Audio By Carbonatix
It’s probably been a while since you read Charlotte’s Web. Maybe a few details from the spider-hatching scene have slipped your mind. If so, here’s a refresher.
One fine morning, a tiny spider crawled from the sac. Then another, and another. They were no bigger than the head of a pin. For several days and nights young spiders crawled here and there, up and down, around and about, waving at Wilbur, trailing tiny draglines behind them and exploring their home. There were dozens and dozens of them. Wilbur couldn’t count them, but he knew that he had a great many new friends. They grew quite rapidly. Soon each was as big as a BB shot. They made tiny webs next to the sac.
The technique employed by Charlotte’s offspring is called ballooning, and it’s how a bunch of recent spider hatchlings in Dallas have been leaving their nests over the past several hours. People have noticed.
Here’s how someone described it on Reddit:
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I’m in Irving, but work in Dallas. Last evening and this morning the air smelled of plastic fumes. On my drive to work, I kept seeing this silky substance clinging to powerlines and street poles. It’s pretty heavy in the sky way up (maybe 1,000+ft up) as well! My coworker from Carrollton said she saw it there as well! Making for one creepy Wednesday…
National Weather Service meteorologist Dennis Cavanaugh told The Dallas Morning News that he’s fielded a handful of calls from perplexed North Texans this morning but that there’s no reason to be alarmed:
“Spiders move from tree to tree, or building to building, by sending out strands of webs into the air in order to catch a current. But the winds are so light they’re not going anywhere. They keep shooting out webs, and the wind’s not carrying them anywhere. So they do it over and over and over again, and it builds up.”
Maybe. Our money’s on something having to do with Skynet.
