LA JUNTA, Colo. (AP) — Love is within the air on the Colorado plains — the type that makes your coronary heart beat a bit quicker, quickens your step and makes the hair on the again of your neck get up.

It’s tarantula mating season, when male spiders scurry out of their burrows in the hunt for a mate, and a whole bunch of arachnophiles flock to the small farming city of La Junta to observe them emerge in droves.

Scientists, spider fanatics and curious Colorado households piled into buses simply earlier than nightfall final weekend as tarantulas started to roam the dry, rolling plains. Some used flashlights and automotive headlights to identify the arachnids as soon as the solar set.

Again on the town, festivalgoers flaunted their tarantula-like traits in a bushy leg contest — a lady claimed the title this 12 months — and paraded round in classic automobiles with big spiders on the hoods. The 1990 cult basic movie “Arachnophobia,” which follows a small city equally overrun with spiders, screened downtown on the historic Fox Theater.

For residents of La Junta, tarantulas aren’t the nightmarish creatures usually depicted on the silver display screen. They’re an vital a part of the native ecosystem and a draw for individuals across the U.S. who might need in any other case by no means visited the tight-knit city in southeastern Colorado.

Phrase unfold shortly amongst neighbors about all of the individuals they’d met from out of city in the course of the third 12 months of the tarantula competition.

Amongst them was Nathan Villareal, a tarantula breeder from Santa Monica, California, who stated he heard concerning the mating season and knew it was a spectacle he wanted to witness. Villareal sells tarantulas as pets to individuals across the U.S. and stated he has been fascinated with them since childhood.

“Colorado Brown” tarantulas are the commonest within the La Junta space, they usually kind their burrows within the largely undisturbed prairies of the Comanche Nationwide Grassland.

In September and October, the mature males wander in the hunt for a feminine’s burrow, which she sometimes marks with silk webbing. Peak viewing time is an hour earlier than nightfall when the warmth of the day dies down.

“We noticed at the least a dozen tarantulas on the street, after which we went again afterwards and noticed one other dozen extra,” Villareal stated.

Male tarantulas take round seven years to achieve reproductive readiness, then spend the remainder of their lifespan trying to find a mate, stated Cara Shillington, a biology professor at Jap Michigan College who research arachnids. They sometimes dwell for a few 12 months after reaching sexual maturity, whereas females can dwell for 20 years or extra.

The males develop to be about 5 inches lengthy and develop a pair of appendages on their heads that they use to drum exterior a feminine’s burrow. She is going to crawl to the floor if she is a keen mate, and the male will hook its legs onto her fangs.

Their coupling is fast, because the male tries to get away earlier than he’s eaten by the feminine, who tends to be barely bigger and wishes additional vitamins to maintain her being pregnant.

Like many who attended the competition, Shillington is captivated with instructing individuals to not worry tarantulas and different spiders. Tarantulas present in North America are usually docile creatures, she defined. Their venom will not be thought of harmful to people however may cause ache and irritation.

“If you encounter them, they’re extra afraid of you,” Shillington stated. “Tarantulas solely chew out of worry. That is the one approach that they’ve to guard themselves, and for those who don’t put them in a scenario the place they really feel like they must chew, then there is no such thing as a cause to worry them.”

Many kids who attended the competition with their households realized that spiders aren’t as scary as they could appear. Roslyn Gonzales, 13, stated she couldn’t wait to search around for spiders come sundown.

For graduate scholar Goran Shikak, whose arm was crawling with spider tattoos, the yearly competition represents a chance to have a good time tarantulas with others who share his fascination.

“They’re stunning creatures,” stated Shikak, an arachnology scholar on the College of Colorado Denver. “And getting to observe them do what they do … is a pleasure and expertise that’s value watching within the wild.”