So Animal Crossing New Horizons has a very lucrative way of making money. Tarantula are found in your village occasionally and they sell for 8000 bells apiece.

Curiously I searched for the ideal spawn conditions and found they prefer an emptier area to spawn in with no trees or other intrusions. They also only spawn on the lowest level of the map, and they only appear between 7pm and 5am.

With this in mind I took a trip to an island (these are procedurally generated in case you were wondering) and when I found it was the single level “spiral” Island I thought I’d try an experiment.

I removed all the trees and plucked all the flowers. I also removed the rocks.

Once the island was clear I only had 4 insects able to spawn, and according to my calculations about 4 bugs spawn at any one time on the island.

• Giant Water Bugs (2000 bells)
• Tiger Beetle (1500 bells)
• Wharf Roach (200 bells)
• Tarantula (8000 bells)

Two of these are really easy to get rid of by just stomping near them. Make sure you run all around the island regularly clearing them, don’t forget the rocks off the top corners of the island.

The Giant Water Bugs need catching but can be released if pocket space is important. They can be a pain if they stay in the middle of the water.

Finally, the goal is the 8000 bell Tarantula.

When you get one, approach it slowly, and stop if it rears up and “hisses”. Once you’re close enough net it.

I’m not guaranteeing this is going to work every time, but a few trips have now proven lucrative with around 144,000 bells minimum a trip, although it may take you 30 minutes or so to fill your pockets.