Tarantula mating is a crazy thing. I’ve written about the strange courtship and actual step by step mating rituals here, however I want to talk a little bit more about the pre-mating behavior and migration routines of tarantulas in this post.

We know that many animals migrate as part of their regular seasonal patterns. Our society hardly considers tarantulas to be animals with this kind of intelligence or instinct, but it turns out that tarantulas do this too!

During the fall every year, literally THOUSANDS of Oklahoma Brown tarantulas will migrate across  La Junta and southeast Colorado. As female tarantulas tend to stay close to their burrows, the travelers are male tarantulas who have reached sexual maturity and are looking to mate. Apparently, the best time to catch these tarantulas in their migration is September when it’s in Colorado. Tarantulas have also been known to migrate in Texas during the summer!

And the journey is a dangerous one. Apparently, during this migration tarantulas will need to cross roads and dodge the tractor-trailers, school buses and other vehicles before even meeting their mates. Each tarantula will travel up to a mile, according to CNN, and will only stop when connected to a mate. “There are thousands moving but you’re not going to see thousands at one time. They don’t travel in a herd,”  Michelle Stevens, a heritage resources and recreation program manager who works with the US Forest Service, told KVR.

People who live in this area know when tarantula migration is coming – not because they start seeing more tarantulas, but because they start seeing more tarantula hawks. Tarantula hawks are basically wasps who are a predator of tarantulas, and will start appearing more when they know tarantulas will be out and about.

Do you live in an area where tarantulas migrate and have seen this personally? I’d love to hear about your experience!