Tarantula mating is fascinating. If you’ve ever seen a video of two tarantulas doing their mating dance, you know that this process is just about one of the weirdest mating rituals you will ever see in the animal kingdom. And considering that the male has a high likelihood of being eaten during this process, it’s also pretty dangerous!

Interestingly enough, strange spider behavior can happen with or without other spiders around! I myself did not know that there was a tarantula mating call or “drumming” behavior until I witnessed Spidey doing it for absolutely no reason. The story is kinda cute, too.

This occurred perhaps 3 years into my journey as a tarantula keeper, when Spidey my Grammostola rosea, was still my one and only (we’ve since expanded our family to include a sling Arizona blonde). I was walking around her tank one day, doing laundry, when I was suddenly startled by this LOUD aggressive tapping on her glass.

It sounded just like this:

It scared me, to be honest. She had never done this before (and never did it since). I looked up this behavior and figured out that it was a tarantula mating call – Except it wasn’t to another spider. It was to me!!!

I was wondering why she might do this, and it raised a lot of questions. For example, I wondered – if her spider instincts are telling her to mate, but I don’t want to mate her with another spider, am I hurting her? Do tarantulas have seasonal “hormonal” changes like other animals? What set her off? Why hasn’t she done this behavior since? Very strange times, guys.

Perhaps the vibration of my footsteps near her enclosure tricked her into thinking there was another spider nearby. I may never know the answer, unfortunately. But I do not think Spidey has done this tarantula mating call since (to my knowledge) and I really wish I had gotten it on camera because it might have been my only chance to hear her drumming!

Have you witnessed any weird tarantula behavior?