Name: Why you shouldnt be afraid of tarantulas
Uploaded: 2025-10-26T14:56:09.791Z
Duration: 5 min 21 s
Description: We know very little about the brown tarantula (Aphonopelma hentzi), whose habitat stretches from Louisiana to Texas and Colorado. But the first question arachnid expert Cara Shillington asks is, why are we afraid of tarantulas?

We know very little about the brown tarantula (Aphonopelma hentzi), whose habitat stretches from Louisiana to Texas and Colorado. But the first question arachnid expert Cara Shillington asks is, why are we afraid of tarantulas?

Colorado

The Colorado brown tarantula, a species native to the state's grasslands, is often misunderstood and feared due to common misconceptions. Experts like Dr. Kara Shillington emphasize that these spiders are not dangerous to humans; their venom is no stronger than a bee sting, and they only bite when threatened. Tarantulas play an important ecological role by controlling insect populations.

In La Junta, Colorado, the annual Tarantula Fest celebrates these creatures, drawing visitors and helping to shift public perception. The event includes educational activities and highlights the tarantula's ancient lineage, as well as the importance of preserving their grassland habitat. Locals credit the festival and the spiders themselves with bringing renewed attention and vitality to the community.

Why you shouldn't be afraid of tarantulas

When it comes to a certain eight-legged creature, Jonathan Vigliotti is downright fearless. Dawn ignites southeastern Colorado's Comanche National Grassland, stirring what hides beneath cactus and juniper. From small dens, velvet legs, eight of them, emerge. The elusive Colorado brown tarantula is on the hunt. One by one, thousands of spiders crawl over the sweeping landscape. I have never seen such huge populations, this many burrows that you can find so easily and so close to one another. The density is just absolutely phenomenal. Biologist Dr. Kara Shillington is right at home here on the range. She's one of the country's foremost authorities on these cold-blooded arachnids. First of all, I'm going to wince at that. Oh God, oh no. So, when you use that term cold-blooded, where else do we use that term? We have cold-blooded killers. It gives this idea of an organism that is evil. If we grab him quickly. Dr. Shillington has spent her 30-year career fighting misconceptions about spiders. While tarantulas can be the size of your hand, they only bite as a last resort if harassed. And still, their venom's no stronger than a bee sting. Instead of cold-blooded, she says ectothermic. They get their heat from their environment. When it is 80 degrees, their temperature is 80 degrees. No one knows why arachnophobia haunts so many. Spiders eat insects we consider pests. Yet, it's one of the most common types of phobias. But one weekend a year, in the small eastern Colorado town of La Junta, the mighty tarantula gets a starring role. For once, not as a villain. Welcome to the fourth annual Tarantula Fest. There's a parade, an eight-legged race, of course a hairy leg contest, and thousands of tarantula lovers from near and far. Costumes optional. Ruth O'Keefe made the pilgrimage from New Mexico. What is it about tarantulas that you love so much to go so out of your way to see? They are exotic and they are still so unknown. In the world of spiders, what sets tarantulas apart? So tarantulas are a very old lineage. Some of the earliest spiders that arose approximately 540 million years ago look very similar to the tarantulas that we have today. So is it fair to say that tarantulas are like the woolly mammoths of spiders? Except they're living, so you can't say they're woolly mammoths because we no longer have woolly mammoths. Living, but not well understood. What are the big questions that you have about tarantulas? You know, just everything. Much of the nation's tarantula grassland habitat, which stretches from Louisiana in the east, Texas in the south, and Colorado in the north, has vanished to development. But here, nearly half a million acres of exhausted Colorado farmland was protected during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s and eventually restored. Autumn offers a fleeting opportunity to see male tarantulas venturing far from their burrows for the first time in their lives. They risk predators and exposure, guided by the one force that drives the entire animal kingdom to act beyond reason. They're out looking for females. Looking for females, so this is a quest for love. So it's, yep. Shillington's students began documenting mating season here in 2021. They tap on the ground or do a little judder, and the female is very good at hearing that. So she will come out. How long does the act last? I think I've got a four-minute mating sequence. Whoa. It's the male tarantula's last act before dying of exhaustion. And then when we turn him over... At the festival, Dr. Shillington leads show-and-tell, where even the youngest residents of La Junta are eager to learn more about their eight-legged neighbors. They just are crossing our roads, they cross our yards, they crawl on the sides of our house. For a town once buried by the Dust Bowl and years of economic drought, Angie Stafford says the tarantula has brought revival. So it sometimes feels like, you know, things are shutting down, dying. It kind of gives us all a boost out here, like we haven't been forgotten. So if the male tarantula, like males of many species, seems kind of lost and inept in his search for a mate, it does seem he has found some love in the town of La Junta. The more time you spend with them, watching them, you find the things that just become very endearing.

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