This is a phenomena you simply do not see very often and it is kind of disturbing! When you look at this picture, do you have any idea what you are seeing around this house? It looks like some snow or possibly some odd foam right?

This photo was taken in the town Wagga Wagga in Australia. What you are seeing in the picture is spider webs... LOTS AND LOTS of spider webs!

How did this happen?

In March 2013, there were enormous floods in the country of Australia. The Murrumbidgee river rose to about 33 feet flooding large areas near and around Wagga Wagga. Like the humans, the spiders fled the flooded rivers and moved inland to escape the floods.

To understand how and why they did this, you need to know a little more about the spider. This particular spider is part of the Linyphiidae family of spiders and can be about 1/2" long. This species of spider actually releases strings of silk that it normally uses for webs in an attempt to escape when it senses danger. Releasing the silk allows the spider to actually catch the wind and lift the spider to safety. The process is called "ballooning" and spiders can use this to disperse in dangerous situations. Since they are blown by the wind, you can get large numbers of the spider in a single location and in this situation they were EVERYWHERE! How wild is that?

It is summer storm season and if you want to be one of my storm spotters, you can join me on my facebook or twitter page. Just follow the link below and click "like" or "follow".