Spiders Take Over a Town in Australia - as part of the news and politics series by GeoBeats.
Wagga Wagga is a beautiful and relaxed inland town in Australia.
During recent floods, besides people, spiders had to find a way to cope with rising waters.
And indeed they did - by moving to higher ground and covering a large area with spider webs.
Fortunately, these are are harmless to people.
In a 702 ABC Sydney report, Wagga resident Dennis Lane describes the scene as "it's all silver, it's like snow in the trees." and estimates there are millions of them.
Similar situation was observed in Pakistan in 2011 when spiders moved to the trees during flooding.
Interesting, the spiders were said to reduce the risk of malaria as they were trapping malaria causing mosquitos.
This phenomenon is called ballooning in which spiders emanate their silk and get carried by the wind.
Once the wind kicks in, they have no control and have been found hundreds of miles in water from sea shores. If they get caught in jet stream, they can be found miles above the ground where they can survive for days.
Meanwhile, spiders at Wagga have plenty of food for now. If needed, they do eat their own webs or even other spiders.
