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Early Access - New Turret Spiders Episode!
🕑 Added 2019-01-12 01:29:18 +0000 UTCHi there Peeps of Deep, we hope you enjoy a first look at our newest episode. You can start sharing it out if you like from YouTube on 1/15 Tuesday morning. Thanks!
There are strange little towers on the forest floor. Neat, right? Nope. Inside hides a spider that's cunning, patient and ruthless.
Most Bay Area hikers pass right by without ever noticing, but a careful eye can spot tiny towers rising up from the forest floor. These mysterious little tubes, barely an inch high, are the homes of a particularly sneaky predator -- the California turret spider.
“To me, the turrets look just like the rook in a chess set,” said Trent Pearce, a naturalist for the East Bay Regional Park District, as he scanned the terrain at Briones Regional Park. “The spiders themselves are super burly – like a tiny tarantula the size of your pinky nail.”
When they attack, “It’s like the scene in a horror movie where the monster appears out of nowhere – you can’t not jump,” Pearce said.
Turret spiders build their towers along creek beds and under fallen trees in forested areas throughout Central and Northern California. They use whatever mud, moss, bark and leaves they can find nearby, making their turrets extremely well camouflaged. They do have fangs and venom but are not generally considered to be dangerous to people, compared to other spiders. If you leave them alone, you shouldn’t have anything to fear from turret spiders.
Comments
Louie's Loops
Oh cool! I hate them!
