Male tarantulas are gearing up to look for a mate, leading to a surge of spider sightings in the Southwestern U.S. over the next few months.
Across states like California, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas, tens of thousands of tarantulas are on the hunt for their perfect match, and some people are seeing the eight-legged critters in droves.
During an interview on TODAY that aired July 30, Ron Magill, communications director of Zoo Miami, explained why people in those states are set to see more tarantulas.
“At this time of year, when it’s time to look for the females, they risk their lives,” Magill said. “They leave their burrows. They go out searching until they can find those females.”
Male tarantulas can travel as many as 20 miles in their pursuit of a romantic rendezvous — which often ends in the ultimate sacrifice, experts said.
“More often than not, after breeding with a female, the male dies and the female eats it,” Magill said.
“This is really giving it all up for love,” he added.
There are more than 1,000 species of tarantulas, some of which can reach the size of a dinner plate, with dozens of species found in the U.S.
While the size of the creatures can cause fear in some people, tarantulas are gentle, and their venom, while potent, is usually not dangerous in humans.
However, some people can get skin irritation from picking up the spiders due to little hairs found on their bodies. Some people can also be allergic and wind up in the hospital.
Experts said the best bet is to leave the arachnids alone if a person happens to come across one. Aside from looking for love, they also have an important job to do this summer.
“Spiders play such a huge role in keeping ecological balance,” Magill said.
The rise in tarantula sightings is in line with other surges in bugs across the U.S. There has been a 20% to 30% increase in tick-related emergency room visits in the Northeastern U.S. compared to last year, NBC Connecticut reported, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Some years are hot tick years and some aren’t. Now, this happens to be a hot tick year,” Thomas Daniels of the Fordham University Louis Calder Center, who manages Fordham University’s Tick Index, told NBC Connecticut.
The 2025 cicada bloom also brought billions of cicadas rising out of the ground in the South, Midwest and Northeast this summer, affecting 12 states from Georgia to Massachusetts.
And to cap off the summer of bugs, the spotted lanternfly continued to invade the Northeastern U.S., NBC News reported.
