Tarantulas of southeast Colorado are out looking for love. And this is when we go looking for them.

While it has always been a ritual around this time of year for big, fuzzy males to seek mates burrowed across the vast grassland beyond La Junta, it has increasingly become a spectacle for curious Coloradans near and far. This explains La Junta’s fourth annual Tarantula Festival coming up Sept. 25-26.

The two days will come with bus tours, expert talks, vendors, art, a drone show and other activities honoring the arachnid the town has come to embrace. That’s while La Junta has also welcomed human admirers, who might heed tips posted at visitlajunta.net/tarantula-trek.

“September is the ideal time of year to view the tarantulas,” the webpage reads, noting also “there may still be activity in October and November.”

Activity spans Comanche National Grassland’s 443,000-plus acres — one of the country’s largest protected, largely undisturbed grasslands that is well-suited for tarantulas, which would prefer their burrows not be plowed over. Females are known to spend their whole lives in their burrows, potentially two decades.

Meanwhile, once males reach maturity approaching 10, they leave in search of a mate. They will bravely cross the road if they must — including Colorado 109, U.S. 350 and county roads in between. Those highways are most popular for viewing from La Junta, along with Colorado 10.

The best chance at spotting an individual spider or group is an hour before sunset, Visit La Junta advises, while cautioning drivers: “While tarantulas may be harmless, stopping on the road can be anything but.” If pulling off, “be sure to do so in an area where there’s ample space,” the webpage continues.

Photographers often can’t resist a closer look at the tarantulas and their spindly, skittering legs. The creatures are mostly harmless anyway; they can bite if provoked — “akin to a bee sting,” according to Visit La Junta, which adds “their protective hair may cause itching.”

Better to not touch them, the webpage suggests. “Tarantula love is tough love. Let’s not make it tougher.”

Should males survive traffic and their predators — including tarantula hawks, one of the nation’s largest wasps — they might arrive atop a burrow and tap or drum their legs in performing a courtship dance. If successful, males typically don’t live long due to continued threats of cars and predators or loss of appetite. “And in some cases, the female may eat the male,” according to Visit La Junta.

One can learn more at the Tarantula Fest toward the end of the month. Information is at visitlajunta.net/tarantula-fest.