Tarantula Encounters

By Anna Wassel

It is on my bucket list to hold a tarantula, so I was more excited than scared to hear on the first day at Palo Verde National Park (in the Guanacaste Region of Costa Rica) that we could expect to see tarantulas in the wild.  Tarantulas can be found in rainforests throughout southern North America, Central America, South America, and Africa.  It only took a couple days before Professor Mauricio Garcia called to me and a few other students on our way to go star gazing that he found a tarantula.  This, however, was not my moment to cross an item off my bucket list.  Identified by its swollen pedipalps—the leg-like structures by a tarantula’s mouth—this particular one was a male.  Males are only interested in finding a mate, and not “playing” as Mau had said.  While tarantulas are not typically aggressive and there are no recorded fatalities for bites, the risks of aggravating a tarantula include getting bitten or having the small urticating hairs released into your skin.  We were able to get close to this one and take photos since he wasn’t exhibiting any warning signs, like raising his front legs. Having seen how to identify males from females first hand, I was excited at the prospects of finding a friendlier female to handle. 

A few mornings later, as I was watching the Great Curassows by the dining hall, I almost stepped on a tarantula; even though I had shoes on, it was still a frightening experience.  It was laying very still, so after the initial shock subsided, I crouched down to take pictures.  While I was trying to capture the slight shine on its body, some sort of flying, black, five-inch-long insect, flew close to my face.  I’m perfectly comfortable with the classic “creepy-crawly” side of nature like spiders, but I am not at all keen about flying insects, so after realizing its narrow waist and pointed abdomen resembled a wasp, I was quick to briskly walk away.  As I was still determined to get a good picture, I turned around and hoped the zoom on my camera would do the tarantula justice.  I noticed the monstrous wasp with a tinge of blue to its wings had an interest in the tarantula as well.  Then I watched—partially in horror and disgust and partially in the grip of curiosity and fascination—as the wasp dragged the tarantula, larger in size than the wasp itself, into woods.  I thought to myself, “well at least I almost stepped on it because it was dead, not because I was totally unaware.”

Come to find out, the encounter I had seen was that of a “tarantula hawk” (family Pompilidae) carrying off a live, but paralyzed tarantula so she can lay her eggs inside its body until they hatch and eat the tarantula from the inside out. While they are typically considered docile and unlikely to sting, their stings have been documented to be very painful.  There went another opportunity to
hold a tarantula.  A few days later, a visiting professor brings out a tarantula he found under his bed in a petri dish to show all of us.  Finally, with approval from our professor, I got to hold a tarantula.  It was male, but I had never specified that it had to be a live tarantula.  So, with dead tarantula in hands, I got to cross a new item off my bucket list.  Although, I would not at all be opposed to holding a live one during my time here, either.