Hiking and tarantulas

We are very fortunate to live close to a wonderful lake for hiking and swimming.  Earlier this summer during a naturalist guided boat tour of the lake, we discovered that one of the coves was named Tarantula Cove.  Then last week I heard from somewhere that the tarantulas were out and about at the lake now.

So when we entered the park, we asked the attendent about the tarantulas.  He told us several things about the spiders so when we were hiking we were on the lookout for them.  

photo from wikipedia

The park attendant told us that if we encountered a spider with a bald spot, it meant that the spider had been disturbed.  Apparently one line of defense for this spider is to kick off hairs on its abdomen, this apparently irritates their enemies. We did encounter a squashed spider on our hike but no live ones.  Other hikers we talked to did see the spiders. Today my boys were more interested in watching a large group of great danes play in the lake.  We still have a couple more weeks for tarantula spotting so I am sure we will try again.

I did find interesting tarantula facts at wikipedia, enchanted learning,  and national geographic.