Witching hour

Some homeowners in the United Kingdom and the United States have creepy guests around this time of the year.

UK residents have posted videos on TikTok showing large spiders crawling on the floors of their houses or tiny ones clustering on the ceiling, the Daily Mail reported.

Consumer protection website Which? explains that while the sightings are timed for autumn, the spiders are not taking refuge from the cold of the upcoming winter. It is actually mating season for the arachnids, and they are searching for partners in the house.

Niall Gallagher of the British Pest Control Association assured readers that spider bites are rare, according to the Daily Mail.

In California, September and October are peak months for spotting the giant, hairy tarantulas, according to the National Park Service. The ground-dwelling spiders check burrows for nesting females and hunt roaches, crickets and other bugs from dusk to dawn.

“Tarantulas are not dangerous to humans,” the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County said, sanluisobispo.com reports. “They’re shy and not at all aggressive — likely to scamper off in the opposite direction of a person.”

Meanwhile, a mass gathering of “witches” in Salem, Massachusetts, USA, on 17 October was not as terrifying as spiders invading homes.

The historic waterfront of Salem Maritime National Historical Park was filled with some 2,700 individuals wearing black capes and pointed hats and wielding broomsticks in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest group of people dressed as witches, CNHI.com reported.

The gathering, dubbed “Witches on the Wharf,” was held to celebrate Salem’s 400th anniversary and raise funds for victims of domestic abuse. It had 1,000 more Halloween characters than the 1,607 participants who assembled in Lleida, Spain, on 16 November 2013, to perform an incantation to bring them luck for the Spanish Christmas lottery, according to CNHI.com.