Arachnophobes , this is not for you . Turn around and go home .
Gone ?
OK , let ’s get down .
The denizen of the townsfolk of Aitōliko in Greece arouse up on Monday morning to this incubus fuel : a 300 - meter ( 1,000 - foot ) mammoth spider web cover one side of the town‘s lagoon .
Nothing was spare in its filmy embrace ; Tree , bushes , street signs , the beach , nearly the intact eastern side of the Aetolian lagoon currently sit under this spectral caul .
So , is thisMirkwoodcome to life ? HasAragog have his hungry familyloose ? Seriously , what is bechance here ?
Well , it turns out the spiders are having a rather endearing time thanks to a fortuitous figure of events all coming together at the same time so they can have one big party .
The wanderer , most likelyTetragnatha , or “ stretchiness spider ” due to their stretch feeling , are ardent temperature - loving arachnids that build their nests during mating season ( which weknow is now ) near water .
Greece , like much of Europe , has been experiencing a particularly spicy and humid summertime , creating a perfect scenario for the wanderer to get together in a giant meet and smashing . The influx of mosquitos thanks to these conditions supply a rather spectacular banquet .
“ It ’s as if the spiders are call for vantage of these conditions and are have a kind of a party , ” Maria Chatzaki , prof of molecular biology and genetics at the Democritus University of Thrace , told Greek news siteNewsit.gr .
“ They mate , they reproduce and provide a whole fresh generation . ”
( c ) Giannis Giannakopoulos / YouTube
Luckily the spiders are not unsafe , and they ’re doing a jolly good job of keeping the more - irksome mozzies at bay .
This larger-than-life spidery communal endeavour is n’t a uncouth occurrent , spiders usually like to spin alone , but it has been documented before . In 2015 , a giant spider World Wide Web appeareddraped across Tree in Texas , and last year aforest in Jerusalemwas plow in a vast eerie cover .
As the weather cools , and the copiousness of solid food drop curtain , the phenomenon will go away , and man and vegetation will be none the bad for it .
As Professor Chatzaki put it : " [ The ] spiders will make their company and die soon . ” lease them have their sport until then .
