The popularity of reality television has not waned since Survivor first aired back in the late 1990s. For many people, viewing hours of reality TV is a guilty pleasure. Apparently, watching super rich and spoiled socialites going about their day-to-day business is entertaining, but certainly not educational. However, a recent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians may be an exception, as viewers watching the program learned that tarantula mating season is currently in full swing in southern California.
The episode happened to capture the sense of terror that cleary grabbed ahold of Kourtney Kardashian and her friend as they discovered two tarantulas traversing across Kourtney’s backyard while the two had been sunbathing. As you can probably guess, the two socialites do not often experience pest problems within the bounds of their luxurious and well maintained properties.
After spotting the two tarantulas, Kourtney called a local pest control professional in a panic. After frantically describing the situation, the pest controller responded by saying that he could perform a routine inspection and apply insecticides where needed. But unfortunately for the lounging celebrities, the pest controller also claimed that preventing more tarantulas from invading the property could be difficult considering that this time of year is mating season for the hairy arachnids.
During the relatively short-lived tarantula mating season, male tarantulas hurriedly travel in search of burrowing females. These migrations sometimes appear as swarms. In an effort to locate females in enough time to pass on their genes, male tarantulas will boldly traverse any type of landscape, including urban landscapes and residential areas. This is why it is not uncommon for residents of the southwest to spot massive tarantula swarms moving through human populated areas during the late winter season. The Kardashian property underwent several insecticide sprayings at Kourtney’s insistence, despite the futility of such actions. Perhaps the two tarantulas just wanted to be on TV.
Have you ever spotted spiders traveling within a group?
