Trees Cocooned in Spider Webs After Flood
 

Rather eerie pictures, anyone for some tree climbing!:dead:
http://images.nationalgeographic.com...26_600x450.jpg
http://news.nationalgeographic.com.a...er-trees-webs/
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/spider-we...an-trees.shtml

Looks like those things caterpillars make to me.

They look nothing like a bulldozer

Oah wait, not that one, the one that is a big... that's names spelling (if it is any different) escapes me now.

Word you looking for?
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7268/cocoon1f.jpg

Don't you just them!
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...4zcMnSm5fx&t=1
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/2007/...ting_sp_lg.jpg
http://www.gold-coast-aus.com/femalefunelweb.jpg

Back when I was a teenager, there was this bush in front of my house to the left of the front door. I remember one summer day, I walked out the door and noticed that the entire bush was in a web cocoon that had sprung up literally overnight. Sitting near the top in a little tunnel structure was this HUGE (at least 4-5 inches long) and very tired looking wood spider. That thing could sense movement of anything in that bush. If I dropped a bug anywhere on the bush, the spider would speed around the bush to grab it.

The spiders rest their legs on different lines on the web that way they can feel the movement of something caught inside the web somehow they are able to tell the difference between prey that has been captured and merely the wind moving the web.

I tried a few times when I was a kid tricking what we call Banana Spiders but they never seemed to get fooled by my fake movements of the web.The Banana spiders make a huge web that has a very sturdy center their silk is very strong and sticky even in thinner areas the webs are often 7 or 8 feet high I bet that a small bird would be unable to get out of the web if it got caught though I have never seen evidence of it actually happening.

I was viewing some show a few weeks back on National Geographic they where in Texas and they where looking at this massive web like the one in those trees in the op picture but in this case it was covering one very large oak tree it was much larger than the webs in the op photo.

Is this a spiders version of "circling the wagons?"

Horrible buggas...never have liked them :nope:

http://www.shoutingatco.ws/blog/wp-c...pider_hand.jpg

Just stopped by to top off the old nightmare fuel tank. If anyone wants me I'll be over here in the corner crying softly into a pillow.

That spider is common here Jim, that type of huntsman can grow to 7", the biggest I have seen was 6.5" but stuffed if I'm gonna pick one up!:oops:

I must admit I don't like them at any size but the bigger they are the more concerned I become.

Actually at least here in the US the smaller spiders are the ones that can truly harm you the Black Widow is fairly small but it has venom that has killed people.The Banana spider that I mentioned earlier they are much larger but are harmless.Of course I always liked spiders because they eat critters that I don't like; caterpillars.

Australia has so many poisonous spiders, the Red Back is virtually identical to the Black Widow, also the White Tip, even smaller but the bite is really bad, causes a large raw wound that wont heal for anything up to 20 years!! and lives in houses (cracks etc). The Funnel Web is by far the worse though, more poisonous than the brown snake, 20 minutes to get an anti-venom shot!:x:oops::doh::o

I pick em up using a plastic bowl and a sheet of card. Pop the bowl over them then slide the card underneath and flip him into the bowl. carry them outside and release. Too easy and no toxic fumes or mess to clean up inside the house.

Never tread on one, they can splay over a wide area. Especially the big ones:
http://images.jmikep69.multiply.com/...ByQi4t2g&nmid=

*faint*

I try to do the catch and release but sometimes they refuse to cooperate with the rescue operations and then my primal instincts kick in.

Had one coming across the floor in the bedroom once, tried my best to get the little bugger but he just kept scurrying around and finally went up into the folds of the bedding that were hanging down at the corner of the bed. Well, that sealed it. Visions of spider eggs being laid in my hair whilst I was sleeping... *shiver* From that moment on, we were sworn enemies.

Took a while for him to come back out into the open but when he did it was on like Donkey Kong. :O: