After a plentiful dinner, your family recedes into Texas’s Lake Tawakoni State Park for an evening walk. As you approach a heavily wooded area of the forest, you witness what seems to be a winter wonderland of snow. This snow blankets the surrounding shrubbery and layers the hanging tree tops.As you examine the scene more closely, however, the flurry of flakes takes on another shape and form. Thousands of eight-legged creatures are seen scurrying through these elaborate weavings and dangling from their hypnotizing spirals. Jeepers Creepers! Spiders!
This spider-produced net, spanning some 200 yards, saturates the surrounding forest. The masters behind this conquering plan are the spider families of the Tetragnathidae, Salticidae, Theridiidae and Araneidae. These spiders are orb web weavers with wide-set radii and spirals. The spiders are often found in vegetation near water and have been witnessed in many parts of the nation and world such as Quebec.
“There are a lot of folks that don’t realize spiders do that,” said John Jackman to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Jackman is a professor and extension entomologist for Texas A&M University, and author of “A Field Guide to the Spiders and Scorpions of Texas.”
The collaboration of these spiders has generated an intelligent net which ingests all airborne insects, giving this spun silk a lackluster, murky appearance. There are even parts in which the sun light is unable to shine through the dull web.
Alex Tarnow, first-year and north Texas resident, had caught wind of this spider spectacle.
“The spider web has now received the name of the ‘Haunted Forest’ due to its eerie vibe it exudes,” said Tarnow. “The web covers all visible backdrops like a ghost. It is as though Spider Man has come to life from the comic strip and has protected our town from the evil ways of our local enemy, the mosquito.”
The park officials expect the web to last until Oct. 31, after which the spiders will die, with the web likely coming off the trees soon after.
“It would make a good Halloween set, wouldn’t it?” said Park Ranger Freddie Gowin to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Gowin discovered the giant web while mowing about a month ago. “But I don’t think you could pay me enough money to run through all of those webs.