October 10, 2015: Tarantula Mating Season on Mount Diablo with Kevin

These tarantula images are open for use, not copyrighted. 

These shots are just from my cell phone, for sharing rather than artistic purposes.

It was that wonderful time of year, tarantula mating season!  It was a record good year, too, as we made the acquaintance of EIGHT stunning tarantulas!

A bit about our tradition:

When I first met Kevin, he invited me on his very special male bonding ritual.  Ever year in late September through October now (the season is shifting later with the draught), the male tarantulas make their way to find mates.  

It is an arduous journey.  The guys risk getting eaten by birds, falling victim to the tarantula wasps that lay their eggs *in* the tarantulas under their skin, and getting squashed by SUVs.  (One year we saw four squashed ones. Poor little guys!)  And after ALL THAT, the females can say, "GET LOST, SUCKER!" Ouch.

So Kevin, empathetic creature that he is, helps the guys out by taking them to the female burrows.  He cannot influence the females' will, but he can lessen the dangers along the way.

If the tarantulas are feeling cranky, they let you know.  They have two lines of defense before they will bite you, so like rattlesnakes they really are quite courteous.  First they arch their thorax if they don't want to be bothered.  If you don't heed that, they "shoot" their course hairs into you, sort of like porcupines.  The hairs reputedly itch. This has never happened to us because if the arachnids arch, you simply tip your hat and bid them a good day. Mostly they are quite docile and social, though.

I have some cell phone video, too, if anyone wants to see that, but I am haven trouble getting it off my Galaxy phone.  My phone does not play nicely with my Mac. 

 This is a female burrow, about the size of a quarter.