Thread by @BiIndia

Spiders in #Australia have covered the countryside in webs, and people can't decide if it's creepy or beautiful

businessinsider.in/international/…

Australian arachnids have carpeted the eastern Victoria countryside in gossamer silk after days of heavy rain waterlogged the area.

#Australia

The #spiderwebs, blanketed across the region of Gippsland, are covering entire trees, roads, and grass fields. The BBC reported that spiders spread webbing across more than half a mile along a road in one area.

#Australia

It's the result of millions of spiders banding their webs into massive safety nets to escape the flooding, Dr. Ken Walker, senior curator of entomology at the Melbourne Museum, told The Guardian.

#Australia

According to Walker, the spiders typically spin their "lighter than air" silks to parachute up and fly hundreds of miles but used their skills this time to get to higher ground.

#Australia

Called sheetweb spiders, these nocturnal critters live on the ground and can have a span of up to almost six inches. They have been found to create webs of up to three feet long.

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But when large numbers of them start spinning webs all at once, the webs begin latching on to each other and form giant swathes of silk - something called the gossamer effect, Dr. Walker told The Guardian.

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Each spider only contributes one thread, meaning that every line of silk represents a different spider, he added. Residents of the area posted images and videos of the phenomenon online, with one calling it "beautiful" while others named it a "spider apocalypse."

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Local council member Carolyn Crossley shared a video on Facebook showing the webs billowing in the breeze. "We can see mother nature can be beautiful but she can also be destructive," wrote Crossley in her Facebook post.

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Spiders in #Australia have covered the countryside in webs - What do you think about it?