If you live in southeast Colorado and are afraid of spiders, you might want to watch out, because thousands of male tarantulas are currently crawling around the area looking for mates!

During their mating season each year, which typically lasts from August to October, thousands of the all-male Texas brown tarantulas descend on the region. Each of these tarantulas have already reached sexual maturity, meaning they are around 10 years-old.

These tarantulas can be very scary too look at, as their leg span is 4 to 5 inches. However, Mario Padilla, head entomologist at the Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center in Colorado, is urging the public to remember that the Texas brown tarantulas are “completely docile.” Other experts have described them as “shy” and “nonaggressive.”

While the tarantulas do have fangs and venom, they won’t do much damage to humans other than piercing their skin.

“Even if you accidentally provoke one into attacking you, its venom will affect you only about as much as a bee sting would,” Mental Floss explained.

Even so, I think I would keep my distance from this tarantula just to be safe!

Female tarantulas are typically 3 inches long and weigh 0.7 ounces. Both the males and the females are very recognizable from their chocolate brown bodies and dark brown, nearly black, eight legs. While in Colorado, the male tarantulas will be looking for female mates in prairie grass, like the kind found in the Comanche National Grassland area.

Female tarantulas protect themselves from predator by almost always staying in burrows that can be a foot deep and are covered with silk on the entrance. They typically eat small mammals, spiders, beetles and other insects.

During mating season, the male tarantulas typically crawl up to the burrow entrance to try and entice the female to mate. The bad news for the male is that after mating, he will die within the next two or three months. In fact, he’ll only make it that long if the female tarantula does not decide to eat him first.