How to make a Tarantula Island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Making bells in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is serious business and often involves travelling to randomly generated islands filled with all manner of exotic fruits and creatures. And it turns out that players have already constructed a method to attract the most valuable insects into their clutches – which are unfortunately tarantulas. 

The horrifically hairy buggers sell for 8000 bells, so filling up your inventory on a single round trip can net you hundreds of thousands in profit. While the aptly titled “Tarantula Islands” are randomly generated much of the time, there is a way to alter the environment so they begin spawning before you, and Trusted Reviews has put together a guide to make this easier. 

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You can make ANY island spider island if you do the following:
– chop all trees and remove stumps
– pick all flowers (pick, not uproot)
– remove all rocks
– night time only (past 7 worked for me)
– dump resources on beach
– clear island of all bugs

= spiders spawn https://t.co/PqGJTCxAu9

— Zach Soares (@Voxels) March 22, 2020

How to farm and catch tarantulas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Tarantulas appear on all islands in Animal Crossing during the nighttime hours, chasing after the player and biting them the second you meet their gaze. However, a skilled player can catch them with a net just before the fatal blow hit. It’s an easy trick to master, and one well worth learning. You’ll make some serious moolah by farming them and selling spiders to Nook’s Cranny. 

How to make a Tarantula Island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Before travelling to an island and conjuring it into an eight-legged nightmare, you’ll need to purchase a Nook Miles Ticket from Residential Services and travel to the airport. Once landed, it’s time to whip out your tools and start landscaping. We’ve outlined the process in various steps below to make things easier. 

Step 1: Make sure you travel to the respective island after 7pm, since this is when Tarantulas will begin emerging of their own accord on any island.

Step 2: If you’ve brought some fruit with you, munch on that to provide yourself with adequate power to clear the island’s rocks and trees with ease. If not, pick some from bushes and trees nearby. 

Step 3: It’s time to blitz the island of all natural structures. I’m talking rocks, trees, weeds and anything green and natural. Get rid of them with your assortment of tools – whether that’s a shovel, axe or ladder for reaching more precarious areas. 

Step 4: You’ll also need to catch all of the island’s existing bugs and wildlife to coax the tarantulas into the wild. Flowers also need to be picked, although don’t bother digging them up, merely picking petals off the stem should do. 

Step 5: Finally, return to the beach and dump your entire inventory onto the sand below, except for tools required to catch the soon to be infinitely spawning horde of spiders. 

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After you’ve carried out all of the above steps, you should be left with an island awash with deadly tarantulas to catch and bring home for a hefty profit. We’d recommend catching them one at a time, so you don’t become overwhelmed, or surround them with holes using your shovel, so they’re powerless to bite you.