They can be BIG. And they are HAIRY. But, should you think of tarantulas as SCARY? Since you are a human, probably not. Though a tarantula can bite, its bite is no worse than a bee sting in most cases. If you are allergic to bees, chances are you would also have an allergic reaction to being bitten by a tarantula. But, for most people, there are only two species of tarantula that can be dangerous—Poecilotheria and Stromatopelma—and neither of these are found in North America. A human has never been killed by a tarantula.

The other way spiders protect themselves is by scraping some of the barbed hairs off of their abdomen and flinging them toward something they see as a threat. These hairs can also cause allergic reactions, like skin rashes and itching, in humans.

Though tarantulas do make silk, they do not spin webs like some other spiders. Instead, most live in burrows in the ground and line the burrows with silk. The silk helps to keep small pieces of dirt from falling into the burrow. Females also use silk to make a sac to lay their eggs in. Another way silk can be useful is if something the spider likes to eat happens to walk on the silk strands at the edge of the burrow. The spider can feel those vibrations inside the burrow and come out to capture its prey. If you are an insect, like a cricket or a grasshopper, or an amphibian, like a small lizard or frog, then you should probably be scared of traveling too closely to the burrow of a tarantula.

Once a spider captures its meal, it spears it with its fangs and poisons it with its venom. Spiders then produce special digestive juices to break the prey down into a nice milkshake that the spider can slurp up using its mouth like a straw.

Female tarantulas spend most of their lives in and around their burrows. If you were to see a tarantula in the wild, most likely it would be a male out looking for a female mate.