It never fails… during the monsoon season, we get phone calls asking what we can do to control the tarantula that a customer has just found on their patio. Our answer is very consistent… not much.
Now if I just closed this blog here, and did not give you any other information, I would be doing you a huge disservice. The fact of the matter is tarantulas are some of the gentle giants of our desert Southwest. Despite a frightening exterior and Hollywood’s best efforts, they are simply lonely souls in search of a mate.
Tarantulas live a mostly solitary life. To say that the female tarantula is a homebody is an understatement. She never roams from her nest in the ground more than a diameter of approximately 18 inches. She does not need the American Express Card, as she never leaves home.
Males are forced to travel uncertain distances to places never before encountered to find a mate. This only occurs once a year, and it coincides with our monsoon. The male spider will begin travelling around looking for a female. Sometimes this means we find them on porches, garages or even crawling up stucco walls.
They are not hunting, or even seeking total world domination, just trying to find a girlfriend. Gently take a shovel or similar item and scoop the spider up, and place him outside your wall or back in the desert. He is just a victim of looking for love in all the wrong places.
