SoylentNews

frojack writes:

News.Com in Australia has a story and pictures of a pestilence of spiders that happens every few years when the weather is just right.

It's the strange phenomenon everyone's talking about. The unearthly sight of hundreds of gossamer white threads floating through the air and settling on fields and houses.
...
The astonishing spectacle usually occurs in May or August in Australia, when sunshine follows rainfall. It is rare because it requires an unusual weather pattern for this time of year, which is when spiders are hatching. The spiderlings are light enough to float on threads, sometimes for hundreds of kilometres at up to 20,000 feet. They have even been spotted by aircraft.

Its a migration tactic used by juvenile spiders. Spin a bit of web, and then be blown great distances, landing en masse.

The site has photos of fields covered by webs, as well the webs covered with adult spiders. An arachnophobe's worst nightmare.