The Great Texas Tarantula Migration has Begun

I am an arachnophobe living in Texas. I have no idea where my fear of those 8 legged creatures from hell came from. All I know is, I won't be the one to kill one if it gets close to me.

I have had encounters where I froze in place in fear. Just writing about spiders gives me the creepy crawlies. So you can imagine the fear in my eyes when I read this article about how large tarantulas are migrating across Texas right now.

I Know They're Harmless

I know tarantulas are pretty much harmless to humans but this is still terrifying. My only reaction would be to grab the nearest blow torch and use that as I deem necessary. A creepy fact is that Texas is home to 14 species of tarantulas.

That's not counting the other species of spiders found in Texas like Black Widows, which can kill you, Brown Recluses, which can kill you, or jumping spiders that can, well, jump. Ugh!

Why are tarantulas migrating across Texas?

Quite simply, they are looking for a female to mate with. The female arachnid will then lay between 100 to 1,000(!) eggs that can hatch between 45 to 60 days after laying.

So What Do These Eight-Legged Freaks Look Like

They generally have a dark brown head, thorax, and legs with a brown-black abdomen and are about 1 1/2 inches long (mysanantonio.com). Something similar to this:

Tarantulas are not common in East Texas but can't ruled out. They mostly reside is old rodent or snake holes which are underground. I don't know what specifically made me so fearful of spiders but even wolf spiders give me the creeps. I'm gonna have body shivers all day now thinking about this story.

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