Spooky images show entire paddocks wreathed in a blanket of spider silk after a bizarre natural phenomenon dubbed Angel Hair
- NSW man posted on Facebook that spiders were raining on his house
- It is a migration tactic that spiders have used to move across the world
- The spiders release a streamer of silk that carries them aloft in the breeze
- The phenomenon usually takes place during particular weather conditions
Everybody knows the phrase 'it's raining cats and dogs,' but how many times have you heard that it's raining spiders?
A resident of the Southern Tablelands in New South Wales took to Facebook to report that millions of baby spiders appeared to be falling onto his property from the sky.
The phenomenon, dubbed 'angel hair', sees spiders climb to the top of vegetation and release a streamer of silk that catches on the breeze and carries them into the air.
Eerie images of the aftermath show entire paddocks and fields wreathed in a thin blanket of the white silk, or spider rain.
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A paddock in Wagga Wagga is wreathed in a think blanket of spider silk in a phenomenon known as Angel Hair
Severe flooding in 2012 forced thousands of spiders to seek higher grounds through the bizarremethod of migration
Goulburn man Ian Watson feared for the worst when the army of arachnids appeared on his rural property.
'Anyone else experiencing this 'angel hair' or maybe aka millions of spiders falling from the sky right now?' Watson posted on the Goulburn Community Forum Facebook page.
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'You can clearly see hundreds of little spiders floating along with their webs and my home is covered in them. Someone call a scientist!'
The horrified man said he tried to capture an image of the spectacle but 'you couldn't make them out in the sky because of the sun.'
A Goulburn resident posted this message on a community Facebook page after he experienced an Angel Hair event first hand
An Albury farm draped in a layer of Angel Hair shows the extent of the bizarre natural phenomenon
Angel Hair is a migration method that spiders have used to move across the world
Keith Basterfield decided to documented Angel Hair events after seeing an image of the event in Albury
Angel Hair is reportedly a migration technique that spiders have used to travel across the world.
The event can sometimes lead to entire fields and paddocks wreathed with a thin blanket of the silk.
South Australian retiree Keith Basterfield became infatuated with the phenomenon after receiving an eerie image of an Albury paddock adorned with the silk.
'I was given this picture of a paddock in Albury from the 1970's. I found it fascinating and decided to document other instances.'
When Basterfield got word of the Angel Hair event in Goulburn this month, he made an appeal to for any observers to contact him.
'Three people contacted me to say they had seen the phenomenon, but none of them captured any images. They were probably too scared to move!
He said the blanket of silk has generally disappeared by the morning after being exposed to cold temperatures overnight.
It's believed that specific weather conditions such as cool clear days are the biggest factor that triggers the event
Basterfield said that no harmful spiders ever engage in the event and that the spiders quickly disperse when the weather warms up
Basterfield said that weather conditions are the is the biggest trigger for the phenomenon to take place.
'Most of the instances happen on clear cool days with light winds blowing. The effect is particularly dramatic after floods, when masses of spiders are use their silk to escape,' he said.
In 2012, severe floods in the southern NSW town of Wagga Wagga saw thousands of spiders use the tactic to move to higher grounds.
Thankfully for arachnaphobes, the spiders that use the method are harmless.
'None of the species that do this are dangerous, and they all disperse once the weather warms up,' Basterfield said.
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