Huge spider webs invade Australian territory after floods

The display is large enough to give any arachnid a cold sweat: a large canvasSpider Floating in the air and closing the sides of the road as far as the eye can see. The The video was filmed By an Australian living in the Gibbsland area of ​​Victoria. She was the only one who never noticed such an event.

In recent days, images have proliferated on social networks. Some show similar gigantic canvases covering the entire grounds and trees. Others show dozens of spiders of various sizes and shapes along the lengths of silk, branches or poles.

The most common behavior

If this event is interesting, it is as common as other places in Australia. Its origin should not be too far away. For the past week, Victoria has been experiencing heavy rain, which has caused flash floods and forced residents to evacuate several areas.

However, humans are not the only ones to leave the rising water. Spiders buried under leaf beds and in the soil should have done the same. When such a situation arises, they should evacuate as soon as possible, and often hundreds or thousands of people should begin to evacuate their hiding places.

However, to speed up the movement, spiders do not hesitate to use their own silks and send threads into the air so that they are carried by the wind and lift them to a safe place. This aerial locomotion behavior is called “English”Ballooning“.

When thousands of models use the same process, it can generate large transfers in the air, as seen in many places in Gibbsland. In this case, it belongs to the family of spiders in particular Stifididae.

“When this kind of heavy rain and flooding occurs, these animals that spend their time quietly on the ground can no longer live there, and do what we try to do – move us upwards.“, Confirmed Dieter Hochuli, an ecologist at the University of Sydney 7 News.

Essential to the environment

The scale of this phenomenon confirms that tens of thousands or even millions of spiders are hidden in the soil of the Australian region. As experts point out, there is no need to worry about this. Their presence is essential even in their environment.

“These spiders play a major role in controlling pests, and you can have serious problems if you remove the spiders.“, Explained Dr. Lizzie Lowe of the University of Macquarie in an article published on the site Conversation.

Since the situation did not represent any danger, it strongly encouraged not to use pesticides or other products to hunt arthropods. “They will disintegrate on their own very quickly“Return to where they hid,” he said.

As for the nets, they do not last very long and will be destroyed by the wind in a few days.

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