A spider invasion has put the flood-stricken NSW town of Wagga Wagga back on the tourist radar a lot quicker than is normally the case after a natural disaster.
Reports suggest that visitors are arriving in the area to marvel at the sight of entire fields covered in the webs of a type of ground-dwelling wolf spider.
Apparently, in an attempt to escape rising floodwaters, the spiders climbed blades of grass and let out hundreds of metres of silk in the hope a gust of wind would catch the web and transport them to safety … behaviour, known as ballooning.
Dennis Lane, who lives north-east Wagga, says the spectacle has attracted many visitors to the area to take photos.
“It’s all silver. It’s like snow in the trees. With the wet it’s all silk,” told the ABC. “Just down the bottom of the hill from my place, the trees are covered in them. They’re just all walking out of the water down the road.”
The spiders are apparently not aggressive and only bite if they face a severe threat. They have a mild venom that would cause a person to get a bit of a headache and some local pain.
Taronga Zoo’s spider keeper Brett Finlayson said the increase in spiders posed no danger to people – and that they should be grateful, instead of frightened.
“The amount of mosquitoes around would be incredible because of all this water, but these spiders are capturing all these insects and bugs,” he said. “They are doing us a favour. They are actually helping us out.”
