John Steiner, the blogger behind Journeys With Johnbo, has this prompt he calls Cellpic Sunday in which he asks us to post a photo that was taken with a cellphone, tablet, or another mobile device. I thought this might be fun so I decided to join in.
My wife took this photo early one evening last week. She noticed this large, hairy spider clinging to the outside of the glass slider that leads from the master bedroom to our deck in the back of our house. We confirmed that this is a tarantula spider, and this is the first one we’ve seen this year.
It’s actually kind of unusual to see a tarantula climbing up a glass slider, and even more unusual to see one before sunset, and yet even more unusual to see one at this time of year.
Why? Because these creatures are nocturnal and they live in underground burrows and rarely come out much before sunset. About the only time you see tarantulas above ground is during mating season, which is typically in September and October where we live. That’s when the mature male tarantulas are on the prowl for females and will leave their burrows to find female tarantulas to mate. Female tarantulas stay in their burrows most of their lives.
So was this tarantula in the photo an outlier? It wasn’t underground, it wasn’t dark, and it’s still at least four months before the tarantula mating season actually starts. Personally, I blame it on climate change.
If you wish to participate in this fun cellphone photo prompt, please click on the link to John’s post at the top of my post to see his photo and to read his instructions.
This, That, and the Other 
Yikes 😱 🕷️
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Wow…glad it was on the other side of the glass
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That is one awesome photo! Maybe he was just lonely and thought he’d get a jump on the other spidos in the dating arena…
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You would have had me screaming down the phone in terror rather than taking a picture with it!
Fascinating stuff though.
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Interesting conundrum and a great photo!
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Could be the impact of climate change. It’s wreaking havoc on us all.
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Awesome cellpic, rare and safe 👍
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Good times.
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Yes yikes……..
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🙈🙈🙈🙈 You could have warned me before attacking my eyeballs with such a monster! 😂 Spiders give me the major heebie-jeebies, I don’t think I’d be able to cope with that.
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Your lucky you don’t live where we do. During tarantula mating season here they’re everywhere. Fortunately, they’re neither poisonous nor aggressive critters.
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*shivers violently*
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Despite loathing spiders of any size, that is a fantastic picture. Rabid animals deviate from routine – I wonder if spiders can become rabid? Scary thought!!
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Very scary thought. Thanks.
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Makes the day more interesting, hehe
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That is ever so good Fandango. Your wife does a great job, please let her know 🙂
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I will. She’ll be thrilled.
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I hate spiders! Glad I can’t see them 😀
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Ooooh, icky! Not a fan of spiders and the bigger the scarier in my book. I’d faint if that was on my door!
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