What to Know
- Through Nov. 25, 2018
- Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
- $19 adult admission (includes entry to NHMLA and Spider Pavilion)
How to know that it is currently the end of September in Southern California?
You can glance at a calendar. You can use an app. Or you can step out your front door, saunter by the nearest tree or shrub, and suddenly feel a sizable web brush against your arm.
That, right there, is nearly as telling as any time-keeper, as to the time of year here.
For when September arrives in our wild-meets-urban region, well, our natural world can seem downright webby.
So webby, in fact, that anyone walking a dog after sundown or arriving home late at night is probably doing a few reach-aheads, in the darkness, to make sure they're not going to disrupt any eight-legger's just-constructed abode.
Where to go, though, to see a glorious profusion of webs and the webs' itsy, bitsy engineers? A cool place that you can wander throughout without pulling strings of silk off of your face or a small spider from your hairdo?
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Spider Pavilion at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles is the arachnid-tastic answer. And the spectacular silk is spinning now, through Nov. 25, 2018, so make a date to swing by and spy all of the busy orb weavers that have taken up residence.
Tarantulas, too, are making a fuzzy showing, in addition to the orb weavers. Ever seen a Pink Toe Tarantula? This could be your lucky day, if you like beasties with hard-to-forget names.
Also? There are jumping spiders to admire inside the walk-through space, those "nimble predators" that take prey-overpowering leaps in lickety-split fashion.
Er... goosebumps. Or, perhaps more accurately, spiderbumps? Those.
The NHMLA Spider Pavilion site understandably calls spiders "(o)ften misunderstood," and given the arachnids' prominent presence in loads of scary Halloween decorations and tales, a person can figure out how this reputation has continued to, well, spin out of control.
But getting to know the important roles that these eight-legged earthlings play in our ecosystem is a big part of not getting spun-out but spidery misinformation.
A trip to the Exposition Park science museum, and a solid amount of time among the webs 'n wonders of Spider Pavilion, should help any visitor further comprehend why this silk-spinning ilk is so extraordinary.
And, truly, consider how strange it is to unknowingly walk into any critter's handy device for finding its next meal. We don't regularly disrupt the dining process of bears, or eagles, or even our pets.
Sorry, spiders, for sometimes accidentally bungling into your carefully constructed webs.
An adult ticket to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and Spider Pavilion is $19.
