This isn’t a computer-generated scene from an upcoming horror movie, just massive cobwebs spun by millions of spiders in parts of Australia’s state of Victoria as they attempt to escape flooding in the region. There’s actually a name for this phenomenon, and it’s known as ‘ballooning’, or a survival instinct where ground-dwelling spiders release silk strands which are then caught by the wind to lift them away from floodwaters.
These aren’t your normal spiders, but rather sheet web spiders, which normally live on the ground. While the arachnids take shelter on higher ground, Victoria state’s work of emergency services in the region continues. Unfortunately, hundreds of homes in the region remain without power as the storms continue to wreak havoc.
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When we get these types of very heavy rains and flooding, these animals who spend their lives cryptically on the ground can’t live there anymore, and do exactly what we try to do — they move to the higher ground. So what they do is they release this silk up and they act like snag wires. They snag the vegetation up above and then they can quickly climb up and get out of the way,” said Dr. Ken Walker of Museums Victoria.
