Science agrees that it’s RAINING SPIDERS in Australia!!

Posted by: admin , May 15, 2015

Science has (gasp) backed up claims made by locals that it’s “raining spiders” in Australia!
Goulburn resident Ian Watson used a community Facebook page to ask whether anyone else was experiencing “angel hair” or “hundreds of little spiders falling from the sky”.
Ian said that spiders could be seen 100 metres from the ground and that the web falling from the sky was a “cotton-like substance” that covered his home, which made it look like it had been taken over by spiders.
Chillingly, Ian said he couldn’t walk outside without getting spider webs in his beard!
Unfortunately (for aracnophobes), naturalist Martyn Robinson has confirmed that such an event is possible and is likely explained by a migration technique used by spiders called “ballooning”, where baby spiders climb to the top of tall vegetation and release silk balloons to be carried by the wind.
According to comments made to the Sydney Morning Herald, spiders can travel up to 3km in this manner, which explains why spiders are found on every continent – even Antarctica!
Martyn noted that in some years the mass migration of spiders has caused entire fields and paddocks to be covered in “gossamer” or “angel hair”.
Martyn said angel hair could also arise after heavy rains or floods, where spiders tend to throw “silk” lines to pull themselves out of the water.
So, it’s official – it’s raining spiders and I’m never leaving home again…