Parts Of Victoria Have Been Invaded By Blankets Of Spiderwebs Following Floods

Just when you thought the mice plague was the only critter problem Australians had to deal with, spiders have arrived.

Blankets of spiderwebs have invaded parts of Victoria after floods swept through the region.

Horror storms lashed many areas of the state, with some of the worst affected places including near Broadford, which is north of Melbourne; parts of the Dandenong Ranges; and Traralgon, Morwell and Tinamba, which are east of the capital.

Creatures on eight legs have created massive spiderwebs to ensure they stay above the waterline and get through the storms.

People have uploaded images to Reddit showing how elaborate and dense these spiderweb blankets are and it is every arachnophobic's worst nightmare.

One person reacting to the pictures said: "Ahh Australia, you got fires, storms, mice, spiders. We should get a bloody award for surviving."

Another added: "Alright, who had massive spider swarm in the apocalypse bingo."

A third wrote: "Can confirm. Drove to the beach today and passed this thinking they put nets on the bushes before I realised!"

This isn't an isolated incident and spiders often do this when their homes are under threat from a lot of water.

The Australian Museum's entomology collections manager Graham Milledge explained to Reuters a few years ago that this is called 'ballooning'.

While it might be a terrifying thought seeing all those spiders above ground, they can actually do some good.The spiders munch on mosquitoes and other insects that also boom during the floods.

Taronga Zoo spider keeper Brett Finlayson told the Sydney Morning Herald: "The amount of mosquitoes around would be incredible because of all this water.

"The spiders don't pose any harm at all. They are doing us a favour. They are actually helping us out."

In addition to the spider ballooning happening across Victoria, 35 homes have been destroyed by the weather and tens of thousands of properties are without power.

Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp has warned more intense weather is expected in the coming days.

"Given we've already got extremely saturated ground, and we've already got flooding in some particular areas, there is a very real chance that we will move from minor to moderate, and even in some areas, moderate to major flooding," he said.

The state government has opened up disaster relief payments worth up to $42,000 for homes and businesses affected and need immediate relief from the storm damage.

Featured Image Credit: u/hdjwiax/Reddit

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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