Every year around this time, thousands of hairy eight-legged critters leave their dark burrows. They crawl uninvited over driveways and lawns in Coarsegold, California. How do people cope with this invasion? They celebrate!
In this small town near Yosemite National Park, tarantulas are as much a fall ritual as Halloween. This year's October 29 event marks the eighth annual Tarantula Awareness Festival. Another hairy celebration takes place nearby at Henry W. Coe State Park.
Tarantulas live in northern California all year. They usually come out only at night. From August through early November, mature males appear during the day to find mates.
"The first time I saw one on my porch was horrifying," says Diane Boland of her experiences as a newcomer to Coarsegold. After trying to run over one with her car, she caught an earful from a neighbor. Tarantulas eat insects and pests such as field mice. The local species, Aphonopelma (uh-fone-uh-pel-muh), is venomous, but it rarely bites. Its bite is not dangerous or very painful.
Boland started the festival to honor the creepy-crawlies. Kids can win awards for tarantula poetry. There's a hairy leg contest for dads. Tarantula expert Scott Bemis gives talks and lets people hold local specimens, which are about four inches across. "People are amazed at how light they are," Bemis told TFK, "and that they aren't massive, dangerous things."
Nathan Myers, 9, and his brother Jacob, 8, are regulars at the Coe festival. Nathan says that the tarantulas are cool, not creepy: "My brother lets them crawl all over him."