Dustin Wilgers, an assistant professor of biology at McPherson College, lets visitors interact with a tarantula during one of his spider programs. Wilgers will host his free educational program Gems

Dustin Wilgers wasn’t always so comfortable around spiders. Up until graduate school, when his study of the eight-legged critters began about 10 years ago, Wilgers even considered himself a bit of an arachnophobe.

But, in the decade he has spent getting to know them, Wilgers says he has developed an appreciation for arachnids, and he wants to pass it on.

“I better understood that they weren’t as dangerous as I’d made them out to be my whole life. They’re actually a really important part of our ecosystem,” says Wilgers, an assistant professor of biology at McPherson College. “The more I understand, the more I want to shift people’s perspectives on spiders because they get a bad rap.”

That’s the goal of Friday’s “Gems of the Prairie: A Night With Spiders” at Clinton State Park. The free event begins at 8 p.m., with attendees meeting in the park office for a short talk on spider biology (Wilgers will also have tarantulas on hand for folks to interact with, if they so choose) before heading out after dark into the park to find and catch wolf spiders.

Dustin Wilgers, an assistant professor of biology at McPherson College, lets visitors interact with a tarantula during one of his spider programs. Wilgers will host his free educational program Gems

Guests are encouraged to bring their own headlamps or flashlights, though Wilgers says he’ll have some extra headlamps to lend out. All ages are welcome, and the program will last until about 10 p.m.

“Gems of the Prairie” refers to the mirror-like surface at the back of the wolf spider’s eye that allows it to see better at night. Using a headlamp, it’s easier for humans to spot the spiders after dark, thanks to the eye-shine created by the light-reflecting layer. “They look like little mirrors sparkling on the ground,” Wilgers says of his beloved wolf spiders.

The critters are just as active during the day as they are at night, Wilgers says. But they’re also a little more relaxed and slower once the sun goes down, making night the optimal time for spider catch-and-release.

“You can see spiders that are no bigger than the tip of the eraser on a pencil — you can see them from 20 yards away,” he says. “I have no chance of seeing that type of spider even from 10 feet away (during the day). They stick out like a sore thumb at night.”

Even the smallest of kids shouldn’t have trouble spotting the spiders. They’re just about everywhere, says Wilgers, who can easily collect hundreds of specimens for research within a few hours.

And they’re not as scary as some might expect, Wilgers says. Although wolf spiders can be “somewhat aggressive,” their venom is generally pretty mild, he says, likening the pain level to a bee sting.

Wilgers began taking his spider show on the road about a year ago, thanks to funding from the Chickadee Checkoff grant program through the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. Since then, he’s visited about 10 communities across the state, drawing upward of 150 people in cities such as Wichita and Topeka.

Each time, the reaction’s just about the same, Wilgers says.

“When we go out and start searching for them using our headlamps, there’s constant screams. And it’s not screams of fright, but it is pure excitement,” he says of spider walks. “They are just so happy and excited to be finding these things.”

“It never fails,” Wilgers says. “Those screams and those giggles and the excitement come from 4-year-olds all the way up to 60-year-olds.”