sbrobert
By Robert Bernstein
What could be a more ideal activity ahead of Halloween than a walk to see tarantulas? Ed and Shay Seaman own Santa Barbara Blueberries and the Restoration Oaks property near Gaviota. They also have cattle ranching on their 955 acre property.
They are very environmentally conscious and host many educational events at Restoration Oaks. They call their practice “agro-ecology”. One of their projects is “vermiculture” or raising worms for composting. As of June 1 they completely replaced all artificial fertilizer with worm castings.
On Friday October 21 they hosted a Tarantula Walk with the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County. Here are my photos!
In the Halloween spirit, they were giving out Halloween candy as well as more healthy snacks.
Ed gathered people at 4:00PM to give an educational background talk.
And he passed around a small terrarium with… What do you think these are that my wife Merlie is holding?
Our local tarantula is the California ebony tarantula Aphonopelma eutylenum.
Ed and Shay’s son Eli guided us past the first herd of cows. Ed explained that the cows are no danger to humans, but they are herd animals. Meaning that you don’t want to cut through the middle of a herd or you may find some cows rushing past you to join the others.
Our first tarantula sighting was both sad and beautiful. Tarantula Hawks are huge wasps that attack tarantulas. They sting the tarantula to paralyze it. Then they drag the tarantula into a burrow and lay an egg inside of the tarantula. The egg hatches and eats the still-living tarantula from the inside out. Very ghoulish. But the wasp is very colorful.
Here is my video.
Our first bit of tarantula education that was new for me: Learning to spot a tarantula burrow. Here was the first one we found.
They range in size from nickel to quarter sized. The walls are lined with silk to keep them from falling in. A bit like a funnel web.
Ed explained what is going on with the tarantulas. The females tend to stay in the burrows. They put out a pheromone “perfume” to indicate they are interested in mating. The males are usually the ones you will see out and about. They are searching for a burrow with a receptive female in it.
He explained that one of three things may happen when the male approaches a female in the burrow. He starts by gingerly reaching in and tapping the female. If he is very lucky, the female will invite him in to mate. After mating, the male will leave happy and in peace, but usually won’t live to see another season. He usually only mates once and dies within a year. The females can live for over 20 years.
The second thing that might happen is the female might just ignore the male. But the third option is the female may attack the male and tear him apart. Unfortunately, she may do this after successfully mating as well.
When we found a tarantula, Ed would place it near a burrow to see if the male might have some success. Here was the first attempt placing a male at a burrow entrance.
Here is my video, showing how the male starts to enter, but then just stays near the entrance.
Soon after that, I spotted a baby gopher snake scurry into some low brush. Ed carefully dug into the brush and took it out to pass it around.
But the highlight of the outing was to be able to hold a tarantula ourselves. They look scary and they do have a venomous bite. But they reserve the venomous bite for killing their prey, not for defense.
Ed explained that it takes them time and energy to produce the venom and they are reluctant to bite a human.
My wife made this excellent video of me picking one up off the ground. The idea is to let it do the walking, giving it the choice to walk onto your hand or not.
Everyone who wanted to do so had a chance to hold one, as they were passed around.
At one point we had two male tarantulas and Ed showed what happens if you put two males at the entrance to a burrow.
They will do a brief battle and then one will retreat.
We ended up at the duck pond where more cows were hanging out.
Wild Farmlands is the name of the non-profit for the Restoration Oaks Ranch and Santa Barbara Blueberries.
You can learn more about their projects here. https://wildfarmlands.org/
They also have a YouTube channel here. https://www.youtube.com/c/WildFarmlands
Best thing you can teach young people about animals is to look, not touch. Many small animals are easily injured by well-meaning “captures.” In Roberts photos, as ever, he is promoting and condoning handling of animals. This frightens the animals (survival instinct) and also often harms animals by way of human hands being coated with lotions, sunblock, soap/detergent residue.