# Over a mile of fence and wires covered with silk strands? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825 "2015-12-08T16:14:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/1 "2015-12-08T16:14:07Z")
I can’t share the video as it’s on a private facebook page, but a friend of mine just shared a video she took of the fence and electric wires bordering her property. (The fence consists, basically, in wire as well.) It’s covered, densely over every inch, with what appears to maybe be spider silk strands, floating in the wind, one end attached to the wiring, the other end flying free. She says this is covering over a mile of fencing. What is this phenomenon? Are there other records of it online? Is it spiders? How many damn spiders?! ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/2 "2015-12-08T16:32:10Z")
Bagworms? ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/3 "2015-12-08T16:35:23Z")
Was it this? > **[National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/)** > > Explore National Geographic. A world leader in geography, cartography and exploration. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/4 "2015-12-08T16:40:09Z")
Anyone else remember the children’s novel _Charlotte’s Web_? At the very end, all of Charlotte’s children float away on “balloons” of a sort, made of spider silk. Apologies for spoilering a 63-year-old book. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/5 "2015-12-08T17:54:32Z")
Anyone look to see if Christo has been around? Sounbds almost like the spiders were trying to mimic his “Running Fence.” ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/6 "2015-12-08T23:09:02Z")
Can’t find the tread I thought there was here when it last occurred around Goulburn in May, though there was a more spectacular event in Albury in 2012. [Angel Hair](http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/raining-spiders-in-goulburn-entirely-possible-scientist-says-20150514-gh1guf.html) ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/7 "2015-12-09T01:43:00Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > What is this phenomenon? Gossamer. > [@](#): > > Are there other records of it online? Billions. > [@](#): > > Is it spiders? Yes. > [@](#): > > How many damn spiders?! Figure a 10, 000 spiders per hectare, and figure that your fence will snag every spider that launches from within 100m of the fence. Those are very conservative estimates. For 2km of fence, that gives us 200, 000 spiders. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/8 "2015-12-09T02:06:03Z")
ETA: Beaten by \*\*Blake \*\*who’s the expert. I gotta learn to refresh stale tabs before posting. Probably what \*\*jasg \*\*said in post #3. I know there’s an event which happens in (IIRC) springtime in and around Dallas, Texas most years. It’s a mass hatching or breeding or ??? of spiders. The sky will be full of cotton-ball sized blobs of silk trailing 18-24" streamers. IIRC the blobs are egg sacs. They are everywhere for a day or two, then disappear as mysteriously as they came. But during those spiderful days every fence, tree, roadsign, car, and tumbleweed is decorated with the stuff. For us in the flying biz they aren’t dangerous provided you know to expect them. Otherwise you might think it was a flock of birds or some such. Which are dangerous and would need to be avoided on landing. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/9 "2015-12-09T02:32:39Z")
[Could be worse.](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/da/41/d8/da41d859e450280d02518bbb2c27aefc.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/10 "2015-12-09T10:25:51Z")
The timing of this thread is propitious. Just this week, the **Cecil** ’s current article on the front page (a reprint from Dec. 23, 2011) tells of a similar case, happening _inside someone’s living room_ :eek: [Should I worry about bugs in my Christmas tree?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3028/should-i-worry-about-bugs-in-my-christmas-tree) > [@Cecil Adams](#): > > . . . At any rate, nobody bothered to educate SkipMagic, staff member emeritus of the Straight Dope Message Board, and his wife, Auntie Em. One year they picked out the perfect Christmas tree, carted it home, set it up and decorated it, and went to bed dreaming happy holiday thoughts. The next morning they came downstairs to find their tree covered with hundreds of silver threads, which extended from the tree in the living room to the chandelier in the dining room, and from there to a dining room window. From the threads hung tiny silver beads. > > Sounds pretty, doesn’t it? You know what’s coming next. The threads were silk, and the tiny silver beads were a brood of baby spiders that had hatched in the warmth of the house. Skip and Em suppressed the urge to put the premises to the torch and instead got out the vacuum cleaner, thereby salvaging the situation, although it’s fair to say if you were a baby spider your Christmas that year sucked. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/11 "2015-12-09T11:55:56Z")
Nah, it’s [chemtrails](http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/3-examples-of-chemtrail-fallout/)! You know, the evil gubmint spraying chemical fallout from aircraft. Seriously, silk from ballooning spiders keeps getting presented as “evidence” by these loonies. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/12 "2015-12-09T14:18:25Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Billions. There are billions of records of it online? That’s a lot of records. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/13 "2015-12-09T14:19:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > ETA: Beaten by \*\*Blake \*\*who’s the expert. I gotta learn to refresh stale tabs before posting. > > Probably what \*\*jasg \*\*said in post #3. > > I know there’s an event which happens in (IIRC) springtime in and around Dallas, Texas most years. > > It’s a mass hatching or breeding or ??? of spiders. The sky will be full of cotton-ball sized blobs of silk trailing 18-24" streamers. IIRC the blobs are egg sacs. They are everywhere for a day or two, then disappear as mysteriously as they came. > > But during those spiderful days every fence, tree, roadsign, car, and tumbleweed is decorated with the stuff. > > For us in the flying biz they aren’t dangerous provided you know to expect them. Otherwise you might think it was a flock of birds or some such. Which are dangerous and would need to be avoided on landing. It’s weird–I’m from the Dallas area, and my friend who made the recording is, as well, yet neither of us had ever seen this or heard of it before. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/14 "2015-12-09T14:19:39Z")
Deleted in shame. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/15 "2015-12-10T06:28:52Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > It’s weird–I’m from the Dallas area, and my friend who made the recording is, as well, yet neither of us had ever seen this or heard of it before. I’ve seen it in eastern New Mexico/Texas panhandle area. It’s wild. Sometimes the sunlight needs to be just right to clearly see it, and then you can see thin white strands hanging from **everything** – power lines, poles, barb wire fences, tall weeds, car antennas, you name it – all gently wafting in the breeze and all you can think is, “I hope the fucking tarantulas don’t learn to balloon like this.” ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-a-mile-of-fence-and-wires-covered-with-silk-strands/739825/16 "2015-12-10T17:17:27Z")
I’ve had some personal experience with just how many spiders are in a single egg sac. As a kid, I put one into a jar to see what happened, and when those guys hatched (all in a single night!) there had to be a thousand of them trying to get out of that jar. It was simply an unfathomable number of spiders. It was hard to believe they all could have fit into the original egg sac at all.