Massive spider-webs blanket Australian towns

Heavy rains and strong winds lashed large parts of Victoria,Australia causing flash flooding and widespread damage last week.

After heavy rains and floods struck Australia’s southeastern state of Victoria, lakhs of spiders have spun webs stretching across trees, road signs and paddocks, creating huge “gossamer” sheets. Read more about the phenomenon here…

Heavy rains and strong winds lashed large parts of Victoria,Australia causing flash flooding and widespread damage last week.Massive spider-webs stretching across trees and paddocks have formed near towns recently hit by floods. Residents in Victoria’s Gippsland region say the gossamer-like veils appeared after days of heavy rain.

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In one area, a spider-web covered more than a kilometre along a road. Experts say the veils are created by a survival tactic known as “ballooning”, where spiders throw out silk to climb to higher ground.

Natural phenomenon 

Victoria state generally sees this natural phenomenon during the winter, when it receives most of its rain. When this happens, spiders, which can produce a wide variety of silks, produce this kind of web which is very thin and delicate, and allows them to fly away with the breeze, sometimes as far as 100 km.

Because this ballooning silk is lighter than air, it latches on to objects such as tree tops, tall grass and road signs, allowing the spiders to climb up. The spiders which lay such webs are called “vagrant hunters”, which typically live on the ground and do not build a web. Even while ballooning after a flood, each spider throws up only one thread – meaning every line in the massive web blanket seen this week is made by a different insect; their total thus being expected in the millions.

Threat to humans?

While the ballooning spiders are not dangerous to humans, some species are. Between 2000 and 2013, nearly 12,600 people were admitted to hospital because of spider bites. An episode from Peppa Pig, a British animated television series, in which a character says spiders are “very very small” and “can’t hurt you”, has been pulled off air in the country.

Incidents of animals wreaking havoc

Also this year, Australia’s eastern states witnessed a “mice rain”– a devastating mouse plague that has affected farmers, community members and residents. To end the crisis, the government had to authorise the use of an otherwise outlawed poison called bromadiolone.

• Giant spider webs have draped rural Australian region of Gippsland in the state of Victoria after heavy rains and flooding
• This is a survival technique called “ballooning”, in which spiders throw out silk to climb to higher ground

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