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Gaaaah!!! Giant Spider Web!!!!


JenniferL

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Surely these highly organized spiders will destroy us all.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/30/spider.web.ap/

 

WILLS POINT, Texas (AP) -- Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail in a North Texas park.

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Lake Tawokoni State Park rangers Mike McCord, left, and Freddie Gowin check out a giant spider web at the park.

 

Officials at Lake Tawakoni State Park say the massive mosquito trap is a big attraction for some visitors, while others won't go anywhere near it.

 

"At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland," said Donna Garde, superintendent of the park about 45 miles east of Dallas. "Now it's filled with so many mosquitoes that it's turned a little brown. There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs."

 

Spider experts say the web may have been constructed by social cobweb spiders, which work together, or could be the result of a mass dispersal in which the arachnids spin webs to spread out from one another. Video Watch people marvel at size of web »

 

"I've been hearing from entomologists from Ohio, Kansas, British Columbia -- all over the place," said Mike Quinn, an invertebrate biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department who first posted photos online.

 

Herbert A. "Joe" Pase, a Texas Forest Service entomologist, said the massive web is very unusual.

 

"From what I'm hearing it could be a once-in-a-lifetime event," he said.

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But John Jackman, a professor and extension entomologist for Texas A&M University, said he hears reports of similar webs every couple of years.

 

"There are a lot of folks that don't realize spiders do that," said Jackman, author of "A Field Guide to the Spiders and Scorpions of Texas."

 

"Until we get some samples sent to us, we really won't know what species of spider we're talking about," Jackman said.

 

Garde invited the entomologists out to the park to get a firsthand look at the giant web.

 

 

"Somebody needs to come out that's an expert. I would love to see some entomology intern come out and study this," she said.

 

Park rangers said they expect the web to last until fall, when the spiders will start dying off. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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You know.... you get over spiders and webs and crap pretty quickly when you move to a country that's made of them - spiders and their webs, that is.

 

Though there is one loose huge one running around outside the house that makes me a bit nervous... :D

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Guest Far Dareis Mai

*shudders* Though it looks cool, I'm glad I don't live anywhere near it.

 

Just last night a spider came to feast upon my flesh while I was laying in bed watching Buffy last night. I took a page from her book though and slayed him.  :D

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You know I was looking at that picture in awe and then I remembered it is in Texas. They have to do everything big there, so it fits.

 

Now, I like spider because they eat bugs that are annoying. However, I don't like them in my house. I relocate the little eight legged nibblers the big ones too.

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I am enough of a nature lover to enjoy the beauty of a spider web, and that’s one huge work of art. Can’t imagine the effort to produce it. My butt hurts just thinking of it!  :D

 

I don’t mind most spiders, but we have a very prevalent one in Florida (don’t know the name, and don’t care-I call them “dead” if they get close enough) that gets very big *shudders*. I-Do-Not-Like-The-Big-Spider-That-Jumps-And-Crawls-On-Me!!! I guess that’s my biggest problem with them. They are ambush hunters (no webs) so I’ve been ambushed quite a few times in my life, and believe me I may have freaked out, but the spider seriously regretted it! *evil g*

Just after Hurricane Charley came through our area, our house was infested with them *shudders* We usually only find 1 or 2 ever week or two. In the 7 days without power after Charley we found and killed 18! Really made me think of the movie Arachnophobia

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's a good thing you didn't look up when you visited my place a few weeks ago. There was a web about 3 feet in diameter with a spider whose body and legs were about the size of the head-in-circle of the new dollars. It frightened me muchly. Luckily, I haven't seen it since.

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If western civilization depends on me, we're doomed.

 

Seriously, it's getting to be like a B movie around here. I'm leaving the ones outside alone, but the ones who venture in are dealt with in my usual manner:

 

Screeching like a prissy, prissy girl until my husband comes and squishes it.

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Guest nephitess

My room mate is like that. if any kind of bug makes it in to the house she yells my name untill i come and remove it. LOL...

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