Spiders Weave Quarter-Mile Web in Dallas Suburb

Spider webs are often as creepy as they are mesmerizing. An elegant hunting tool perfected by millions of years of evolution, humans should count themselves lucky that such webs are proportioned for insects and not for us. That’s, of course, not including the quarter-mile monstrosity currently shrouding a stretch of trees in Rowlett, Texas.

An unusually wet spring has resulted in an above-average insect population for the area, and thousands of spiders that would have otherwise worked alone have come together to weave an epic collaboration.

Experts have identified the species as Tetragnatha guatemalensis, a red and orange long-jawed spider that grows up to an inch long. Although this communal behavior is rare in the U.S., a similar incident occurred in 2007 when the spiders spun not one but two massive webs within a month of each other just 35 miles east from the current masterwork. 

Now visitors from Rowlett and beyond are coming to admire the eerie spectacle blanketing the trees along CA Roan Drive. And spiders aren’t the only creatures they’ll find in the web: an arachnid's smörgåsbord of gnats and mosquitos can also be seen tangled up in the silky net. Even for locals who hate spiders, four-and-a-half football fields worth of mosquito bite relief is definitely something to be thankful for.

[h/t: NY Daily News]