Photos and videos of the region of Gippsland in Victoria covered in spiderwebs have taken the internet by storm. As per reports, one spiderweb even covered more than a kilometer along a road. A video of the large spiderwebs looking look like waves as wind blew has been posted by news agency Reuters.
Huge spider web blankets bushland in Australia's state of Victoria pic.twitter.com/teYqxuqCnq
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 16, 2021
As per a BBC report, experts are of the view that the huge webs are created by the spiders as their survival tactic that is also known as "ballooning". To use this tactic the spiders throw out silk that latches on to vegetation, allowing them to climb to higher ground or to escape.
Speaking to the media, Dr. Ken Walker, a senior insects curator from Museums Victoria, said that it was likely that millions of spiders had thrown strands up to the surrounding trees. "It's a semi-regular occurrence in Victoria in wintertime when we get most of our rain. Spiders can make a wide range of different silks and one of the silks they use for this behavior - ballooning - it's a very, very thin little silk that they use … to fly away with the breeze. They could fly 100km," he said The Guardian.
"What's happened is there's been a massive flooding event pretty quickly … so they're using the ballooning not to escape for hundreds of kilometres but to almost throw up a lasso on top of the vegetation. It hooks on to the tops of the vegetation because it's lighter than air, and then they quickly climb up," he added.
This phenomenon happened after Victoria received heavy rains along with strong winds, leading to flash flooding and major damage to property. The heavy rains and flooding also killed two residents and forced many to evacuate.
