Shades of a horror flick!

17 years ago

We were driving around Red Rock Canyon in NV and stopped by the road. I had noticed that everywhere I looked was like white attached to the bushes by the road and as far as you could see for miles on both side of the road. Some bushes had as many as 6 or 9 attached on it. All my cousin and I could think as we shuddered is I would hate to be a hiker at daytime much less at night when these all free themselves and walk the desert. There have to be 1000's upon 1000's in there. Just like one of those horror movies. Holy cow, I could see them moving inside the web, they were ready to come out, there were holes inside each of the webs. If you can't tell by now, this is a tarantula, oohhh ick, major creepy. My cousin wanted us to go rock hunting with him.... No way after I saw these! I don't care they weren't in the area he was going to go.... Didn't know that when we first stopped by the road, there were two right by the car....

Comments (12)

calpat
17 years ago
That is so weird...tarantulas are suppose to be friendly little critters, but I'm afraid I'm a bit picky about friendliness stuff. But sure glad you got pictures, I've never seen anything like it. Pat
youreit
17 years ago
I think I'm going to have nightmares now, Leslie! That is THE most scary thing I've seen since The Exorcist. I know tarantulas don't chase you and attack or anything, but....the shear number of them is enough to make me shudder ALL the live-long day! *nervous giggle*

Brenda
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catherinet
17 years ago
And I thought it was something like webworms!
Tarantulas? Ahhhhh.....aren't they cute?
comettose
17 years ago
There is a webworm on the spider egg 'case' or 'nest web'. What do you call that? So you are telling me that is a big web full of baby tarantula? Cool! I like spiders! I was thinking of moving to the Red Rock area of Southern Utah when I retire. Very beautiful country.
Mikey
17 years ago
I've never seen tarantulas build a web like that above ground. They live in holes in the ground and they may line their hole with webbing. I used to catch them as a kid when I lived in Riverside. The webbing above looks to me to be something similar to what a tent caterpillar would build, and I do notice some sort of caterpillar inside. I've seen similar webs in trees in the East that were identified to me as being tent caterpillars.
CA Kate z9
17 years ago
I agree with Mikey. I'm no expert, but I think the Tarantula(s) you saw were after a meal in the tent caterpillar's tent. If this is so, I'd say the Tarantulas were doing all of us gardeners a BIG favor.

Did you actually see a Tarantula in each web?
youreit
17 years ago
Oh, yeah, if tent caterpillars are building those, and the spiders are having them for snacks, I applaud the BIG hairy guys! Tent caterpillars are terrible.

Brenda
lesdvs9
Original Author
17 years ago
Yes, each of these webs held a tarantula in it. I've been looking on the internet. They were on creosote bushes. Not supposed to be there, they're supposed to be underground from what I understand too. Now I really wish I'd gotten a pic of the whole area. As far as you could see, miles on both sides of the road, these were attached to bushes. The bigger bushes held up to 6 or more. There were little green like worms on and in the webs. This wasn't a one time web, I checked out several of them. They weren't dead inside, the tarantulas were wiggling around in there.... I've got a second pic of another, I'll see if it's any clearer, it moved and surprised me so I lost the top of the pic a little. Actually it also scared me:)
lesdvs9
Original Author
17 years ago
Here's another pic, sure wish I had got a photo of the area, sounds like it was a one time opportunity.
{{gwi:494966}}
Leslie
CA Kate z9
17 years ago
What I find incredibly scary are all the caterpillar tents you saw... each filled with hundreds of plant-devouring caterpillars. Can you imagine the destruction they could cause once they matured and left "home"? I'll take the tarantulas any day.
lesdvs9
Original Author
17 years ago
Now see I saw it as a balance of nature, they were there for the thousands and thousands of tarantulas for snacks. In each web I didn't see very many of those caterpillars left, I didn't count but I'd say under 10 on the side I could see. I don't think many are going to mature and leave home, I think they're toast by the time those tarantulas are done. Seeing through those holes in the webs are the tarantulas legs, that whole web is just about taken up with the tarantula. So some of the black shadow seen within are the body and more legs of it. It's about the size of my fist. I guess I just have this imprinted in my mind to see it and you guys can't really. You can see a couple of obvious catepillars but the other black lines are tarantulas legs.

This has been a very strange year for nature and weather all the way around. Actually I think the last few years have been.
ceruleanme
17 years ago
Tarantulas do not get into those webs, in fact, tarantulas aren't even native to that part of Nevada.

I'm a volunteer docent at Red Rock Canyon, and haven't seen a single taranutula there ever. Tarantulas burrow into little holes, and tend to catch prey only at night. The tend to eat small bugs, not catapillars. Scroll down http://www.desertusa.com/july96/du_taran.html read the section called habitat and food & hunting.

What you saw were just more catapillars, not spider legs.