South
Tarantulas are on the move and will swarm during mating season in certain states
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Tarantula mating season is here — and if you’re in the Southwest, you might see hordes of these fist-sized spiders marching across the landscape.
From late summer through fall, male tarantulas emerge from their burrows on a singular mission: to find a female and mate before they die, experts say.
“These males … they’ve been alive for five to eight years,” Cara Shillington, a biology professor who studies tarantulas at Eastern Michigan University, told Fox News Digital. (See the video at the top of this article.)
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“They have one mating season. At the end of the season, they will die.”
This means that if you see a tarantula out and about between August and October, you’re witnessing its grand finale — the final act in a long, hidden life underground.
Male tarantulas emerge only to find a mate when they reach sexual maturity at around 8 to 10 years old, after which they usually die within months. (iStock)
“Tarantulas are less active during the cooler months, spending this time dormant in their burrows,” Paul Biggs, a board-certified entomologist and technical services manager at Orkin, told Fox News Digital.
“Because of the harsh environmental conditions, they take shelter and conserve energy during this time,” added Biggs, who is based in Riverside, California.
Where to spot them
Tarantulas are commonly found across the Southern and Southwestern U.S., including in these states and areas:
- Texas
- Arizona
- California
- Oklahoma
- New Mexico
- Nevada
- Utah
- Southeastern Colorado
In some areas, their movements are so noticeable that the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website refers to it as “a migration.”
“They’re more scared of you than you are of them.”
Southeastern Colorado even hosts an annual Tarantula Festival in the town of La Junta, Shillington noted.
Tarantulas don’t just live on forest floors. The Colorado species also thrives in trees and prairie grasslands, said Shillington.
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“In Colorado, they are in very distinct burrows. In Missouri, you find them more frequently under rocks,” she said.
The spiders’ ability to burrow depends on the soil, the expert noted. For example, hard clay makes digging tough, so some may opt for hiding under natural cover.
“Tarantulas are less active during the cooler months, spending this time dormant in their burrows,” an expert said. (iStock)
What to do if you see them
First, don’t panic. Tarantulas are not aggressive and prefer to avoid confrontation.
“Tarantulas don’t pose any threat at all,” Shillington told Fox News Digital.
She noted that “they’re more scared of you than you are of them.”
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The arachnids rarely bite, and if they do, it’s a defensive move, which is why it’s best not to try to pick one up or mess with it.
“Any time you try to grab it, the first thing it’ll do is try and run,” said Shillington. “They respond to anything trying to grab them as a threat.”
Even though tarantulas are well-known in popular culture, and even as pets, scientists still have many unanswered questions. (iStock)
If you find one in your home, trap it in a large container and take it outside, said Shillington.
Biggs cautioned against using pest products, which may “make the situation worse.”
He advised, “If you can contain it to one area in the meantime, do so without physically handling it.”
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Even though tarantulas are well-known in popular culture, and even as pets, scientists still have many unanswered questions.
“We actually know very little,” Shillington admitted. “I don’t know when exactly they first come out or what prompts them. I have no idea how far they are walking to find females.”
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She and her team are working to track activity across tarantula territory to better understand how the spider’s behavior changes over time.
Kentucky
Demetrus Liggins disputes Fayette County board’s claim he resigned, attorneys allege misconduct
LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — The attorneys for Dr. Demetrus Liggins issued a press release Friday alleging the Fayette County Board of Education publicly announced a resignation that never happened, cited the wrong Kentucky statutes to justify placing him on administrative leave, and installed a replacement superintendent without legal authority to do so.
The press release, dated June 19, 2026, gives FCPS a four-day deadline to rescind the administrative leave, withdraw the replacement-superintendent designation, and correct the public record. If the district does not comply, Dr. Liggins’ legal team has reserved the right to pursue contractual, statutory, constitutional, defamation, false-light, civil-rights, and tort claims.
According to the press release, Dr. Liggins proposed discussions toward a possible separation agreement — he did not submit an unconditional resignation. His attorneys allege he expressly corrected the Board’s characterization before the Board acted, yet the Board publicly announced a “resignation notice” anyway.
The press release also notes a striking internal contradiction in the Board’s own June 11 letter: the document’s letterhead continued to identify “Superintendent: Demetrus Liggins, PhD” even while the body of the letter announced an “Acting Superintendent.”
Dr. Liggins’ attorneys argue the Board’s June 11 leave letter cited KRS 160.160 and KRS 160.370 — neither of which, according to counsel, expressly authorizes a board to indefinitely suspend a contracted superintendent, bar him from communicating with district-affiliated persons, exclude him from all school property, and install a substitute officeholder.
Counsel argues the Board deliberately avoided KRS 160.350, the statute that specifically governs superintendent terms, vacancies, acting appointments, and removal for cause, according to the press release.
The press release also invokes Lexington-Fayette’s unique status as Kentucky’s sole urban-county government under KRS Chapter 67A, arguing the Board’s legal framing is further flawed because Fayette County is not governed by the special Chapter 67C school-governance provisions applicable to a consolidated local government such as Louisville–Jefferson County.
Attorney Amos N. Jones issued a direct on-the-record statement in the press release.
“This is not administrative leave in any meaningful sense. They announced a resignation that never happened, displaced the lawful superintendent, installed another superintendent, silenced Dr. Liggins inside his own system, and then hired investigators to determine whether the result already imposed should be imposed. Kentucky law does not allow a school board to manufacture a vacancy, perform a removal first, and search for a justification afterward,” Jones said.
According to the press release, Dr. Liggins’s contract runs through June 30, 2029. His attorneys allege the Board’s actions breach that contract by stripping him of his office, authority, professional standing, and future-career value while continuing to pay his salary. The contract reportedly prohibits reassignment without Dr. Liggins’s express written consent.
The press release notes that any litigation or settlement arising from this dispute could carry significant financial consequences for Fayette County taxpayers.
The press release places individual Board members — not just the institution — on notice of potential personal legal exposure. Attorneys cite what they describe as a false resignation narrative, the alleged creation of a fictitious vacancy, concerted displacement, and a false-light portrayal of Dr. Liggins. The notice also warns Board members that attorneys retained by FCPS may not represent their individual interests and that they should have received Upjohn warnings about privilege and conflicts.
According to the press release, counsel has demanded preservation of all communications, drafts, closed-session materials, media contacts, video records, investigative instructions, succession discussions, and communications with public officials, unions, employees, activists, and outside counsel. The inclusion of “media contacts” and “communications with public officials” in the demand suggests Dr. Liggins’ legal team believes there may be involvement by parties beyond the Board itself.
As of Friday, June 19, 2026, the four-day deadline issued to FCPS is running. If the district does not comply, Dr. Liggins’ legal team has indicated it will pursue legal action.
Louisiana
After redistricting battles, Southern gathers for Juneteenth celebration: ‘Continue the fight’
Hundreds of community members, alumni and students gathered Thursday to observe Juneteenth on the Southern University campus in Baton Rouge.
The theme of the festivities was “celebrating freedom through culture and community,” but weeks after Louisiana’s bitter redistricting battles, the speakers Thursday morning had one message driving their remarks: Get out and vote.
“Freedom does not come in on the wheels of inevitability,” Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice John Michael Guidry said to the crowd. “But it takes the prodigious work and the tireless efforts of those who are willing to continue the fight.”
Great Beginnings summer camper Myni, 4, gets a hello kitty face painting during Southern’s Juneteenth celebration on Thursday, June 18, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Staff photo by Michael Johnson
The speech kicked off a day of discussions and cultural events centered on the holiday of Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger brought news of emancipation to enslaved people in Texas more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
Speakers at Southern emphasized the need for protection of hard-won rights for Black Americans in the context of redistricting. The sentiments followed a contentious state legislative session that ended with the elimination of one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
“That Voting Rights Act is under attack,” Guidry said. “There’s voter intimidation, there’s voter suppression, there are voter ID laws and all types of laws and legal decisions that are trying to deny us our right to vote, and we are the ones who have to go forward and litigate these issues.”
The day opened with a libation ceremony and a rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Southern University student Claire Floyd.
Southern University alumnus Jeanet Cazenave said she felt it was important to celebrate Juneteenth on campus as not only a relative of the first dean of Southern University but also a descendant of the GU272, a group of enslaved individuals who were sold to plantations in Louisiana in 1838 by Jesuit priests to pay the debts of what is now Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Juneteenth “means everything,” Cazenave said. “It means the past, the present and the future.”
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