Many of us can sympathize with Little Miss Muffett. After all, wouldn't you run if a spider decided to join you? People are frightened by spiders, even though most of them actually help us. We're especially frightened by large ones&mdashlike the fearsome tarantula! These spiders are large enough to actually feed on such things as lizards, frogs, small mammals, and even some venomous snakes! It's true that tarantulas have a poison of their own, but it's not a great threat to humans. In fact, many people have tarantulas as pets! The arthropod collection in UTEP's Laboratory for Environmental Biology has a tarantula so tame it will snuggle into a person's hand; school groups who visit may get to meet this gentle giant.
These spiders are really at a greater risk from humans than we are from
them. Some people intentionally kill them, but even accidentally dropping one may doom
it, as the body is quite delicate. If you run into one of these extraordinary
creatures, 
watch it and enjoy
a mild-mannered marvel of nature.
Listen to the Audio (mp3 format) as recorded by KTEP, Public Radio for the Southwest.
Contributor: Kodi R. Jeffery, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Tarantula. Photograph by Gerald and Buff Corsi. Copyright 1999 by California Academy of Sciences.