[新聞] Spiderwebs Blanket Countryside After Australian Floods

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Spider Swarm
In an arachnophobe's worst nightmare, swarms of spiders spin webs in a bush in flood-ravaged Wagga Wagga (map), Australia, Tuesday.

After a week of record rain, floodwaters across eastern Australia have forced the ground-dwelling spiders—and at least 13,000 people—to flee their homes, according to Reuters.
The rampant webs blanketing vast stretches of Wagga Wagga are failed attempts at "ballooning"—spinning web "kites" to ride the wind.

Ballooning is quite common following floods, the Australian Museum's entomology collections manager Graham Milledge told the news.com.au website, according to Reuters.
"They often do it as a way of dispersing and getting into a new area," Milledge said. "In an event like this, they are just trying to escape the floods."



Spiders Left High and Dry


Spiders spin thick webs as floods force them to move to higher ground in Wagga Wagga, Australia, on Tuesday.
A recent spate of wet weather in Australia has led to a boom in spiders, according to Sydney's Taronga Zoo, as reported by Reuters.




Field of Webs
A woman walks her dogs through a field of spiderwebs in Wagga Wagga, Australia, on March 7.
There may be hope in sight yet for human and beast alike. The Murrumbidgee River—source of most of the flooding in Wagga Wagga—is slowly receding after reaching 34 feet (11 meters) on March 6, according to Reuters.




Blanketed
Fields blanketed with spiderwebs on March 6 are the work of orb spiders and wolf spiders, two species not considered dangerous to people. In fact, the arachnids may even be beneficial in keeping mosquito numbers down after the floods, the U.K.'s Telegraphnewspaper reported.




Spider Refugees
Some Wagga Wagga residents have found the spiderwebs (pictured on March 7) a pleasant distraction after days of battling floods. "I have never seen spiderwebs like it," resident Janet Hume told the Telegraph.




Web Watcher
Spiderwebs billow in the wind in Wagga Wagga, Australia, on March 6. Now battling floods, eastern Australia only recently emerged from a decade-long drought and its worst bush fires in history.




Surveying the Damage
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard surveys flood-affected areas of Wagga Wagga from a helicopter on March 7.
The floods in eastern Australia, considered the worst in 160 years, could continue for more than a month, according to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

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