THOUSANDS of cannibal tarantulas are set to dance across the US in search for their mate.

Usually the creatures will find their partners who live very close to them from around August to October.

But this season, the critters will scour northern California through to Colorado and Texas, trying to find their mate.

And dozens of male tarantulas will even do the "YMCA" dance in a bid to entice their potential partner.

Some male creatures will tip toe to their potential mate's burrow, others will knock on her web, and some will dance.

Tarantulas are quite solitary animals, who only strike when approached, but in this bizarre year, more are crawling out of their burrows in search for love.

From the give to eight years of their lives, males usually just live in their burrows, eating small insects.

Forest Urban, manager of the invertebrate program at the Natural History Museum told The Guardian: "Ding dong, it’s time.

"All of a sudden, the eight-to-12-year-olds, they’re like, hey, let’s get together, let’s go to the bar."

The arachnids are blind, so mating can be quite chaotic and even cannibalistic.

To help each other, some will use vibrations, and others dance.

Mr Urban explained: "Some do a dance to try to hypotonic the female so she doesn't strike. Some will literally do a dance routine that looks like the YMCA."

In response, the females will "just sit there like, uh, really dude? And more times than not he gets eaten".

Tarantula sightings have been remarkably high this year, according to reports.

Earlier this week a creature which was "the size of a hand" was spotted in Surrey.

The brave motorist managed to carefully catch the creature in a plastic box before reporting the unusual find to shocked Starbucks counter staff, who contacted the RSPCA for help.

RSPCA Animal Collection Officer Jayne Jones who was sent to rescue the spider said: "This was a really big spider – the size of a hand.

"It very hairy and had bright orange knees! I'm not surprised it gave the motorist a shock."

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