Two West Texas men recently returned to Galveston from a cruise and got way more than they bargained for when they reached their vehicle in the terminal parking lot-the car had been overrun by newborn spiders. Fortunately, the arachnid stowaways were not included in the parking fee.
We kid. According to Donnie Broussard, the men’s Uber driver, the men were, quite understandably, “freaked out,” Broussard told Chron Monday. A handful of other returning passengers encountered the same unwelcome surprise, Broussard said.
“I thought they might have brought [the spiders] from where they came from,” Broussard said about the two Lubbock residents, whom he described as in their 20s. “But that wouldn’t explain the other cars.”
Broussard said the spider incident occurred a few weeks ago at the Royal Caribbean terminal, aka Cruise Terminal 10. He has spent considerable time around the cruise terminal parking lots, first as a corrections officer working at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice medical facility at the UTMB hospital campus neighboring the port, and now as a rideshare driver for the past seven years.
Broussard posted an account of this Arachnophobica sequel-to-be Sunday night in the Galveston Talk Facebook group. After the Lubbock tourists’ unexpected discovery, he wrote, he drove them to Galveston’s Walmart “to get some pesticide to kill [the spiders] so they could drive home.”
A single spider can lay hundreds of eggs that hatch into baby spiders, also known as spiderlings. (Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket/Getty Images)
According to a handful of pest-control websites-and commenters on Broussard’s post who sounded knowledgeable on the subject-hordes of baby spiders, also known as spiderlings, seemingly appearing out of nowhere are not at all unusual this time of year.
“September is a prime time for spiderlings,” one commenter explained. “Wind catches the silk and carries them away-the behavior commonly called ballooning. They can land en masse on fences, buildings, vegetation and even cars. Depending on the kind of spider, one egg sack could contain 300+ spiderlings [and] the yellow garden spider could even be up to 1,200 spiderlings.”
To which, naturally, another commenter replied, “thanks for traumatizing me.”
“As late summer moves toward fall, spider activity often becomes more noticeable around homes and businesses,” Pearsall’s S&S Pest Control out of South Texas adds on its website. “Webs appear along porch ceilings. Wolf spiders cross garage floors. House spiders settle into quiet corners. Outdoor lights attract insects, and those insects attract spiders.”
The Port of Galveston, which operates the parking lots around Cruise Terminal 10, has not replied to Chron’s request for comment.
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This article originally published at Texas cruise ship passengers return to eight-legged surprises.