Just as they thought it was safe to go out . . . the spiders rise up

First came the fires, then a mouse plague struck the grain belt and now a spider infestation has blanketed large parts of eastern Australia in great billowing webs.

Parks, paddocks and trees have been covered in the vast amounts of gossamer produced by millions of spiders as they scrambled to escape floods that hit Victoria last week.

Photos resembling a horror film set showed the webs stretching across entire fields in rural areas, even enveloping large trees. One photo posted on social media was captioned: ‘‘If the floods weren’t enough, I give you, spider apocalypse.’’

The phenomenon is known as ballooning and occurs where wet and chilly weather conditions force spiders off the ground. They then construct cloud-like cobwebs for shelter as they try to escape rising waters.

Dr Ken Walker, Museums Victoria’s senior insects curator, said it was a survival tactic that allowed the creatures to continue to hunt while the ground dried out.

‘‘People just don’t realise there are millions of them out there because they are normally down on the ground,’’ Walker said. While ballooning lasts just a few days, the webs can often stretch far across land, as well as floating high into the sky. ‘‘This can stretch over hundreds of kilometres and be blown up to 3km in the air,’’ Walker told Melbourne’s Herald Sun, which said ‘‘millions and millions’’ of spiders had been responsible for the latest phenomenon.

Walker added: ‘‘They let silk out and it floats up so they can get away from the sodden ground. If they were on the ground they would drown.

‘‘It is a survival and dispersal technique.’’ – The Times