Original Web Masters
By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
RAFU STAFF WRITER
Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008

The Spider Pavilion at the Natural History Museum welcomes visitors to separate fact from creepy fiction.

Photos by MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS/Rafu Shimpo
The golden silk spider, which gets its name from the golden yellow hue of its web, is one of hundreds of spiders now roaming free in the Spider Pavilion at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

The museum’s Robert Spellman shows off a golden orb weaver by letting
the creature roam freely up his arm. The exhibit hopes to dispel some
Hollywood myths and fears about spiders.

A young visitor gets an up-close encounter with a giant African tailless whip scorpion.

My first question at the Spider Pavilion was utilitarian: what should I do if I encounter the dreaded, deadly brown recluse spider in my backyard?

Apparently, my first move should be to check a map to see where I live.

“You might be surprised to learn that there aren’t any brown recluse spiders in Southern California. This is an urban myth and legend,” said Robert Spellman from the Education Division of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. “Spiders have a bad reputation due to movies and television, but it’s really unjustified. Spiders make webs for just one reason and it’s not to ambush you.”

The museum has opened its new spider exhibit–not necessarily in time for Halloween–not only to provide fascinating up-close encounters with the creatures, but also to dispel many popular myths and unfounded fears. The walk-through landscaped Pavilion opened last Sunday and remains so through Nov. 2. The first-of-its-kind exhibit is in its fourth season and is home to hundreds of free-roaming spiders.

Spellman said that there is a relative of the brown recluse reported to have been seen in Sierra Madre, but it’s hard to say if anyone’s ever been bitten by one. The brown recluse is fairly common in the Midwest, but again, determining if a person shows the signs of a bite is very difficult without seeing it happen.

“Often people are diagnosed as having been bitten by a spider when they have an infection, even though they didn’t actually witness the animal biting them. The physician will automatically conclude that the individual was bitten by a spider of a particular genus, but you can’t make that kind of assumption,” he said.

Some of the visitors I saw on Tuesday went through the same reaction curve: initial trepidation, kneejerk terror, then acute fascination. My two-year-old son, who was initially excited about the visit, winced at the first sight of one of the tennis-ball-sized creatures up close. By the time we left, however, he was yelping with delight about it.

Spellman introduced us to a large golden orb weaver, a spider he claims is very common in So Cal.

“You can probably find one in your backyard,” he pronounced as the leggy monster climbed up his bare arm. “It’s getting close to egg laying season, so they’re busy fattening themselves up by making lots of webs and catching lots of bugs.”

Poison or not, many of us grew up hearing about spider bites, or perhaps even found a mark somewhere on our bodies that could only have come from a ravenous arachnid...right?

“I’ve worked in this museum 10 years, and I’ve handled dozens and dozens of spiders and huge tarantulas and I never been bitten by anything,” Spellman said. “Of the 40,000 known species of spiders, only 28 are considered potentially dangerous to humans. No one in the United States has died of a black widow bite in the last 20 years. Ask yourself how many people have died of dog bites.”

Museum gallery interpreter Paige Bardolph added that more people die of infections from staplers than from spider bites. Yeah, you’ve gotta watch out for those staplers.

“They’ll only bite people if they are provoked or scared. They don’t consider people a potential food source,” Bardolph said reassuringly, as she showed a golden silk spider, so named for the golden yellow tint of its web.

Anyone who has visited the Natural History Museum in recent months may note that the
Spider Pavilion–a small, outdoor greenhouse-type building outside the museum’s main entrance–is indeed the former Butterfly Pavilion. Butterflies have a fairly short life span and spiders are very active this time of year, so the changeover is seasonal. Some of the butterflies hung around, however, and have since become a tasty snack for the pavilion’s new residents...eek.
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The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is located at 900 Exposition Blvd. Weekdays, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends and holidays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $9 for adults, $6.50 for children. Note that the Spider Pavilion has special separate timed tickets, available inside the Museum, with first availability for purchase at 10 a.m. each day. Adults $3; Students/Seniors $2;Children (5-12) $1. Members receive FREE admission and the first available tickets. For more information, visit the Museum’s website at www.nhm.org or call (213) 763-DINO.