How to spawn tarantulas and make millions in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

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Catching and selling tarantulas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a lucrative early-game strategy. If you’re not too scared, here’s how to attract these spiders and earn more bells in the game.

In Animal Crossing, earning in-game currency is crucial for paying off loans, and New Horizons continues this trend. The Switch version has its own way of making quick bells, reminiscent of New Leaf’s insect-rich island.

In the latest life simulation title, players use Nook Miles Tickets to fly from their airport onto a random island where they can harvest materials, catch fish, and even recruit new villagers. They also house a hidden secret – just like NL, you can farm a ton of money from them.

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Contents

How to get to Tarantula Island in Animal Crossing

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Tarantulas are actually nightmare fuel, but they can earn you a pretty penny.

To get Nook Miles Tickets, you need to spend 2,000 Nook Miles at the kiosk in the Resident Services building. Once you’ve got one, between November and April, head on over to your Dodo Airlines airport and jet off to a mystery place after 7 PM and before 4 AM.

While the so-called ‘Tarantula Island’ is a known destination for the creatures, apparently it is actually possible to turn every single one into a spawning ground. Players have been reporting that they’ve been able to farm the scary critters even when on a normal isle.

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Save your haul for Flick’s visit if you want more Bells.

How to catch tarantulas in Animal Crossing

You’ll want to have an axe, shovel, and a net in your inventory so that you can bring them with you, but you’ll sacrifice the extra pocket space. Instead of this, you can buy them for 100 miles a pop from your pilot Wilbur – the choice is yours. Then, you’ll need to go into ultimate cleanup mode:

  • Use your axe and your shovel to chop down all trees.
  • Dig up the leftover stumps, and eat the fallen fruit in order to power up.
  • Then, remove all the weeds and pick all of the flowers on the island – you don’t need to dig those.
  • Finally, scare away all remaining bugs and it shouldn’t take too long for the tarantulas to spawn.
  • Equip your net, and hold down the A button in preparation to catch the critter.
  • Move slowly towards the spider, only when its legs are lowered.
  • Let go of the A button when you’re close enough, and you should have caught ’em!

While it’s scary when they rear up and start running at you, a swift swing of your net should easily best them. Make sure to ditch your other tools to clear up valuable inventory space.

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Depending on how many Nook Miles Tickets you have, you should be able to make the big bucks by selling pockets full of the hairy critters and going back and forth.

Catching Animal Crossing tarantulas more easily

While the above method is viable, an option to make this easier is to dig a series of holes in a diamond shape, allowing you to jump over them. Luring the spiders into this area will block them from being able to move towards because their path is blocked, allowing you to quickly turn around and swipe at them with your net.

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Once you’ve caught ’em all, you can sell them on – easy as that! It should be noted, though, that Flick will pay you more for them than if you sell them at Nook’s Cranny, so it’s worth waiting for him to show up in order to get more Bells if you’ve got the patience.


So, there you have it, everything you need to know about making millions with Tarantulas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Make sure to check out our other guides.

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