Tarantulas Live in Parts of Colorado
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A Tarantula Hawk - Photo from Wikipedia |
A few days after moving into our home on the outskirts of Pagosa, I noticed my cat, Boots sitting on the window sill looking at something outside. I looked in the direction that she was interested in and saw a large black tarantula crawling on the sidewalk beside the house. That was the first time that I was aware that, yes, the big spiders are around here. It has always been in the fall that I see them. I’ve since found out that their mating season starts in August and ends in November. It has probably been the males that I’ve been seeing since they are seeking out the dens of females during that time. The spiders have been seen as far north as Colorado Springs.
Some people that have lived here for years have never, ever seen one. The ones that I have seen are generally no bigger than a woman’s hand or smaller. They have at least one enemy, besides man that I know of and that is the tarantula hawk. It is a wasp which has a sting with a rating from the Schmidt Sting Pain Index that is second only to the bullet ant. It is said that when stung, it is impossible not to scream. I have seen them here, on my property, but according to all that I have read about them, they aren’t interested in human beings, unless, of course they are provoked. These wasps have a black metallic body with wings that can be blue-black, rust colored, or mahogany toned. They are up to two inches long. Aside from roadrunners, few other animals will eat them.
The female wasp seeks out female tarantulas in their den by watching from tall plants and then when it spots a den it tries to lure the spider out. It attacks and stings it, causing paralysis in the spider. The wasp then drags it back to the den or digs a hole for it and lays an egg in the spider. When the larva hatches out, it feeds on the spider while it is developing. What a horrible way for any creature to die!
While I don’t like spiders, I haven’t seen that many tarantulas around here to be concerned about them. They are interesting creatures to watch, however. They are not interested in us unless we tamper with them; which brings me to my next story.
Whenever I see one of these spiders, I always tell my husband to come and see it. There was one such spider just behind our house on one fall day crawling along, minding its own business, when alas; two humans were suddenly standing nearby staring at it. To get away from their prying eyes, it started crawling up the side of their house. Alarmed, my husband did not want it crawling up the side of our house. By then it was about six and a half feet up from the ground, so I quickly grabbed a two foot long stick and nervously brushed it down to the ground. There it lay with its legs drawn up, like fingers curled inward. I placed the stick in front of it in hopes that it would grab on to it. And grab it, it did…………with a vengeance! It kept hold of the end of the stick as I took it to edge of the overlook and swung it outward. It fell further on down on the hillside and continued on its way, off to do what tarantulas like to do, and that is eat bugs!
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