the arid Southwest and West in the next few months, get ready for what could be the experience \u2013 or fright \u2013 of a lifetime.<\/p>\n
Across the United States, in California, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas, tens of thousands of tarantulas will being crawling out of their burrows in search of females \u2013 making for a fascinating, if a little creepy \u2013 display of the wonders of nature.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tarantula mating season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re lucky enough you can sometimes see them in hordes crossing the roads at certain times of the year,\u201d said Dan McCamish, a senior environmental scientist with California State Parks.<\/p>\n
His advice? Leave them alone.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s a wild animal \u2013 it doesn\u2019t want to be picked up and loved and hugged,\u201d he said. \u201cIn general the species is very docile, but if you were to handle one they could bite you.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the idea of thousands of hairy, baseball-sized spiders picking their way through parks and campgrounds might give many people the heebie-jeebies, in general these misunderstood, wandering arachnids are simply young males in search of love.<\/p>\n
And if they wander into your tent, they didn\u2019t mean to.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn truth they\u2019re gentle, ecologically valuable animals,\u201d said McCamish. \u201cMostly they\u2019re interested in escaping from confrontations \u2013 especially with something they know could squish them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know about tarantulas during their mating season.<\/p>\n
Where in the US do tarantulas live?<\/p>\n
Tarantulas prefer dry climates and primarily live in Western and Southwestern states<\/a> with arid and semi-arid habitats. They are prevalent in Arizona, California, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.<\/p>\n But they’re in other places as well. South Florida has the Mexican red rump<\/a> and the Texas brown can be found in Oklahoma<\/a> and Missouri<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are 29 described individual species of tarantulas in the United States.<\/p>\n Common species include the desert blonde tarantula<\/a> and the Texas brown<\/a> (though Texas has 14 tarantula species). In Arizona, there’s even a variety with a fiery-red abdomen<\/a>.<\/p>\n When are you likely to see tarantulas in the wild?<\/p>\n Tarantulas live in these areas year-round, but they mostly keep to themselves and their nests in the ground, so hikers and campers don\u2019t see a lot of them.<\/p>\n \u201cAs with most things that live in the desert in the summer, they\u2019re generally nocturnal,\u201d McCamish said. \u201cSo unless you\u2019re out in the middle of the night, which I don\u2019t recommend for safety purposes, you likely won\u2019t see them.\u201d<\/p>\n Then in fall, September, October, November, the weather starts to shift. \u201cThey generally wait for the first fall seasonal rain \u2013 they really respond to the late summer warmth and the increase in moisture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re typically out from late evening into early dawn,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s when visitors tend to see them,\u201d said McCamish.<\/p>\n \u201cThe males are the ones you\u2019ll see crawling around. If you come upon a tarantula out in the wild and it\u2019s wandering about, it\u2019s likely a male. If you come upon one that\u2019s sitting in its burrow or on top of a hole, it\u2019s likely a female waiting for males to mate with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Why don’t we see tarantulas at other times of the year?<\/p>\n Both males and females retreat to their burrows in the winter, where they enter a kind of torpor that isn\u2019t true hibernation. In the spring they begin hunting again, though not far from their shelters.<\/p>\n The arachnids build webs nears their burrows where they capture insects, beetles, grasshoppers and smaller spiders for food.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re ambush hunters. The females weave a web around the hole to their burrow that\u2019s sensitive to the touch. If an insect comes across it, the spider pounces and kills it with their fangs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The males also go out to hunt on foot. However, this tends to happen late at night when the desert comes alive \u2013 and humans aren\u2019t typically out, which is why most desert visitors never see them.<\/p>\n The short, harsh reality of a male tarantula’s life<\/p>\n Male and female tarantulas live very different lives. Females stay near their burrows, hunting, feeding and growing and can live for up to 20 to 25 years.<\/p>\n Males, not so much.<\/p>\n Once they\u2019re hatched, they create burrows and spend a few years, generally no more than five, slowly growing, molting several times as they do.<\/p>\n When they are ready to go out to find a mate in the cool fall, they leave their burrows and begin wandering, sniffing the air for female pheromones.<\/p>\n The females come out of their burrows at night, staying nearby as they wait for the males.<\/p>\n If the male finds a female, and she accepts him, they will mate. But it\u2019s a brief moment of happiness for the male.<\/p>\n \u201cThe harsh reality is that generally after the male breeds, it passes away,\u201d McCamish said.<\/p>\n Often, the female will eat her mate, though not always. It depends on whether she fed before mating or has an ample food supply.<\/p>\n If the male doesn\u2019t find a mate, it can potentially burrow back in for another year, but this depends on its molting schedule – if the male spider needs to molt again after it becomes sexually viable, it may die because it cannot molt a second time.<\/p>\n “Generally, once the male has emerged, if it is unsuccessful in finding a mate during the season, it will likely die due to exhaustion,” he said.<\/p>\n Here’s why you shouldn’t kill tarantulas<\/p>\n If you see a tarantula, leave it alone. It plays an important part in nature. These large, hairy spiders contribute to ecological balance, acting as insect control \u2013 they are slow, patient ambush predators that regulate biodiversity.<\/p>\n Their burrows improve soil aeration and water filtration, especially in the desert during flooding events. And after they abandon their burrows, they become refuges for other animals including lizards, insects and other small mammals, McCamish said.<\/p>\n They\u2019re also an excellent midlevel ecological stabilizer that tells biologists at a glance if an ecosystem is healthy.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there are tarantulas living somewhere, you can generally assume the habitat is functioning,\u201d McCamish said.<\/p>\n What eats tarantulas?<\/p>\n Tarantulas may look terrifying as they make their leggy way across the landscape, but they\u2019re nowhere near the top of the food chain.<\/p>\n They can be food for foxes, coyotes, snakes, owls and skunks \u2013 one reason they lay low except when the mating imperative sends them out into a dangerous world.<\/p>\n