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Residents of the San Franciso Bay Area recently reported instances of baby spiders falling from the sky wrapped in white clumps. They took to social media to share clips of the lumps of white spider webs floating in the air and being strewn around surfaces. People were quite perplexed by the sight and could not figure out what was happening.
However, it was later revealed that the phenomenon is called "ballooning," or "kiting." It is a process, by which spiderlings and a few other small invertebrates change their habitats through the air.
The insects disperse gossamer threads and spin the strands to get caught by the wind, which then makes them airborne and pulls them to a new place. Spiderlings and some other small invertebrates alike climb to a high point from where they take a stance to the sky with their abdomen, releasing fine threads of silk from their spinneret. They start moving once the threads become airborne.
According to Fred Larabee who teaches Biology as an assistant professor at San Jose State University, spiders go through ballooning to avert competing over territory with their siblings. He added that what netizens in California witnessed are gobs of cobwebs, which form when individual silk threads intertwine.
Netizens posted photos and videos of spiders falling from the sky
Some Bay Area residents were horrified and shocked after witnessing lumps of sticky white cobwebs falling from the sky and demanded an explanation. A few people speculated that it might be the spiders "ballooning," much to the confusion and astonishment of those who witnessed it.
A few people discovered webs all over their cars, sticking to bushes and other surroundings. Those who touched the white webs described the texture as sticky but very silky.
Why are there sudden sightings of so many ballooning spiderlings?
Fred Larabee said that spiderlings go through ballooning every year, especially in the fall, when many spiders in the Bay Area hatch their young. However, since the population of insects sometimes faces boom and bust cycles, some years, they go through ballooning more than others.
Larabee went on to state that the exact reason behind this year’s increased number of web sightings is hard to tell. He assumed one factor to be the state’s historic rain throughout last year, which might have fueled plant growth and thus fed the insects on which spiders feast.
Apart from that, several studies found that the increasing temperature outside could have also led to more ballooning this year. Several residents in the San Francisco Bay Area noticed the lumps of cobwebs for the first time on October 5, 2023. At the time, the region was going through an October heatwave. It naturally caused temperatures along the coast to rise up to 15 degrees higher than the previous day.
As per the Missouri Department of Conservation, during World War II, ballooning spiders were mistaken for chemical warfare.
Fred Larabee said that ballooning is a great opportunity to discover different types of spiders and learn about their habitats and other traits. He argued that it brings the general public a scope of delving into some cool biology, that they might not encounter otherwise.
