A sticky situation in Dallas (or early Halloween decor)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Arachnophobes: Web Warning

The metroplex found itself festooned with spiderwebs this morning. Apparently, a mass hatching of spiders triggered by the cooler weather sent up their ballooning tethers…and went nowhere. In the dead-calm air, the threads tangled into bundles and eventually draped over trees, lampposts, buildings–even hanging in the middle of the street. Here’s a better picture of one of the masses of web. (Arachnophobes, if you ignored the warning: try not to think about how many almost invisibly tiny spiders it took to make enough silk to leave skeins like that all over a big, sprawling city.)

Also, new research into spider ballooning indicates they they actually generate lift using the electrostatic charge on the thread, rather than relying on updrafts. That might explain how the strands were able to rise high enough to get all over everything in the absence of significant wind.

I’m not really a fan of spiders myself, but I found all this pretty cool.

2

A spider is a handful of bugs a day that you never have to deal with. They are a blessing. (If you know someone with a passing resemblance to John Goodman, dare them to walk around with an exterminator uniform for fun!)

3

Yup. Saw a few of them from four stories up in Irving. Took me a minute to figure out what they were. Thought maybe I should warn people that spiders were falling out of the sky, but then I decided that it would be more fun if they found out for themselves.

4

And here I thought Spider-Man was visiting Dallas.

5

No, I’m at home.

6

Tell that to the big hairy one that scuttled toward me in the bathroom last weekend! He ended up squished under the wastebasket. The jerk.

7

Well played, sir.

8

Ooh, it’s just like the end of Charlotte’s Web. Only, you know, creepier.