http://texasento.net/Social_Spider.htm
Posted on 08/30/2007 2:44:49 PM PDT by Orange1998
WILLS POINT — 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.
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.
"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.
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.
http://texasento.net/Social_Spider.htm
Is the name of that North Texas trail “Mirkwood?”
No. I hate spiders. My reaction would probably be a liberal use of flamethrowers, then fall back to a nearby ridge and shell the area with napalm and thermite rounds.
WHOA!, Get those Guys a Union Quick!
Dude! Give the 8-leggy critters a pass. They won't bite you. They wont even get mad if you jack with their web.
They just catch and eat the nasty-damn mosquitos that are carrying blood from their previous victims to you, and flies which are going to lick you with the same organ they just enjoyed a doggy drop with!
Cut spidey a break, wouldya? He just tryin to hep!
There might be several thousand spider webs in my yard any given morning, but one thing for sure is they are social to the extent of carefully avoiding each other.
The SciFi channel had spider movies all weekend.
Coincidence???
I think not!
Wow that’s right out of some Roger Coreman movie.
Looks kinda like what those tent caterpillars do.
Quick! Call Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley !..................
Aragon ping...
Aragog!
I don’t enjoy having a spider crawl on me, but mosquitoes are downright dangerous. Therefore, unless I identify a particular spider as being a member of one of the two venomous North American species (i.e. the Brown recluse or Black Widow), I escort spiders outside instead of killing them when I encounter them in my home.
Spiders are creepy (and, to my eye, unattractive), but they perform a useful function: killing mosquitoes. Mosquitoes kill far more people every year than do spiders. Anything that eats mosquitoes is on my team.
I bet it’s that damn Sauron again. We run him out of Dol Gulder every 1000 years or so, but he keeps coming back with all his nasty pets.
See post #15
We know how you would deal with spiders, how about snakes.:)
Ping
Post number 15, click the quote.
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