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eiramnoaj

It's certainly much better to kick **** than to be
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to be creeped out.


http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sidesho...australian-farm-escaping-flood-165958059.html

SpiderFlood.jpg


Looks like snow? Think again - they're spider webs!



Thousands of normally solitary wolf spiders have blanketed an Australian farm after fleeing a rising flood.
Reuters reports that the flooding has forced more than 8,000 Australian (human) residents from their homes in the city of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. But for every temporarily displaced person, it appears several spiders have moved in to fill the void.
"What we've seen here is a type of wolf spider," Owen Seeman, an arachnid expert at Queensland Museum, told Reuters. "They are trying to hide away (from the waters)."
The Australian Museum's entomology collections manager Graham Milledge told Reuters that there's even a term for the phenomenon, "ballooning," and that it is typical behavior for spiders forced to escape rising waters.
You can watch a video here of researchers on the hunt for ballooning spiders from the safety of a hot air balloon.
 
Thanks joan.... you're about to hit my ignore list... seriously... hate spiders... gawd, so horrible.
 
Reminds me of the lawn filled with snakes from a while back.





Sorry.
 
"you can watch the video here".... yea no thanks... not interested in getting the skin crawling feeling.... Have yet to see a spider this spring.. it'll be ok if i don't.
 
I didn't watch the video or click the bottom picture to see more pics - not that brave.

I asked one of my guys at work to kill a spider for me the other day - it was on the ledge over my desk - way too close for comfort.
 
I saw that this morning and was like "Spider webs over the rushing water?"
 
I am very good with a shoe.... I do not care what pair I have on... they are off and the spider is *splat*. I don't bother yelling for my husband as at times by the time he comes to "save me" the spider has moved and out of sight/death range. I am not sleeping knowing there is one crawling around me... what I don't know.. is another story. If I see it, its dead.

Oh and I do not care where I am... they are dead... no choice in this for them. Call peta if ya must, I feel no guilt. ;)
 
Yuck!

Have you ever seen the show "Infested?" It is so disturbing -- some stupid girl stayed in her appartment that had oppossums in it! She went on to get sick (not rabies), but eventually recovered. Seriously, the show is disgusting but it's hard to look away at the same time :lol:
 
Ewwww, that totally grossed me out. I hate spiders too. I saw the movie "Arachnophobia" and actually had spider nightmares afterwards. Sometimes if there's a big spider at home, I'll just put a cup over it and make my DH take care of it when he gets home from work.
 
Great, now I'm scratching myself all over - thanks much Joan! :lol:
 
But we know that if it were Joan's backyard it'd be Fabrezed. :lol:
 
And it turns out the spiders are actually doing quite a bit of good while setting up shop above ground. The spiders are feasting on mosquitoes and other insect populations that have boomed with the increased moisture brought about by the rising waters.

"The amount of mosquitoes around would be incredible because of all this water," Taronga Zoo spider keeper Brett Finlayson told the Sydney Morning Herald. "The spiders don't pose any harm at all. They are doing us a favor. They are actually helping us out."
 
I'll take skeeters over that hot mess any day!!! :surrender:
 
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