Calling all fans of web-weavers and silk-spinners: SPIDERS: Fear to Fascination is now open at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh! 

"This is the best spiders exhibit in the world....nothing else is even close," according to arachnid expert (and host of Science Channel's "Monster Bug Wars" television show) Dr. Linda Rayor of Cornell University.

Did you know spiders can swim, jump and even “fly” hundreds of miles? SPIDERS spins an immersive tale, revealing how this incredibly diverse group of animals has evolved and survived for 300 million years.

Through augmented reality and video projection technology, guests of all ages will encounter more than 250 real and preserved specimens (from the Trinidad chevron tarantula to the Australian golden huntsman).

Some of the preserved spiders on display are more than 100 years old, originally collected, preserved and displayed by C.S. and H.H. Brimley, two brothers that shaped the early origins of the museum for several decades through the early 1900s. 

Related: BugFest, the museum's annual crafts and games festival centered around bugs, will feature a spider theme on Sept. 16. 

 

 

 

 

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A huge amount of educational content is on display, along with games and technology, too. Visitors can compete in a mating dance-off with a peacock spider, hold virtual spiders in their hand, test their fang agility, discover how webs are produced, how spiders communicate and see the world through spider vision.

This is a ticketed exhibition, with admission set at $14 for adults and $10 for children (members of the museum, as well as ages 2 and under, get in free). The rest of the museum—the Tar Heel State's most visited museum, by the way!—is always free-admission. 

Hours for the museum are Tues.-Sun., 10am-5pm. SPIDERS opened on June 17 and will run through Oct. 29. 

Grab your tickets now to get closer than ever to some of the more than 48,000 known spider species in this amazing interactive experience!