In recent days, social media activists from the Australian state of Victoria have posted videos and pictures of what looks like a “massive cover” of spider webs, which have spread across pastures and roadsides in the southeast of the country.
Traralgon, in eastern Victoria, has been one of the areas worst affected by recent flooding and rainy weather, which has prompted red and black spiders to form a web of webs called gosamers.
Dr Ken Walker, senior curator of entomology at the Melbourne Museum, said: “The number of spiders runs into the millions, especially after floods, as they take up high altitude areas to set up their silky webs for a vast distance of up to 100 kilometres.”