Creepy, crawly, sometimes hairy, big & small, the spiders are back at the Spider Pavilion at the Natural History Museum.

Now through the end of November, you can see the spiders in their natural environment – the open air pavilion – with the larger tarantulas contained in terrariums.

Reservations are required, and the entries are timed. You only get 30 minutes in the open pavilion.  So for this event, you don’t want to be late.  

But 30 minutes is plenty of time to observe these amazing little nightmares.

Here, the spiders weave their webs and live pretty normal, spider lives. The open-air pavilion houses a lush garden that attracts plenty of curious & hungry insects, who, instead of finding a meal for themselves, may find that they are the main course in a spider web. It might sound cruel, but spiders are actually helping with pest control.

The same pavilion houses the butterfly pavilion in the spring & summer.

I went to the Spider Pavilion on its opening weekend.  And there were still a few butterflies flitting about. As I walked through the garden, I saw the wings of some unlucky butterflies that got caught in the spider web.  Eek!!

I asked the museum educator if they deliberately left the butterflies from the butterfly pavilion to be spider food for the spider pavilion.  She laughed and said, “No.  Honestly, we didn’t expect any of the butterflies to still be alive.”  Well, a few of them weren’t after the spiders took up residency.

When I went back the next weekend, the butterflies were all gone, but I didn’t see any wings in the spider webs.  So, I’m not sure what their final fate was.

While the spiders are the star of the show, don’t ignore the beautiful webs they weave. I was able to get a shot of this spider at the start of his web. He is hanging by a single thread, but when he’s done, it will be a beautiful, and sturdy design.

This spider reigns as king in the center of his web. Notice how he stays rooted in place on his web as the wind gently blows.

Before you leave the pavilion, you have to do a full body shake, kind of like a wet dog, to make sure no critters have tried to hitch a ride out of there.

The tarantulas are located in terrariums in the outer room.  While you are limited to only 30 minutes in the open air pavilion, you can spend as much time as you want in the outer room, looking at the tarantulas.  

There are signs that tell you what type of tarantula you are looking at, and a little bit about that species.  

I’ll be honest, it was very cool, and also a little creepy.  Alright, it was a lot creepy.  But it was still fascinating.

One of the tarantulas they had was a burgundy goliath birdeater tarantula.  While it is the largest tarantula in the world, it doesn’t eat birds.  I don’t understand why someone would name this tarantula a bird eater, when it doesn’t eat birds.  Sometimes, science is a mystery.

Another tarantula was a desert tarantula, and this one does eat small animals, like mice or lizards.  

The green bottle blue tarantula is from Venezuela.  Okay, let me stop right here. The “Green Bottle Blue Tarantula?” Who names these? This tarantula is neither green, nor blue. Anyway, he builds a climate controlled web to keep the heat out.  Insects will get caught in his web, so he doesn’t have to hunt for food.  It’s like grubhub for tarantulas.

The Mexican Flame Knee tarantula is an extremely hairy guy with bright red knees on all 8 legs.  

The Spider Pavilion is an adventure whether you’re an adult or a kid.  It’s fascinating to observe these spiders in their natural environment, albeit a controlled natural environment.  

The Spider Pavilion is located at the Natural History Museum at 900 Exposition Blvd in Los Angeles.  The Expo Metro line stops at the museum, if you prefer not to hassle with parking.  

The Spider Pavilion is a flat $8.00 per person.  It does not include entry to the Natural History Museum.  

Check out their web site at https://nhm.org/.  

If you want to see more about the Spider Pavilion, click on the link below to watch my video.  

Or go to my YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/c/jasmineapple.