Australia’s Floods Bring Plague Of Spiders
Australia has faced some of the worst floods in living history over the last few years. The residents who’ve had their property destroyed and found themselves being forced to move to higher ground are never particularly chuffed about the upheaval.
13,000 Aussies were forced to relocate last year. The humans aren’t the only victims, though. Spiders are slightly perturbed by the water levels too, so they are also relocating to drier ground. Unfortunately for the Australian humans, they share the same land preferences as the spiders and all of a sudden things have got a bit… well… gross.
Wolf spiders are churning out reams of sturdy silk, coating everything in sight. Wolf spiders aren’t particularly dangerous thankfully, but they still look completely horrible. At first glance you assume the grass is covered in dew or a light frost, but then the sheer magnitude of the digustingness hits you. Each tendril is soaked in spiders. The webs are hung dark with the bodies of these little mingers.
Wolf spiders live in a diverse selection of habitats, but some specifically live on the banks of rivers, and these are the guys that are causing the beefs here. Once the river’s flood waters return to their rightful place, a few metres down the banks, the farmers are hoping the spider population will follow suit. Otherwise they’re going to have to get used to their new neighbours.
At least they’ll keep the mosquitos at bay.
The rural folk of Australia have to put up with this stuff every once in a while. The same thing occurred in the floods of 2012 and I assume every other flood before that.
To be quite honest I don’t have any sympathy for them. I bet they pay bugger all council tax, have nice weather nearly all of the time and own masses of land around their cheap as chips property. Go screw yourself Australia. I am so jealous of your generally high standard of sunshine living that I could puke all over your can of Fosters… and I know you don’t drink Fosters over there, I only said it to wind you up.
Yes, I am a winging Pommy.
MY SUGGESTION:
MORE SPIDERY STUFF:
IS SPIDER SILK REALLY STRONGER THAN STEEL?
SOLIFUGAE – LIKE SPIDERS BUT MORE MINGING
