...photo by Foto Motto, used under Creative Commons...

When I think of spider exhibits, I imagine black lit rooms with displays of live arachnids safely kept behind plexiglass, along with warnings not to tap the glass so as not to disturb their habitat.

Unfortunately, the Natural History Museum has decided to have their own exhibit, but without the black lights, and without the windows, putting human visitors into the spiders’ habitat. Thats right: part of the exhbit could end up crawling up your leg, or dropping onto the back of your neck.

And if this whole concept isn’t creepy enough, for four nights around Halloween they hold flashlight tours of the exhibit.

The experience is so close, that I hear the museum needs to order extra spiders to replace those that occasionally get squashed. Accidentally, of course – everyone knows killing a spider on purpose brings bad luck. Not so ironically, the whole thing is sponsored by the Western Exterminator Company… spiders, after all, love to eat other bugs, making them natural exterminators.

Sept. 21st – Nov. 2nd, The Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Boulevard. [official site]