SAN ANTONIO – Texans may have noticed some “lovesick tarantulas” sightings this summer.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department posted that it’s mating season for tarantulas, meaning now’s the time when they leave their burrows “en masse,” and they may be seen in yards or even homes.
Recommended Videos
While the creepy crawlies may be the thing of nightmares for people with arachnophobia, they’re simply gentle giants to humans.
According to TPWD, tarantulas can bite, but their venom is too weak to cause harm to people.
“So, give them a little privacy,” TPWD’s post states.
Everything you need to know about the tarantula:
- They are the heaviest spider in Texas by weight, and their body length is about 1 1/2 inches.
- They are common in Texas.
- There are 14 species of tarantulas in Texas.
- Females can lay 100 to 1,000 eggs, and spiderlings usually hatch in July or later in the year.
- Females can live for over 25 years, but males rarely live more than two to three months after maturity.
- They have fangs that inject venom into their prey.
- As a shelter, they use burrows, natural spaces under logs or stones, spaces under loose bark and even old rodent burrows.
- A bite from a Texas tarantula is usually not serious to humans.
- They keep the pest population down by eating crickets, beetles, grasshoppers, cicadas and caterpillars.