On May 17, 2015, it rained billions of little spiders in the Australian region of New South Wales. From the outside, it looked like a snowstorm in the middle of a hot Australian day, because the spiders did not fly on their own, but with the help of silvery cobwebs.

Within a few hours, the fields and farms were covered with a thick layer of strong and sticky cobwebs. Although it is commonly believed that young spiders travel in this way, in fact this is a meaningful mass migration of adult individuals of one of the species of the araneomorphic spider family (Linyphiidae), which in Australia is also called the money spider or weaver. In its habitats, it is widely believed that if the money spider decided to climb on you, it means that he wants to twist you new clothes and thus save money. For humans, this type of spider does not pose any danger, although the sight of millions of swarming little creatures can scare anyone.

Scientists cannot explain what drives money spiders to undertake massive air travel. It is only known that millions of spiders simultaneously climb hills and synchronously throw out cobwebs, while aiming in the direction of the wind. Thus, they achieve the effect of a reverse parachute - long light cobwebs lift small spiders into the sky. Unfortunately, most of them do not survive the journey, falling victim to predators and overheating, as high altitude the sun burns much stronger than below, and the spiders are not able to leave their air transport.

But even a small percentage of surviving travelers is enough to flood a new habitat. Thanks to this method of movement, money spiders are the first to populate areas that have been devastated and abandoned by humans, such as depleted fields and cut down forests.

In Australia, mass migrations of spiders occur every few years. The previous rain of spiders was recorded in 2012. Naturalists claim that it was provoked by anomalous downpours. The flood flooded the spiders' habitats, forcing them to take to the air. Australians are sympathetic to such mass migrations, because in just a few days the spiders will spread to new habitats, and the cobwebs will dry in the sun. Although there are still some inconveniences, and bearded citizens feel them especially. For reasons only they can understand, spiderlings have a weakness for human beards, and persistently try to make a nest in them.

passed in Australia. Millions of arthropods descended on the streets and houses small town Goulburn, wrapping him in cobwebs and pretty frightening local residents. "Angel hair" - so scientists dubbed this phenomenon because of the similarity of shreds of snow-white cobwebs with curls.

Punishment heavenly, the end of the world or a miracle of nature? When spiders began to descend smoothly from the sky on the small Australian city of Goulburn, people at first decided that they were imagining all this. Together with hundreds of thousands of small black insects, their web lay down on the ground like a blanket, and soon after the start of the unusual "rain" the fields and roads seemed to be covered with a dense layer of snow.

Local residents perceived the phenomenon in different ways: some ran to hide in basements, others armed themselves with cameras and hurried to publish pictures with enthusiastic comments on social networks as soon as possible:

"Everything around was covered with these little black spiders. I looked up and saw a tunnel of cobwebs going several hundred meters into the sky. It was impossible to get out without cobwebs sticking to you. And I also have a beard, so the spiders climbed right into it," says an eyewitness.

Some of the locals even suggested that a horror movie was being filmed in the city, but the explanation turned out to be not so frightening. Spiders travel in this way - they change their place of residence, explains biologist Ilya Kamaev.

"This is not rain, but the settlement of spiders. Little spiders release a cobweb and fly on it: the cobweb is picked up by the wind and carried away. Why are there so many of them all of a sudden? The fact is that animals have a so-called" population fluctuation ", during these periods there are a lot of individuals, they become noticeable," explains Kamaev.

Moreover, this happens in Russian latitudes. The phenomenon occurs in Indian summer, however, in a slightly different form, says naturalist journalist Alexander Khaburgaev.

“When you enter the forest in autumn, the sticky web always “sits” on your face, because many of our spiders squeeze a long thin web out of their abdomen, it is picked up by the wind, and they fly away on this “parachute” to settle in new lands It's just that it's autumn in Australia now, the spiders have a breeding season, - the expert says - And some vortex flows in one place twisted them all, so it seemed that there were so many spiders.

"Spider rain" is a really impressive sight, but it is not at all dangerous for a person. The "spider cover" did not lie on the ground for very long - the fabric, consisting mainly of protein, quickly disintegrated, and the insects simply spread out in all directions.

On the whole unusual precipitation periodically surprise and frighten the inhabitants of our planet - take at least the case of frogs in Spanish city El Rebolledo: In 2007, a nearby tornado hit a frog pond and lifted its "inhabitants" into the air. When the wind died down, croaking amphibians fell like a cornucopia right on the heads of the stunned Spaniards.

Large-scale flooding continues in Australia - people are forced to leave their homes, and local arthropods are developing new habitats. Fleeing from the rising water, they braided all the unoccupied islands of land with a sticky web.

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1. Australia continues to suffer from massive flood. It's been there for a week now heavy rains causing rivers to overflow their banks. It is predicted that some areas will be under water by 9 meters.

2. A severe flood caused an invasion of spiders, which entwined their webs, as if with white snow or poplar fluff, all coastal areas.

3. Millions of arthropods entwined the coastal vegetation with a dense cocoon.

4. Coastal fields, like a grid, are entangled in a dense sticky web.

5. According to experts, such an abundance of webs is due to the fact that spiders are trying to survive in flood conditions, forced to seek shelter from the arriving water.

6. Most a large number of Spiders are observed in the area of ​​​​the city of Waga-Waga, in New South Wales, from where about eight thousand local residents were evacuated the day before.

7. Numerous spiders weave a web of islands of land that are not flooded with water.

8. Basically, these are wolf spiders, which, fortunately, are not poisonous.

9. This behavior of spiders is quite typical in these conditions. A similar phenomenon was observed last year during the floods in Pakistan.

Australia, like no other continent, is subject to all sorts of cataclysms and catastrophes. What does this picturesque continent not have to endure every year. Earthquakes, droughts, hurricanes. And now the flood, because of which thousands of tiny spiders had to leave their acquired shelters in search of surviving land plots. At the same time, the entire area where the migration took place was soon covered with long and wide web paths, which in itself looks very interesting. Of course, if you look from the side and also in the photo.", "Australia, like no other continent, is subject to all sorts of cataclysms and disasters.

What does this picturesque continent not have to endure every year. Earthquakes, droughts, hurricanes. And now the flood, because of which thousands of tiny spiders had to leave their acquired shelters in search of surviving land plots. At the same time, the entire area where the migration took place was soon covered with long and wide web paths, which in itself looks very interesting. Of course, if you look from the side and also in the photo.

Spider rain is described by entomologists and arachnologists as a "frequent occurrence" observed in some parts the globe. It is a sudden fall from the sky of several thousand or even millions of spiders.

So what causes this phenomenon?

It is associated with a rather interesting behavior of spiders known as "ballooning". In essence, the spider rises to a high point and throws silk threads into the air, after which it is blown away by the wind - sometimes hundreds of kilometers.

Arachnologists note that there may be countless spiders flying over your head right now, which usually land without much fanfare and then follow their own path. Sometimes, however, thousands or millions of spiders decide to fly through the air at the same time, either because they are a single colony or because they are forced to do so by weather conditions.

Other known causes of spider rain include floods and wildfires, which can force spiders to flee en masse to save themselves.


As an example, consider the phenomenon observed in Pakistan in 2010 after devastating floods. Then millions of spiders, in order not to die, made a massive "air flight". You might think that people were unhappy with the fact that millions of spiders fell on them from the sky in the midst of a crushing natural disaster, However, it is not. Most of the citizens were grateful for this, as the spiders ate the annoying mosquitoes.

In addition to keeping the sky free of disease-carrying insects, flying spiders also provide an abundant source of food for birds and other creatures. This, combined with the fact that spiders are often among the first to return to land devastated by floods and fires (through the same "air travel"), means that spider rain is usually considered a beneficial phenomenon for nature, allowing these links of food chains quickly and everywhere disperse.

Every person, wherever they live, can observe individual spiders hovering in the air, but if you want to see spider rain - millions of spiders fall from the sky, then you need to go to Australia, because this is where this phenomenon is most common. According to a resident of New South Wales: "They fly through the sky, leaving behind flakes of cobwebs that look like snow."

Fortunately for arachnophobes, mass "air flight" is characteristic exclusively for small species spiders or those that were born very recently. The reason is simple: big spiders too heavy to be carried by typical winds. So you can be sure that if you ever happen to witness a rain of spiders, you won't even feel the little spiders crawling all over your body. This is a big plus because most small spiders are not able to damage human skin with their bites, even if they are very poisonous.

Thus, for the most part, spider rain is harmless (to humans). However, this phenomenon could potentially damage crops if millions of spiders land in the same place - their webs simply block the plants from accessing sunlight.