Along came a ... flying spider web? - It's a bird, it's a plane, it's floating strands of...

Associated Press ^ | December 22, 2002 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Along came a ... flying spider web?

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's floating strands of who-knows-what

12/22/2002

Associated Press

GALVESTON - Residents are still trying to figure out what caused the skies over their coastal city to literally be filled Friday with floating strands of wads that looked like spider webs.

The webs were visible in the air for five hours, and utility poles were left wrapped with the sticky strands and fuzzy wads.

"It blew my mind. I have never seen anything like it before," said Lorenzo DeLacerta, who saw the webs about noon when he delivered building material to a site a mile east of the San Louis Pass Bridge.

Mr. DeLacerta said he called his sister, Gloria, who saw the same thing in the sky over nearby La Marque, The Galveston County Daily News reported.

A spokesman at the National Weather Service Office in League City said that officials there had received no reports of flying webs - and that flying webs weren't really their thing.

The phenomenon has occurred in at least two other places. The Associated Press reported Oct. 8 that "long, floating spider webs" were "bobbing through the skies of Santa Cruz, Calif. ... confusing some community members concerned about biological weapons, UFOs and other phenomena."

And the Wallowa Chieftain in Oregon reported Dec. 22, 2000, the sightings of "web-like material ... falling from the sky" that some locals thought came "from three military jets that had been flying back and forth in an east-west flight pattern at high altitude."

A University of Wyoming microbiology professor attributed the webs in Santa Cruz to young spiders that launch themselves on their homemade parachutes after hatching to be blown to a new home.

In Wyoming, dozens of the webs can been seen floating across the prairie in the spring, the professor was quoted as saying in the AP story.

However, on the Internet, some conspiracy connoisseurs remain convinced that the webs are man-made and could be part of an elaborate government plot.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/122202dntexweb.18b97.html

[MeekOneGOP]

Hmm? Parts of the Bermuda Triangle blown apart? lol !

[MeekOneGOP]

Along came a ... flying spider web? - It's a bird,
it's a plane, it's floating strands of...

Excerpt:

However, on the Internet, some conspiracy connoisseurs remain convinced that the webs are man-made and could be part of an elaborate government plot.

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LOL !

I've never heard of such a phenomenon as this before. Have ya'll?.....

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!

[MeekOneGOP]

Ya'll ok down there? What the heck is this, anyway?.....

[2sheep]

~

[listenhillary]

I've seen this before. Usually happens in Missouri in the fall. The strands will land in fields causing the fields to glisten. Quite pretty. Sories like this make me wonder if anybody ever goes outside anymore for any length of time with their eyes open.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/4351226p-5372616c.html

[listenhillary]

Sories = Stories

[listenhillary]

Many spiders produce eggs in the fall of the year and they are wrapped in a silky cocoon, the egg case. The eggs are first stuck to a silk platform (as many as 200 in some instances), then covered with silk threads. Later, they are wrapped in loose silk, with a final layer of dense colored silk on the outside. The egg case is suspended in place by lines of silk that hold it safely through the winter. In the spring the eggs hatch and the transparent spiderlings move out from the egg case. The spiderlings soon get hungry and would start to nibble on each other if they all stayed with the egg case.


When the young spiders are ready to disperse they start “ballooning.” They release silk lines that the wind lifts along with the spider and floats it off to a new area. This is somewhat like a kite or a parachute. The spiderlings get carried off in all directions, and land when the silk breaks or the breeze stops blowing.

http://www.nbtc.cornell.edu/education/grab_and_go/ballooningspiders.htm

[McLynnan]

I've never heard of such a phenomenon as this before. Have ya'll?.....

Cottonwood trees? It's been windy this past week which could carry cottonwood strands a good distance.

[freedom4ever]

We have this here in So. Indiana in the fall of the year, I think. I remember the sheriff's dept. was getting calls, one after another, about it. People thought it was some kind of toxic stuff falling out of the sky. It is just spider webs. Like you said, It has happened for years and someone just sees it. Where have they been?

[MeekOneGOP]

bttt to check out your link !

[cb]

I have a house down there west of the San Luis Pass Bridge at Surfside. There is always some wierd thing going on. Last fall we had had a lot of rain and mosquitos. We like to sit out on our deck and look at the Gulf in the evening around sundown. Suddenly from the east came a flight of dragonflys (which eat mosquitos). Thousands and thousands flying past our deck heading west. This flight went on for more than an hour. I've seen monarchs migrate, but this was an invasion! Very cool.

[Junior]

I've never heard of such a phenomenon as this before. Have ya'll?.....

Yes. Some species of spiders "balloon" when they are young. It helps them spread out over a large area quicker.

[Brownie74]

Relax. It's just residue from the Dallas Cowboy coaching staff.

[carpio]

I remember seeing this during the autumn in southern Indiana when I was a boy.We were so stupid that we thought it was exactly what it appeared to be. Spider webs.

[Freebird Forever]

Quick!!

Someone in Austin call Alex Jones!!!

He'll know what to do.

[Teacher317]

=^)

[Clara Lou]

I have seen this once or twice, though maybe not in thie quantity reported in this incident. I guess it's a good year for the spider population.

RE: the government involvement--
I'm pretty sure that these are genetically altered biting spiders released in chosen areas. Instead of venom, their bite serves as an inoculation against smallpox and anthrax. That's how the government will get a reluctant population immunized. Whaddaya think?

[Clara Lou]

Did you have cottonwood trees in Indiana? Every fall they go to seed by releasing floating spider-webbish looking stuff. We saw it yearly in Alaska.

[Vinnie]

I recall similar reports back it the 60's.

I saw a documentary several yrs. ago. Balloonists floating at 35,000' were dragging fine nets. They caught small spiders sailing at that altitude on their own 'parachutes' !