San Francisco: Feces, Needles, Homelessness - And Now Tarantulas
The California city blighted by a range of exotic problems including homelessness, human feces, uncommon diseases, discarded needles, and astronomical house prices, finds a new problem–tarantulas.
San Francisco’s recent unseasonably warm weather has provoked an unsuspected natural phenomenon.
The tarantula mating season has been prolonged by a spate of warm weather which has given rise to an unusually high number of male tarantulas roaming around parks and other open spaces looking for mates.
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Sometimes, mating is fatal for male tarantulas as some females kill their mates after doing the deed.
Good news for if you're a male tarantula searching for love in the San Francisco Bay Area: warm weather has extended the mating season. Bad news: everyone hates you, and your mate will probably kill you. https://t.co/rCzcmmNhTJ
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 8, 2019
Business Insider explains:
Typically, tarantula mating season starts in late August and terminates by the second week of fall. But warm, dry weather in northern California has extended this year’s mating season there, so residents of the San Francisco Bay Area have been spotting tarantulas this week. Hiking trails in Mount Diablo State Park are reportedly replete with determined males.
Some tarantulas have been known to trek around a mile away from their burrows in search of a mate. However, most tarantulas tend to find a mate inches away.
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Male tarantulas have a life expectancy of around five years, whereas females can live for up to thirty years.
Typically, mating males, outside of their burrows, die by November if they survive the mating process.
According to CBS San Francisco, Sonoma County Reptile Rescue Director Al Wolf said:
“despite this fight and being some of the largest spiders in the spider world, tarantulas are known to be docile and rarely bite humans.
“It’s often the nicest spider of the groups. It’s the littler spiders that we always have problems with. These big ones often don’t do anything to you.”
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