JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Juana Summers in Washington.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
And I'm Ailsa Chang in Los Angeles, where spider season is in full swing. And not just because it's almost Halloween, but also because this is the time of year that certain spiders have fattened up, reached adulthood and are ready to mate.
So wait, Lisa, are we going to see some spider sex tonight at golden hour?
LISA GONZALEZ: I hope so...
CHANG: I hope so, too.
GONZALEZ: ...Because it's really cool. Spider mating is very interesting.
CHANG: This is Lisa Gonzalez of the Natural History Museum of LA County, and she's invited me up to this park in the hills of northeast LA to hike around and meet some spiders for myself.
Oh, my God. I love that the back of your car has a bumper sticker that says, this car is full of spiders.
GONZALEZ: I mean, sometimes it's true.
CHANG: And tonight it is true because Lisa has a little friend waiting in the back of her SUV, a tarantula named Taco.
It's perfect. It's LA. Taco. It's perfect. She's an LA spider.
GONZALEZ: She's an LA spider. So this is a type of tarantula that is found here in LA County.
CHANG: I think of tarantulas as the warm and fuzzy spiders. At least I'm hoping Taco will be...
GONZALEZ: They're like little kittens...
CHANG: OK.
GONZALEZ: ...Just with eight legs and fangs.
CHANG: OK. Let's just hope this one is a kitten because I will be honest, spiders gross me out. All those legs, they're so creepy-crawly. And I hate accidentally walking through their sticky webs. But Lisa? Lisa is here to change my mind, something she aims to do all the time at the museum, where she is the program manager of the Spider Pavilion, an exhibit full of live spiders. One of her goals in life is to convince people to appreciate arachnids by learning more about them.
GONZALEZ: Because I really love these spiders, and I know that they are harmless. And I know so many people are so stressed out about them, and I want to take that off their list of things to be stressed out about.
CHANG: So Lisa beckons me to touch Taco. Yes, as in pet a tarantula, Step 1 in addressing my spider aversion. So I gingerly stick out my finger to caress her on the butt.
Oh...
GONZALEZ: Yeah.
CHANG: ...She's so silky.
GONZALEZ: They are very, very soft. You're doing great.
CHANG: Am I? She's walking away...
GONZALEZ: Yeah.
CHANG: ...From my finger (laughter).
Taco very politely says she needs some space. So we begin hiking up the trail to look for other spiders, specifically orb-weavers - the ones that spin those fancy circular webs.
So I know that you wanted to meet right before sunset as dusk was setting in. Besides the potentially spooky vibes, why is that such a great time of day to hunt for spiders?
GONZALEZ: Well, most spiders, not all, but most spiders are more active at night, and they're catching things that are flying around at night.
CHANG: Gotcha.
GONZALEZ: So this is a great time to look for spiders as they are building their new webs...
CHANG: Yeah.
GONZALEZ: ...'Cause a lot of them will rebuild their web every day or even every other day.
CHANG: Oh, my gosh.
GONZALEZ: They're out.
CHANG: They are workers, yeah.
GONZALEZ: Yes. Imagine having to rebuild your entire house every day.
CHANG: No (laughter).
We pause at the top of a hill right at a lake where Lisa says the hunting for orb-weavers is good. She knows all the good places because she has been obsessed with spiders since she was a little girl.
GONZALEZ: In fact, I get more passionate, enthusiastic as I get older. And I think the less an animal is like people, the more curious I am about them, but in particular, these orb-weaving spiders. These are animals that have no wings.
CHANG: Right.
GONZALEZ: And yet are exclusively catching these fast-flying insects that are flying around on this planet, which I just find to be incredible. Right?
CHANG: Right.
GONZALEZ: It's just mind-blowing to me.
CHANG: Through evolution, it's managed to be able to build an architecture, a tool - the web - to catch these flying prey.
GONZALEZ: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's basically able to access this whole buffet that's going on in the air.
CHANG: At this point, it's getting dark. So we switch on our flashlights and begin to patrol the lake's edge.
GONZALEZ: A bat just flew over...
CHANG: Dang.
GONZALEZ: ...So we can look for some bats too...
CHANG: OK.
GONZALEZ: ...While we're looking for spiders. Why not...
CHANG: Cool.
GONZALEZ: ...Right?
CHANG: Why not? It's Halloween.
GONZALEZ: It's Halloween time. Let's do it.
CHANG: We're walking slowly, scanning with our flashlights.
GONZALEZ: Look at this spooky tree. See? This would be perfect.
CHANG: Yeah.
GONZALEZ: If I was a spider, I would live here.
CHANG: We're searching for some shimmer of silk against the night sky.
Oh, my God, there's one right in front of us.
GONZALEZ: Yeah.
CHANG: It looks bright white under your flashlight. Is that...
And then, all of a sudden, we start seeing webs everywhere.
Oh.
GONZALEZ: Oh. Yeah, look at that one. My guess would be this is her last night on that web, and then she'll probably break it down. And when - they actually consume their old webs...
CHANG: Yeah.
GONZALEZ: ...To recycle the protein.
CHANG: They will eat their homes...
GONZALEZ: Yes.
CHANG: ...And recycle?
GONZALEZ: ...Recycle some of those nutrients...
CHANG: Oh, wow.
GONZALEZ: ...To produce more silk. That's, you know, precious protein.
CHANG: Totally.
GONZALEZ: Yeah.
CHANG: Also noted, you use the pronoun she. So only female spiders are the web builders among orb-weavers?
GONZALEZ: So the males can produce silk.
CHANG: OK.
GONZALEZ: But these particular spiders that we're seeing, the females are the ones that are much larger and making these really large webs. And the males are really just focused on mating.
CHANG: God, this is such a parallel (laughter). Woman's taking care of the work.
GONZALEZ: Yeah. So - and I'm hoping we'll be able to find some of the males, but they're so much smaller than the females, they can be hard to spot.
CHANG: And then, high up in a tree, we do spot what could be a teeny, tiny, little man spider lurking at the edge of a big web, poised to approach the plump female sitting at the center.
GONZALEZ: Yes. OK, so that might be a male.
CHANG: Is that a guy?
GONZALEZ: Yeah. Oh, look it. She definitely responded to him coming out on the web.
CHANG: Wait, like in a get off my property...
GONZALEZ: It did...
CHANG: ...Get off my lawn?
GONZALEZ: It very seemed like get off my lawn. But that does look like it's a small male...
CHANG: Oh.
GONZALEZ: ...That is trying his best to convince her that he should be able to, like, come down there and mate with her.
CHANG: Yeah.
GONZALEZ: And then, other times, if the female catches something and is eating, then the males will take the opportunity to come down and attempt to mate with her because if she's occupied with eating on something, she's less likely to eat him and more likely to be...
CHANG: He will interrupt her meal.
GONZALEZ: She can multitask, so she'll keep eating (laughter).
CHANG: The male backs away. Sorry. You tried, but sometimes a female just isn't in the mood, OK? But seriously, I had no idea this gender dynamic transferred over to arachnids. And after learning all of this, about just how industrious and innovative spiders are, you know what? I have become a true believer. I asked Lisa to make the case for spiders for those nonbelievers out there.
GONZALEZ: Well, they do so many different things. I mean, one, they're eating insects, so they're helping as a natural form of pest management. But they're also a part of the food web. There are other animals that eat spiders, too.
CHANG: That's an important function.
GONZALEZ: Absolutely. Spiders are really interesting because they're some of the first animals to repopulate areas that are regenerating after, you know, maybe there was a fire that came through or the trees were cut for some reason, and then we're trying to reestablish that natural area. When spiders are really little, when they're babies, they release silk that allows them to balloon or fly away from where they were born. So they are some of the first animals that will start to repopulate areas. So they're really an important indicator for restoration ecologists...
CHANG: Oh, cool.
GONZALEZ: ...When they're coming in to see how, you know, things are growing and getting better.
CHANG: They're, like, the earliest signs of promise in a area that you want to resuscitate or revive. If you see spiders there, that's a good sign.
GONZALEZ: Yes. They're a sign of hope.
CHANG: They are a sign of hope. I really like that. I feel like when I proceed with my life after parting ways with you tonight, I'm going to be extra careful about not walking through webs, about making sure I definitely never kill spiders from now on. I might not have the same promise with flies and mosquitoes or ants, but spiders will have a special honor in my world, OK? (Laughter).
GONZALEZ: That's a great start. That's a great start (laughter).
CHANG: That was Lisa Gonzalez, program manager of the Natural History Museum of LA County's Spider Pavilion, helping us all learn to love spiders this Halloween.
(SOUNDBITE OF KS. PIOTR PAWLUKIEWICZ'S "HALLOWEEN CUTE HORROR SONG") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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