First Haley's Comet, now a once in a lifetime spider web. What's next?
Offline Ok, not quite once in a lifetime. Unless you're very unlucky. Still damn interesting.
Spiders create giant web
Thu Aug 30, 7:02 AM ET
WILLS POINT, Texas - Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail in a North Texas park.
Officials at Lake Tawakoni State Park say the massive mosquito trap is a big attraction for some visitors, while others won't go anywhere near it.
"At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland," said Donna Garde, superintendent of the park about 45 miles east of Dallas. "Now it's filled with so many mosquitoes that it's turned a little brown. There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs."
Spider experts say the web may have been constructed by social cobweb spiders, which work together, or could be the result of a mass dispersal in which the arachnids spin webs to spread out from one another.
"I've been hearing from entomologists from Ohio, Kansas, British Columbia — all over the place," said Mike Quinn, an invertebrate biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department who first posted photos online.
Herbert A. "Joe" Pase, a Texas Forest Service entomologist, said the massive web is very unusual.
"From what I'm hearing it could be a once-in-a-lifetime event," he said.
But John Jackman, a professor and extension entomologist for Texas A&M University, said he hears reports of similar webs every couple of years.
"There are a lot of folks that don't realize spiders do that," said Jackman, author of "A Field Guide to the Spiders and Scorpions of Texas."
"Until we get some samples sent to us, we really won't know what species of spider we're talking about," Jackman said.
Garde invited the entomologists out to the park to get a firsthand look at the giant web.
"Somebody needs to come out that's an expert. I would love to see some entomology intern come out and study this," she said.
Park rangers said they expect the web to last until fall, when the spiders will start dying off.
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Fascinating, yet eeeeuuuuu.
I'd rather have a root canal than face a spider. Even the thought of spiders gives me the heeby-jeebys.
Thanks, Hambydammit. Now I'm going to have creepy dreams.
Now I'm going to ponder: How many are there? Are they in Missouri? Are they poisonous? How big are they? Ack!
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Surely this is a sign of the end times.
Cool! I hate insects, but think spiders a cool. Almost makes me want to go back to Texas for a visit.
Up in North KC near my house we have garden spiders that spin webs that usually span across our garage door. Every once in a while the bed of my truck will have three or four nicely sized webs in it.
Dont feel bad, my girlfriend's arachnaphobic and she flips out over it.
Hey, as long as they're nowhere near OR on me...or HUGE, I'm pretty okay with them.
I love spider webs (when I don't walk into them). They're beautiful. I think it would have been one heck of an experience to see the giant spider webs when they were still new and clean.
Great. I keep looking around at the ceiling and the wall behind me checking for spiders. *shudder*
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Any pictures?
I'm a big fan of spiders. I think they're real cute.
Now, if we just had some mass spider-killing thinger.... caus as much as I love the thought of all those bugs getting pwned like the holocaust was back in fashion, it also means there will probably be A LOT of little spider babies that will come into existence and be all spidery like! BAD!
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I'll get back to you when I think of something worthwhile to say.
I for one welcome our new mosquito massacring overlords