Thousands of Spiders Spin Mega-Web That Spans Hundreds of Feet
The web in Rowlett, Texas, stretches for a quarter of a mile.
— -- Thousands of spiders are working together on an enormous web in Rowlett, Texas, and has become an unlikely attraction for visitors eager to check out the intricate structure that stretches hundreds of feet.
Though no one knows exactly how many spiders are working on the mega-web, spectators estimate at least thousands of the arachnids are spinning this new residence together.
Texas Master Naturalist Jennifer Kolmes -- a trained volunteer who works for parks and helps with research projects -- visited the web on Monday. The web spans about a quarter of a mile along C. A. Roan Drive at Lakeside Park South, she said.
In addition to being a major spectacle, the web and its eight-legged creators are helping to reduce the number of mosquitoes, flies and other pests in the area, Kolmes told ABC News today.
"The web was like a smorgasbord of mosquitoes and gnats," she said.
"If anyone wants to rid the air of gnats and mosquitoes, I challenge them to find a better way than what these spiders have done," Kolmes said of the collaborative effort of the busy arachnids.
Kolmes said she had heard of a similar event in 2007, so she was eager to visit the new mega-web.
"I knew that if it ever happened again I was not going to miss it," she said.
Even for those who aren’t the biggest fans of spiders, Kolmes said she wants people in the area to keep in mind that “this is a rare and wondrous event of a sort that we don't get a lot of, and I urge people to go out and look at it.”