Love is in the air on the Colorado plains — the kind that makes your heart beat a bit faster, quickens your step and makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. It’s tarantula mating season, when male spiders scurry out of their burrows in search of a mate, and hundreds of arachnophiles flock to the small farming town of La Junta to watch them emerge. Scientists, spider enthusiasts and curious Colorado families piled into shuttle buses just before dawn last weekend as tarantulas began to roam the dry, rolling plains. Dr. Cara Shillington, a biology professor at Eastern Michigan University who studies arachnids, says there’s still a lot to learn about how the spiders interact with each other and their environment. Speaking about the mating ritual that drives the spiders from their burrows, she explains: “The female will respond by actually coming out of the burrow and meet the male outside of the burrow. And so his drumming is really to attract the female and let her know that he is there. And then very often she will approach if she is receptive to mating.” The “Colorado Brown” tarantula is the most common in the La Junta area and make their burrows in the largely undisturbed prairies of the Comanche National Grassland. The mating ritual happens every fall, and the best time to see the arachnids is during cooler weather at dawn and dusk. Some used flashlights and car headlights to spot the arachnids once the sun set. “The temperature is really important. So, usually close to sunrise and sunset, but it also depends on the temperatures. If it’s a cooler, cloudier day, you can sometimes see them earlier in the day. If it’s a very cold morning, then a little after sunrise. So you’re looking at a combination of both the temperature and also just at that dawn and dusk time,” says Dr. Shillington. Back in the nearby town of La Junta, a festival celebrating the spiders is in full swing. Festivalgoers flaunted their tarantula-like traits in a hairy leg contest and paraded around in vintage cars with giant fake spiders on the hoods. Nathan Villareal, a tarantula breeder visiting from Santa Monica, California, said he was attracted to the festival because of his lifelong interest in tarantulas. Villareal, who owns a company called Micro Wilderness, which sells tarantulas online, says he couldn’t miss this opportunity: “We just had to see it. Yeah, we heard a bunch of tarantulas were going to be out, and we saw a bunch of tarantulas last night. Yeah, it was great." His trip will actually be something of a busman’s holiday adding: “I’m actually a tarantula breeder. And, you know, I just love anything tarantulas. And we just came out here to study these guys.” Of course not everybody is so enamored with tarantulas as Villareal, and he admits he does enjoy spooking people. “You know, I think it’s the creepy factor. Yeah, it’s everyone’s always jumping back every time I pull out a spider. I love that. I like exposing people to the tarantulas. It’s been something I’ve done my whole life,” he says. The 1990 cult classic film “Arachnophobia,” which follows a small town overrun with spiders, is even being screened downtown at the historic Fox Theater. For residents in and around La Junta, tarantulas aren’t the nightmarish creatures often depicted on the silver screen. They’re an important part of the local ecosystem and a draw for people around the U.S. who might have otherwise never visited the tight-knit town in southeastern Colorado. 13 year-old Roslyn Gonzales is here with her family to enjoy the spectacle - she’s not afraid and is looking forward to some spider spotting later in the day. “I’m hoping to see a lot of tarantulas tonight crawl across the road and hopefully get close to one, like really close to one. And maybe like touch one maybe. But not where they can bite me,” she says. For those arachnophobes who prefer their spiders squashed under the sole of a boot, Dr. Cara Shillington thinks we should reconsider just how much of a threat they pose. She says: “When you encounter them they’re more afraid of you. I mean, look at the size that we are compared to these tarantulas. And tarantulas only bite out of fear. And so this is the only way that they have to protect themselves. And if you don’t put them in a situation where they feel like they have to bite, then there is no reason to fear them. Leave them alone, and they’re happy to go along their way.” As another lovesick spider heads out onto the cool plains in search of a mate, it can almost be considered romantic if it wasn’t so hairy and creepy.